The Captain's Daughter

The last completed prose work of Pushkin, published on the eve of his death, is also one of the first historical novels (by the author's own definition) in Russian literature.

Carrying a somewhat parodic character, the memoir form of narration of... a witness and participant in the events, the realistic depiction of a God-forsaken military fortress on the steppe's border, the precise historical novellization of the cruel Pugachev uprising, and the unabashedly romantic tale in the spirit of Walter Scott with the improbability of a whole series of plot conflicts — the innovative genre eclecticism makes "The Captain's Daughter" a work of artistic perfection and a brilliant example of Russian prose.