Don't be misled by the title of this book. It is not a light romance story. Michael Lermontov’s masterpiece “Princess Mary” is one of the most brutally honest accounts of human nature and the pursuit of love - the games and manipulations that a man will enact to make a woman love him, just for his own amusement. Princess Mary is an intelligent and noble Moscow girl of higher society who can’t understand whether she has met a monster or the love of her life when she meets young Russian officer Grigory Pechorin. Like most good Russian literature, the story is full of such existential, witty, entertaining dialogue it puts modern discourse to shame. And it has it all – jealousy, competition, hatred, attraction and blood. This version of the story contains over 30 rare illustrations carefully found in Russian vintage books from the 1800'