This tale of a young woman's not-so-sentimental education is the story of fifteen-year-old Lolenka, who encounters an exiled radical named Veretitsyn and begins to question her education and life. Under his influence, Lolenka breaks with tradition and embarks upon a new life as a translator and an artist, but a chance meeting with Veretitsyn years later leads to a sobering reappraisal of her mentor's convictions.

Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya (1824-1889), who wrote under the pseudonym V. Krestovsky, was born in the Russian province of Ryazan. During the course of a career that spanned more than forty years, her wide-ranging literary work included poetry, prose, drama, children's literature, translations, and critical articles. 

Karen Rosneck is an independent researcher who works in the Area Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Library.