First Love

Characters

• Vladímir Petróvitch (Voldemar) — the narrator, a sixteen-year-old in love: A man of forty who writes down in a note-book the rapture, jealousy and shock of his summer of 1833.
• Princess Zinaída Alexándrovna Zasyékin — the impoverished neighbour at the villa: A witty, commanding beauty who toys with her circle of admirers while hiding a dangerous passion of her own.
• Piótr Vasílitch — Vladímir's father: A cold, charming, independent man whose secret shatters his son's youthful illusions.
• Márya Nikoláevna — Vladímir's mother: Older than her husband and jealous, she distrusts the disreputable neighbours and suspects him more and more.
• Princess Zasyékin — Zinaída's mother: A shabby, perpetually litigating princess who arrived in three hired cabs and begs for patronage.
• Count Malévsky — one of Zinaída's admirers: A handsome Pole with a card-sharp's tricks; Vladímir's father turns him out of the house.
• Doctor Lúshin — one of Zinaída's admirers, a physician: A mocking, swarthy doctor, the only one who tells the boy the truth about what is going on.
• the poet Maidánoff — one of Zinaída's admirers: The long-haired author of the poem “The Murderer”; years later it is he who brings the final news.
• Byelovzóroff — a hussar, one of Zinaída's admirers: A simple, jealous strong man ready to kill for her; he disappears when everything collapses.
• Nirmátzky — a retired captain, one of Zinaída's admirers: An ugly, pockmarked soldier of forty whom Zinaída uses now as a bear, now as a pedestal.
• Vonifáty — Princess Zasyékin's servant: An old man in a worn livery with one surviving armorial button; he embodies the household's poverty.
• Philípp — the young butler in Vladímir's house: A lover of verse and the guitar; he retells the parents' quarrel and the rumour of an anonymous letter.