Very much a work of it's place and times (pre-revolution Russia) with (apparently, how would I know?) literary caricatures of contemporary personalities, so loses a lot by most of these people being dead and forgotten.

I have a lot of trouble with works from this period; the characterisations always appear shallow, motivations and behaviour capricious and overly melodramatic. All of which I find incredibly irritating. But, despite all that, a good read :-)