This novel's protagonist hates the town of Taman, and he believes that a crippled body means a crippled soul.  The protagonist witnesses a strange rendezvous on a beach which turns out to be a smuggling operation, and he buys a Persian rug and uses it for his horse to spite a former love interest. Early on in this novel, a bandit's horse is stolen and exchanged for the hand of a prince's daughter, but the bandit Kazbich kidnaps Bela and stabs her before fleeing.  The protagonist sees Vulich press a gun to his head and pull the trigger, but it misfires, and Vulich is later killed by an angry Cossack in the street.  In 
This novel's protagonist hates the town of Taman, and he believes that a crippled body means a crippled soul.  The protagonist witnesses a strange rendezvous on a beach which turns out to be a smuggling operation, and he buys a Persian rug and uses it for his horse to spite a former love interest. Early on in this novel, a bandit's horse is stolen and exchanged for the hand of a prince's daughter, but the bandit Kazbich kidnaps Bela and stabs her before fleeing.  The protagonist sees Vulich press a gun to his head and pull the trigger, but it misfires, and Vulich is later killed by an angry Cossack in the street.  In a climactic scene, the protagonist shoots Grushnitski during a duel and that man plummets over a precipice into the sea.  FTP, name this novel starring Maksim Maksimich and Gregoriy Pechorin, a work of Mikhail Lermontov.
This novel's protagonist hates the town of Taman, and he believes that a crippled body means a crippled soul.  
A {Hero of Our Time} (2) [AH]