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.
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]