"The Boarding-School Girl" is the story of fifteen-year-old
Lolenka, who encounters an exiled radical named Veretitsyn and
soon after begins to question her education at a private girls'
school. Under Veretitsyn's influence, Lolenka breaks with
provincial tradition-failing her examinations and flouting an
arranged marriage-and embarks upon a new life. When the novel
rediscovers her eight years later in Petersburg, she is working
as a translator and an artist, selling her own reproductions of
famous paintings. A chance meeting with Veretitsyn at the
Hermitage leads to a sobering reappraisal of her mentor's
convictions. First published in 1861, "The Boarding-School Girl"
displays the spirit, candor, and invention that brought its
author popular and critical acclaim. In this rare story of a
woman's coming-of-age, wise analysis and attention to
psychological detail provide an intriguing glimpse of Russian
life in the nineteenth century.