Summary

Included prior to the beginning of Book 1 are 19 lines of the poem for which the Count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol. Next is a transcript of the court proceedings in which the Count was sentenced. Mentioned in the transcript is the poem that the Count was accused of having written as well as a reference to incidents that caused him to have to exile himself from the country. He had lived in Paris for several years before returning to Russia where he had lived in the Metropol for about four years before he was charged with the writing of the poem. The men interviewing the Count asked why he returned to Russia but he did not give an exact reason why he chose to return. Noted in the transcript is that the Count was given...