Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov

While staying at a seaside resort, Gurov engages himself in an adulterous affair that changes his life. He is under forty, married, and has children. His parents "found a wife for him" when he was only in his second year of college, but he feels that she is unintelligent and severe. When he tries to hint that he is in love with another, she tells him that the part of a lover "doesn't suit him." Although Gurov attracts women easily, he regards them as "the inferior race," but "couldn't live a day without them." When he meets Anna, he wants only a casual dalliance. He knows from "really bitter experience" that love affairs always become complex and painful, but he tries this time to believe that an affair between he and Anna can be simply a charming diversion. During the affair, Gurov remains somewhat aloof, as...