Seikkailijatar: Venäläinen kertomus

About this book

"Seikkailijatar" by Eino Leino is a novel written in the early 20th century. It portrays Zaida, a willful Russian noblewoman who grows into an audacious adventuress amid tensions between old rural gentry and glittering city aristocrats. The tale follows her through scandal, seduction, and social games across Russia and Europe, probing power, desire, and moral emptiness.

The opening follows Zaida from a fierce, free-spirited childhood under her proud father, Prince Rurik, through rebellious years at a girls’ lyceum where she toys with men’s passions, even provoking a student’s suicide. She elopes with Count Ilja Iljanski, trades infidelities in Petersburg, then retreats to his estate near Kiev; pregnant, she briefly reconciles with him, bears a son, and soon enthralls the local gentry. Seeking thrills and leverage, she takes lovers—most notably the devoted Jurjev, whom she pushes to extremes—then stages a jealous scene in which her drunken husband shoots Jurjev dead and is acquitted; regretting only the missed inheritance, she targets Baron von Heller, who vows obedience and then kills himself, funding her further travels. A later attempt to ensnare a sincere Polish officer fails when he recoils from her corrupt world, and the section closes in Moscow, where after sparring over fidelity she meets the grave, perceptive lawyer Werner; their night walk and talk of “dead souls” signal a new, unsettling connection.