Poor Folk
Maria and Alexander made a happy couple, full of tender care for one another. He ordered that banquets of fresh strawberries should be placed on his wife's dining table and enjoyed her company spending his mornings sitting on her bed. There were regular informal gatherings at the young couple's household of loud readings, music, and card playing. Alongside her husband, Maria read Mikhail Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time", Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls", Feodor Dostoevsky's "Poor Folk", and later, Ivan Turgenev's "A Sportsman's Sketches", sharing Alexander's sympathies for the plight of the serfs and becoming an ardent abolitionist. The Tsarevich and the Tsarevna charmed their guests with their manners. She gave useful advice to her husband, who in turn gave her confidence to guide herself into society.