His wonderfully developed harmony of versification has never been approached by any later poet, except, in places, by Lermontoff.

Quite peculiar to himself, at that day--and even much later--are his vivid delineations of character, and his simple but startlingly lifelike and truthful pictures of every-day life.

If his claim to immortality rested on no other foundation than these, it would still be incontestable, for all previous Russian writers had scorned such commonplaces.
In 1826 he returned to the capital, having been restored to favor, and resumed his gay life, which on the whole, had a deleterious influence on his talents.

In 1831 he married a very beautiful and extravagant woman, after which he was constantly in financial distress, his own social ambitions and lavish expenditure being equally well developed with the same tastes in his wife.

His inclination to write poetry was destroyed.
He took to historical research, wrote a "History of Pugatcheff's Rebellion," and a celebrated tale, "The Captain's Daughter" (the scene of the latter being laid in the same epoch), and other stories.