About this audiobook
Grigory Litvinov arrives in Baden-Baden expecting to continue towards a settled future with his fiancée Tatyana. A meeting with Irina, a woman connected with his past, disturbs that expectation. The resort's social circles place this private conflict among competing displays of influence, conviction and fashionable certainty about Russia's future.
Ivan Turgenev connects emotional uncertainty with a satirical view of people who explain society more confidently than they understand themselves. Conversations can become performances of belonging, while Litvinov's own judgement grows vulnerable to the force of renewed attraction. A practical plan for life proves less secure than it appeared before an old attachment returned.
The novel explores desire, self-deception and the difficulty of distinguishing a meaningful commitment from a powerful impression. Its setting allows private relationships and public argument to illuminate one another, inviting readers to consider what remains when the language used to justify a choice begins to lose its persuasive force.
