<p>Introduction by John Bayley; Translation by Avril Pyman</p>

Fathers and Children

Literature & Fiction

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev

Classics

Harcourt College Pub.

READING, today, this story, which really closed the novelist's great period, the reader finds it full of interest as a problem-novel, aside from that interest of passionate patriotism which, a dozen years ago and more, virtually expatriated its author, and made the heart of "young Russia" beat high with hope. The story deals with the formation of the Nihilist party—that formation so secret and so spontaneous—shows, through the dramatic action of the characters, how hopeless yet how inevitable was this movement, and reveals the pitiless insistence of those national questions that cannot be answered for generations. Both hero and heroine, born of the educated classes, suffer death and disaster in their effort to gain one step forward for the masses. Alexai is a weaker Hamlet. Mariana stands for Liberty herself. All the other characters are living and breathing existences—the dilettante patriot and society man, the practical man of affairs who would win a way for the complaining millions were a way possible, the dull and hopeless peasants, the beautiful, cruel, aristocratic women, the enthusiasts for freedom in both sexes, the informers, the officials, the judges—while over the bitter winter and the happy summer stretched the awful shadows of the prison and of Siberia. A book so profoundly felt will not allow itself to be forgotten.

Virgin Soil

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

TURGENEV did for Russian literature what Byron did for English literature; he led the genius of Russia on a pilgrimage throughout all Europe. And in Europe his work reaped a glorious harvest of praise. Flaubert was astounded by him, George Sand looked up to him as to a master, Taine spoke of his work as being the finest artistic production since Sophocles. In Turgenev's work, Europe not only discovered Turgenev, but it discovered Russia, the simplicity and the naturalness of the Russian character; and this came as a revelation. For the first time Europe came across the Russian woman whom Pushkin was the first to paint; for the first time Europe came into contact with the Russian soul; and it was the sharpness of this revelation which accounts for the fact of Turgenev having received in the west an even greater meed of praise than he was perhaps entitled to. In Russia Turgenev attained almost instant popularity. His "Sportsman's Sketches" and his "Nest of Gentlefolk" made him not only famous but universally popular. In 1862 the publication of his masterpiece "Fathers and Children" dealt his reputation a blow. The revolutionary elements in Russia regarded his hero, Bazarov, as a calumny and a libel; whereas the reactionary elements in Russia looked upon "Fathers and Children" as a glorification of Nihilism. Thus he satisfied nobody. He fell between two stools. This, perhaps, could only happen in Russia to this extent; and for that same reason as that which made Russian criticism didactic. The conflicting elements of Russian society were so terribly in earnest in fighting their cause, that anyone whom they did not regard as definitely for them was at once considered an enemy, and an impartial delineation of any character concerned in the political struggle was bound to displease both parties. If a novelist drew a Nihilist, he must be one or the other, a hero or a scoundrel, if either the revolutionaries or the reactionaries were to be pleased. If in England the militant suffragists suddenly had a huge mass of educated opinion behind them and a still larger mass of educated public opinion against them, and some one were to draw in a novel an impartial picture of a suffragette, the same thing would happen. On a small scale, as far as the suffragettes are concerned, it has happened in the case of Mr. Wells. But if Turgenev's popularity suffered a shock in Russia from which it with difficulty recovered, in western Europe it went on increasing. Especially in England, Turgenev became the idol of all that was eclectic, and admiration for Turgenev a hallmark of good taste.... "Fathers and Children" is as beautifully constructed as a drama of Sophocles; the events move inevitably to a tragic close. There is not a touch of banality from beginning to end, and not an unnecessary word; the portraits of the old father and mother, the young Kirsanov, and all the minor characters are perfect; and amidst the trivial crowd Bazarov stands out like Lucifer, the strongest—the only strong character—that Turgenev created, the first Nihilist—for if Turgenev was not the first to invent the word, he was the first to apply it in this sense. Bazarov is the incarnation of the Lucifer type that recurs again and again in Russian history and fiction, in sharp contrast to the meek, humble type of Ivan Durak. Lermontov's Pechorin was in some respects an anticipation of Bazarov; so were the many Russian rebels. He is the man who denies, to whom art is a silly toy, who detests abstractions, knowledge, and the love of Nature; he believes in nothing; he bows to nothing; he can break, but he cannot bend; he does break, and that is the tragedy, but, breaking, he retains his invincible pride…. —From "An Outline of Russian Literature" (1914).

First Love : A Classic Novella

Reckless Character, and Other Stories

A poignant story of a deaf-mute peasant who gets a job on an estate in Moscow. Wonderful storytelling and great portrayal of the main character. Even though it's only a short story, there is a wealth of social issues presented in it that plagued life in Russia at the time. by Mag

Mumu

Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories

Fathers and Sons

When a young graduate returns home he is accompanied, much to his father and uncle's discomfort, by a strange friend "who doesn't acknowledge any authorities, who doesn't accept a single principle on faith." Turgenev's masterpiece of generational conflict shocked Russian society when it was published in 1862 and continues today to seem as fresh and outspoken as it did to those who first encountered its nihilistic hero.

The Torrents of Spring is a novel written by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. The story centers around a young Russian landowner named Dimitry Sanin who falls deliriously in love for the first time while visiting the German city of Frankfurt. It is widely held as one Turgenev's greatest novels as well as being highly autobiographical in nature.

Torrents of Spring

This challenging novel contrasts the two forms of love that the Russian Sanin is confronted with - his beloved Gemma and the 'free' woman, Maria Nikolaevna. Maria warns Sanin that he will have to be able to forget as she diverts him from Gemma for her own pleasure - the frenzy of physical love. For Turgenev this was clearly not an easy matter - he wanted the purity of untarnished love - apparently what the French call 'amities amoureuses'; erotic but not genital. But Sanin is a man - how can he resist the passion when the opportunity arises, the passion that all of nature calls to action? Having been sullied by his actions - in his own eyes - he flees his Gemma, fails to forget, and slips into an unsatisfactory existence. But Turgenev is kind to us - and Sanin, because at the end of the novel he allows Sanin to make contact again with Gemma (then living in America) and to be comforted by her mature forgiveness and learn that her life has been good despite the disaster of Sanin's abandonment. Perhaps the hardest of all human experiences is just not knowing .....

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Fathers and Children

Virgin Soil

Fathers and Children

First Love : A Classic Novella

Reckless Character, and Other Stories

Mumu

Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories

Fathers and Sons

Torrents of Spring

Torrents of Spring