Pyotr Petrovich Milkin

A young dacha-set bachelor who has spent a whole summer courting Nastenka Kondrashkina's attentions without ever intending to propose; when neighborhood gossip forces the issue, he tries to talk his way free of an unoffered marriage by confessing to an escalating string of disqualifying vices -- drunkenness, embezzlement, forgery, being a fugitive convict, and finally madness -- each one calmly waved away by her marriage-minded father.