Рудин
By Иван Сергеевич Тургенев
Cover: Stanislav Zhukovsky. Corner drawing room by Stanisław Żukowski (1873–1944) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
A brilliant talker arrives at a country house and wins everyone's admiration, especially a young woman who falls in love with him. When she asks him to act, Rudin turns out to be unable, in Turgenev's first novel. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written; the Book Guide explains these words where they occur.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.