In these, almost simultaneously with Gogol, he laid the foundations for the vivid, modern school of the Russian novel.

He was killed in a duel with Baron George Hekkeren-Dantes, who had been persecuting his wife with unwelcome attentions, in January, 1837.

Baron Hekkeren-Dantes died only a year or two ago.
As a school-boy he had instinctively turned into a new path, that of national Russian literature.

For this national service, and because he was the first to realize the poetic ideal, his countrymen adored him.

To the highest external elegance and the most exquisite beauty, he fitly wedded inward force and wealth of thought, in the most incomparable manner.