In this longer narrative published in 1859, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) addresses the themes of unhappy love and marriage for the first time, which he would later escalate to infidelity in "Anna Karenina" and "The Kreutzer Sonata": The young Maria Alexandrovna marries the significantly older estate neighbor Sergei, a friend of her deceased father. However, affection quickly gives way to estrangement. The vivacious Maria grows bored in the countryside, and it is only when Sergei takes her to St. Petersburg that she comes alive in the face of the glamorous social life. During a stay abroad in Baden-Baden, she ultimately nearly succumbs to the seductive charms of a French aristocrat, leading her to a new, albeit altered, appreciation of her marriage.