NONCHALANCE PAR EXCELLENCE
uthlessly indifferent bounder? Or a man who wisely affords sovereignty to his natural passions rather than culturally enforced principles? What is eternally compelling about the Moscow aristocrat Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky (‘Stiva’ to his highsociety friends) — the first character we encounter in Leo Tolstoy’s 1878 novel, — is that he makes men ask this question, and not just of the fictional cove but of ourselves,
