 Seeley writes, that “he concentrates on doing the jobs that lie to hand – running his estate, raising a family – and these he does very competently.Beyond them he does not look.” Lezhnev also acts as Rudin's biographer – he is the one who tells the reader about Rudin's life prior to his appearance at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's.He first describes Rudin in extremely unfavourable terms, but in the end he is also the one who admits Rudin's “genius” in certain areas of life.