Iurii Aleksandrovich Neledinsky-Meletsky left for literary posterity only a few dozen exquisite lyrics that reflect deep feeling and display genuine poetic talent. His importance in Russian literary history is all the more significant because his oeuvre belongs to a period when the literary language was taking shape and becoming a more sophisticated poetic medium. The unified style of his narratives, felicitous choice of vocabulary, and formal perfection of his works--for which his contemporaries valued him so highly--had a particular importance for his fellow writers.

Iurii Aleksandrovich Neledinsky-Meletsky was born in Moscow on 6 October 1752 into a family of the highest Russian aristocracy. His mother, born Princess Kurakina, was the niece of Counts Nikolai and Petr Panin, important government figures under Catherine II. She died when Neledinsky was not yet three years old, and his paternal grandmother, Anna Ivanovna Neledinskaia-Meletskaia, took over his care and upbringing. She belonged to the...