A Slavic colossus with sharp facial features and a gentle character, keen and capable of deep feelings and absolutely alien to political passions, a generous man, devoted to his homeland and open to all the temptations of Europe - this is how the mysterious Ivan Turgenev appears before us. A great writer who recreated the cruel and realistic canvas of Russian life, he lived for a long time abroad, which cost him condemnation and rejection from the literary and intellectual environment of Moscow and St. Petersburg. An admirer of the famous singer Pauline Viardot, he followed her from country to country for forty years, content with his ambiguous position. Around this amazing couple, Henri Troyat masterfully recreates the cosmopolitan and motley world of the second half of the nineteenth century.