Annotation: Russo-French cultural and literary ties date back more than a century—it is not surprising that they left their mark in the works of many of Russia’s most famous authors, including Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Pyotr Vyazemsky and Ivan Turgenev. By placing the works of Russian and French writers within their international context, Vera Milchina’s book yields surprising results. Her cross-cultural analysis illuminates the ways in which Pushkin and Vyazemsky understood Benjamin Constant's novel Adolphe differently than their French contemporaries. It reveals how Pushkin treated two giants of French literature – Stendhal and Victor Hugo – with disdain and hostility. Even Balzac's “canonical” Russian translations, by Milchina’s treatment, reveal things completely different from the texts in their original language. These and other scenarios demonstrate just how unpredictable the process of adapting literary works into a foreign culture can be.