Vladimir Sollogub was a liberal Russian nobleman and writer and contemporary to Alexander Pushkin and Ivan Turgenev. Tarantas is his most-well know work. Michael R. Katz is CV Starr Professor Emeritus at Middlebury College. He is the author of two monographs and is a renowned translator of Russian literature, who has published English versions of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Chekhov.

Vladimir Sollogub’s witty travelogue will be a pleasant surprise to anyone who believes that the debate between Westernizers and Slavophiles took place exclusively in verbose essays and mind-boggling treatises. Punctuated with pithy dialogues and sobering observations on the scenery of the Russian provinces, Tarantas engages with the vexed question of Russia’s historical path in a unique and refreshing way. Thanks to Michael Katz’s masterful translation, this forgotten classic of Russian literature is now available to an English-reading audience.