The Artist

Once, Oленка Leontyeva was a modest high school student in a strict woolen dress, but now she is a famous actress who is applauded by the Moscow audience. Other actresses envy Leontyeva's talent, and tickets to her performances are simply impossible to find. Oленка's whole life is a selfless devotion to Melpomene.

Rejecting the courtship of numerous admirers, she recklessly falls in love with a man completely distant from the world of art—a Petersburg official who is not used to showing his feelings.
No matter how hard Oленka tries to combine love and theater, she will have to make a choice. A bitter choice that will break more than one heart.

Reading "The Artist" by Maria Krestovskaya, you feel as if you are peeking from behind the scenes at the marvelous performance of a popular actress of the 19th century. But this performance is more truthful than life itself; this book seems so sincere and moving. Only a woman who has experienced such a strong love could tell about her heroine, her feelings, and painful decisions in such a way.