Bazarov might have been the main character, but these two felt so much more real than him, more filled with life. Which, I suppose, they were.

Not necessarily active life, but the baggage each held made them so full as characters.

And Pavel was just lovely - really very much like an English gentleman in a Victorian novel. He should reside in the pages of The Chap.

What I found most interesting, though, was that Nikolai felt so old. Only 44, but he was more like 60 in the way he spoke and acted. I suppose that 44 in those days was probably close to 60 today, but he seemed to have an old man's soul, right to the very end when Pavel made him marry Fenichka.