Better known are his novels of the following decades, published in "Vestnik Evropy" and "Russkaya Mysl" (Russian Thought). In 1874 appeared "Devyaty val" (The ninth wave), about the struggle between conservatives and reformers in the 1860s. The following year he wrote "Mirovich", which "deals with the tragic fate of the deposed child-emperor Ioann Antonovich and the foiled attempt by Lieutenant Mirovich to free him from Shlisselburg," but it was banned by the censor and did not appear until 1879; Isabel Florence Hapgood called it his best novel, "though it takes unwarrantable liberties with the personages of the epoch depicted." It was followed by "Na Indiyu pri Petre" (To India in Peter's day, 1880); "Knyazhna Tarakanova" (Princess Tarakanova, 1883), about the self-proclaimed daughter of Empress Elizabeth; "Sozhzhennaya Moskva" (Moscow destroyed by fire, 1886), about Napoleon's invasion in 1812; "Cherny god" (The black year, 1888), about Pugachev's Rebellion; and a series of short stories.