Product Description
Turgenev is an author who no longer belongs to Russia only. During the last fifteen years of his life he won for himself the reading public, first in France, then in Germany and America, and finally in England. In his funeral oration the spokesman of the most artistic and critical of European nations, Ernest Renan, hailed him as one of the greatest writers of our times: 'The Master, whose exquisite works have charmed our century, stand more than any other man as the incarnation of the whole race', because 'a whole world lived in him and spoke through his mouth'. Not the Russian world only, we may add, but the whole Slavonic world, to which it was 'an honour to have been expressed by so great a Master'. As regards his method of dealing with his material and shaping it into mould, he stands even higher than as a pure creator. Tolstoy is more plastical, and certainly as deep and original and rich in creative power as Turgenev, and Dostoevsky is more intense, fervid, and dramatic. But as an artist, as master of the combination of details into a harmonious whole, as an architect of imaginative work, he surpasses all the prose writers of his country, and has but few equals among the great novelists of other lands. To one familiar with all Turgenev's works it is evident that he possessed the keys of all human emotions, all human feelings, the highest and the lowest, the novel as well as the base. But there was in him such a love of light, sunshine, and living human poetry, such an organic aversion for all that is ugly, or coarse and discordant, that he makes himself almost exclusively the poet of the gentler side of human nature. We may say that the description of love is Turgenev's speciality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Not Turgenev's finest, but a step in the right direction
Turgenev's third novel isn't his most satisfying, the author casting around his cast of characters to find a committed idealist and romantic hero to bring about social reform in his country, but 'on the eve of reform' he fails to find it in the Russian gentry of the time. Initially he examines the characters of Shubin, a talented sculptor, and Bersyenev, a scholar and academic, and, in a Turgenev way, he examines their character and commitment to a cause through their courting of Elena Stahov. In this both men are lacking, failing to show anything but surface attraction and devotion, but backing down when a rival for her affections gets in their way.

In On The Eve then, it's in the form of a Bulgarian revolutionary called Insarov that Turgenev finds the characteristics that he is seeking, but the romantic melodrama that follows isn't the strongest section of the novel, and it wouldn't be until the creation of in Bazarov in his subsequent masterpiece Fathers and Sons (Fathers and Children) that Turgenev successfully finds a Russian man of principles and a man of action. On The Eve however does have some good points - there's a great deal of humour, particularly coming from the character of Shubin, and some entertaining though evidently ineffectual philosophising from his Russian gentlemen. Primarily however, Turgenev's depiction of characters, particularly the fatalistic nature of Elena, is superb, with even secondary characters being fully fleshed-out, the author creating a credible dynamic between the differences in their temperament and outlook as well as in their generational and social divisions.

Why is Turgenev so underrated and SO HARD TO FIND???!!!!
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) is one of the finest novelists who ever graced God's great and green earth.

He is unjustly UNDERRATED.

Death Nixes Starry-Eyed Duo�s Amour
I've never read a novel with a Bulgarian hero before, so this was a first.If you haven't read any Turgenev, you should.You should, that is, if you like idealistic romances between young people who lack all the cynicism and worldliness of our times or even Balzac's France.Turgenev's heroes and heroines shine in the dark, they're so good.But the brilliantly-drawn, humorous characters surrounding the pure main protagoniste are created with such skill that 144 years after this novel first saw daylight, Turgenev could still get a few laughs out of me.

Idealistic, but drifting, Elena is being courted by both an overserious student (known in our times as a `geek') and a budding sculptor who devotes himself mainly to wine, women, and if not song, at least to unorganized messing around. The geek doesn't "get it".The sculptor easily sees through everyone, but is less talented in holding onto anything substantial that comes his way.Elena's parents are weak, her relatives entirely unprepossessing.Her father tries to marry her off to a rather sharp bureaucrat with polished manners.Enter our Bulgarian champion, who only wants to liberate his homeland from the Turks.Elena falls for him and the rest, while not history, is quite predictable.No, this love story is not unique, nor is it extremely complicated.

ON THE EVE is a great novel because of Turgenev's style---that seemingly artless, light, flowing prose.Turgenev is one of the eternal masters, no doubt.The world will probably never see his like again.A Turgenev novel resembles a Mozart piano concerto.It looks so easy, sounds so simple, but it is total genius.I recently re-read this novel and found it just as good the second time.What a shame that only two others have reviewed it !

One of Turgenev's best love stories
On the Eve deals with the friendships and love affairs between atwenty-year old provincial Russian woman named Elena and a number of men inher social circle: the young artist Shubin; the intellectual Berzeniev;and, ultimately, Berzeniev's friend, the Bulgarian revolutionary Insarov. Though Berzeniev is in love with Elena, he introduces her to Insarov (whoBerzeniev describes as the only interesting man he's met at theuniversity), and Insarov and Elena rather quickly fall in love and secretlymarry.Elena's parents, particularly her father, don't care much for theimpoverished foreigner that their daughter loves, especially since they'verecently found her a nice Russian man for a fiance.Worse still, the startof the Crimean War ("on the eve" of which the novel is set) willforce Elena to leave her parents and join Insarov in Bulgaria if she is tostay with him.

In addition to being an interesting love story in itsown right, On the Eve develops a couple of themes often seen elsewhere inTurgenev's work (and also that of some other Russian authors around thesame time).In the conflict between Elena and her parents, we see shadesof the generational conflict that Turgenev would develop very well twoyears later in Fathers and Sons.The fact that the only man who canthoroughly win Elena's heart is a Bulgarian (as well as comment byBerzeniev about Insarov mentioned above) reflects the aimlessness andsuperfluity that so often shows up among Russian men in the literature ofthis time period (e.g., Turgenev's Rudin).While Shubin has his art andBerzeniev his historical studies, Insarov is driven by a cause (the freedomof the Bulgarian people) that is deeper than anything that Russian men werepursuing at the time and accordingly makes him a more intriguing character.

The novel did read, for me at least, a little slowly at first, and Ifound that some of the characters (Shubin in particular) weren't much morethan cliched archetypes when they could have been fleshed out a littlebetter.However, On the Eve is definitely one of Turgenev's better worksand was all in all a worthwhile read.

A Melancholy but not a Sad Story
Though its' a very old book still worth reading. It was interesting to read gradual building-up of character - Insarov. The end of Insarov was a melancholy. I think Turgenev had tried to shape his own views in the formof Insarov.How Insarov becomes so soft in front of Elena is also beautiful.This book depicts the frustrations, struggle,revolution,parents' dilemmaand love all together in the form of this great story of Insarov &Elena. You can't stop your tears while reading the helplessness of Elena ongradual ending of Insarov. Really a legendary work !Worth reading manytimes ! ... Read more

Product Description
Turgenev's timeless tale of generational collision, in a sparkling new translation

When Arkady Petrovich returns home from college, his father finds his eager, naïve son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen under the powerful influence of the friend he has brought home with him. A self-proclaimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father with his criticisms of the landowning way of life and his determination to overthrow the traditional values of contemporary society. Vividly capturing the hopes and fears, regrets and delusions of a changing Russia around the middle of the nineteenth century, Fathers and Sons is Ivan Turgenev's masterpiece. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (47)

A hero for his time
Turgenev's novels express a continual desire to find a new model for the Russian male, a hero for the time - idealistic and progressive, but also practical, his nature and strength still rooted in the very land itself.While some of these characteristics are evident in the heroes of Nest of the Gentry, On The Eve and Rudin, there's still something lacking, the Russian men still ruled by their hearts more than their minds, unable to break from the shackles of old society, old tradition and old ways of thinking.

In Fathers and Sons (1862), Turgenev creates a character, a Nihilist, to overthrow these old values.Into Bazarov, Turgenev pours all the qualities that he believes the Russian man should have - stout-hearted, educated, intelligent, decent and self-sacrificing, yet ruthlessly contemptuous of old ways.He is no respecter of the "sacred tradition", the aristocracy, or indeed the lower classes, who still cling to the securities they knew under the old feudal system.Ironically, the nihilistic, revolutionary character of Bazarov would find favour with neither the old establishment nor the new regime, making life in Russia difficult for Turgenev (who had already been imprisoned for his support of Gogol), and later see him going into exile.

Fathers and Sons however goes beyond the historical importance of the work, touching on sentiments in the father/son relationship that are still relevant today - the need to break with the past and overturn old ideals, and the sadness of the wedge that this places between parent and child, but the necessity of doing so in order to find a new and better expression in the evolving modern world.In many ways however, the world in Fathers and Sons still resembles that of Rudin, with the same kind of characters, landowners and aristocrats on country estates, with the same social divisions, having the same fruitless discussions about art, family and society - even if it is to condemn them here - while forming romantic attachments.

Fathers and Sons however is certainly a much better constructed and balanced novel than Rudin, the characters actively pursuing revolution rather than merely talking about it, although perhaps because of their very nature, they still fail to make a significant impression on society.Turgenev's model of Bazarov as a character for the future of the new Russia therefore doesn't entirely succeed and there is still some romanticism both in the character and Turgenev's depiction of him.It would take better writers like Tolstoy and Chekhov to delve deeper into the Russian character - and human nature - and bring it out in all its complexities and contradictions.Bazarov then is very much a hero for his time, and Fathers and Sons, although perhaps Turgenev's best novel with much to admire in it, is also very much of its time, while Tolstoy and Chekhov are eternal.

A Timely Read (At Least for Me)
As a college-bound 17 year old, I'm so glad to have read Fathers and Sons. Arkady's dilemma is one to which I can strongly relate, as my own value system somewhat conflicts with those of my parents. I highly recommend this deeply moving novel to anyone, especially ideologically rebellious teenagers.

Too soon to tell.Im only 1/4 the way through
The father and son are finely drawn and with a certain romantic sensitivity.The nihilist friend seems exaggerated but maybe he will become more rounded as I read on.

Sublime Masterpiece
Though not Russian fiction's father in Nikolai Gogol's sense of adapting the language and producing its first notable fictional works, Ivan Turgenev is the direct antecedent of the psychological characterization and philosophical dramatization that is most closely associated with it and thus arguably its true father. Fathers and Sons, his most famous work and masterpiece, was the first Russian novel to attract Western praise, particularly winning over Henry James, who hailed it as a masterwork and championed Turgenev over the Russian writers who soon overshadowed him. One can debate Turgenev's merits relative to giants like Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy, but he certainly provides an interesting contrast, and Fathers and Sons has long had an indisputable place alongside their great works in the world canon.

The book is of course most famous for Evgeny Vasilevich Bazarov, its protagonist, who is both painstakingly realistic and thoroughly symbolic. He typifies the young, European-influenced, middle-class liberal that Turgenev rightly thought was a rising Russian power. A self-proclaimed nihilist, he rejects religion, conventional morality, and nearly every other traditional Russian virtue. He claims to believe in nothing but has a great passion for science and seems to believe in a sort of self-reliance. Though influenced by archetypes like Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, he was an essentially original creation - Turgenev's most memorable and famous character. Anyone at all familiar with Russian literature can immediately see that he became a prototype, his most famous manifestation being Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment a few years later. However, he is interesting enough in his own right, and his ambivalent depiction is fascinating. Though he is ostensibly a cautionary figure, a negative example, Turgenev was open-minded enough not to condemn him outright. His dark end is indeed a warning that pure nihilism is a dead end, but Turgenev at times seems as enthralled by Bazarov as anyone. This ambiguity was the main reason that the novel got very mixed reviews; it satisfied neither those who sympathized with Bazarov nor those who condemned him. Turgenev was stung and wrote less prolifically and enthusiastically from then on, but time has shown that the uncertain portrayal is exactly the book's greatest strength. Bazarov represents a path that Russia could have taken - or, if you will, one pole of human nature -, though admittedly an extreme one, and cannot be lauded or condemned outright. Turgenev was brave enough to give an honest portrayal, and the profoundly believable and insightful psychological portrait retains its power. Bazarov is one of the most interesting characters in a century full of great ones. He is hard to fully love or hate; he certainly has many despicable qualities, but only Pollyannas can deny some of his points, and the force with which he argues, in combination with his cynical apathy, has a certain perverse charm. We can debate him and what he stands for ad nauseum, but it is unlikely that anyone who reads the book will soon forget him.

There is of course far more to the novel, not least its vivid dramatization of the title's implied generation gap. Turgenev saw an ever-widening chasm between the liberals of his generation and the Bazarovs, dramatizing it with striking verisimilitude and stunning philosophical and psychological depth. His generation is represented by the brothers Nikolai and Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov. They have also embraced Europeanization but in ways that Bazarov finds contemptibly superficial:speaking French, wearing foreign clothes, etc. More fundamental is their continued clinging to traditional morality and institutions. Their interactions with Bazarov make clear that, religion and morality aside, the generation gap was to a great extent a class issue. The Kirsanovs are aristocrats, and Pavel Petrovich in particular resents the upstart Bazarov. Their clash soon culminates in a highly symbolic duel suggesting, especially in its aftermath, that while the Bazarovs may initially gain the upper hand, there is much to be said for the older generation, which should not be written off so quickly. Nikolai Petrovich is more moderate, abandoning tradition to the extent of taking a lower-class woman as a mistress and even having a child with her, yet aware enough to constantly worry about offending his brother. He can sympathize with Bazarov and is even willing to listen to his ideas but above all simply wants harmony. His son Arkady is at yet another place on the spectrum, respecting the elders but so naïve and joyous in his youthfulness that he becomes a Bazarov disciple almost without knowing.

These conflicts play out in various ways but primarily through Arkady, the only character who really changes. It can be assumed that he was squarely in familial tradition before college, where he nearly became a Bazarov clone, and he finally takes solace in love's redemptive power. There is no doubt that Turgenev thinks this last the right path - that we are supposed to think, as Arkady finally does, that Bazarovism leads only to wasteful self-destructiveness, making true happiness impossible and keeping us from doing the world any good. Some will of course disagree, but Arkady's progression is very plausibly written; it is hard not to sympathize and be glad for his eventual peace and bliss. The novel is thus among other things an excellent bildungsroman.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the book is how Turgenev dramatizes all this - and even makes his point clear - without heavy-handedness. Novels tackling such weighty issues often let didacticism overwhelm story, but Fathers and Sons is never guilty of this nearly always fatal sin. He is also a master stylist; his often lyrical prose encompasses not only dense philosophical speculation but also much sublime beauty. The last paragraph in particular is unforgettable in its precise beauty and profoundly moving sentiment - so well-written that even those who cynically disagree with the conclusion, and thus the book's overall message, cannot deny its immense power. Most notable of all is that Turgenev manages to do all this in under 250 pages. This is the greatest difference between him and the more famous Russian masters known for their thick tomes. Turgenev eschews their great attention to detail, lengthy dialogue, and long philosophical asides. Those who, like James, detested such "loose, baggy monsters" may join him in preferring Turgenev, and the differences are substantial enough that even those who dislike Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and their ilk should not pass over Turgenev automatically on account of it. That said, he shares enough of their great elements - indeed, inspired many of them - that their fans should check him out. His remarkable conciseness is certainly less intimidating, and there are many benefits to reading the Russian greats chronologically. In short, the appeal of Fathers and Sons is so great and diverse that the book is a must for practically anyone who appreciates great literature.

Timeless Theme
Turgenev's Fathers and Sons is a rare classic novel that combines a story set in an era of social and political change in feudal Russia with a theme regarding generational conflict that has a timeless relevance to any age. His characters capture the tensions of youth filled with passion over new ideas clashing with the established ways of their elders.It is classically Russian in that the flow of the novel is driven by dialogue between the various characters rather than significant action on their part, although there is a romantic element to the story that fits perfectly as a subplot echoing the family tensions between the 2 young men and their fathers.
Bazarov , whose introduction into the home of his friend Arcady sets the story in motion,is a self-proclaimed nihilist and his idealism and passion are the straw that stirs the drink of much that follows. Some of Turgenev's characters are reluctant to face the obvious changes taking place in their society and the resulting gap between modern and traditional beliefs and ways of life underly much of what drives these characters to act in the way they do.
Fathers and Sons is a relatively easy book to read and enjoy when compared with the more challenging works of other Russian novelists but it is as extremely rewarding as it is accessible. I found it to be memorable, enriching and a good investment of time. ... Read more

Product Description
On one level the novel is about the homecoming of Lavretsky, who, broken and disillusioned by a failed marriage, returns to his estate and finds love again - only to lose it. The sense of loss and of unfulfilled promise, beautifully captured by Turgenev, reflects his underlying theme that humanity is not destined to experience happiness except as something ephemeral and inevitably doomed. On another level Turgenev is presenting the homecoming of a whole generation of young Russians who have fallen under the spell of European ideas that have uprooted them from Russia, their 'home', but have proved ultimately superfluous. In tragic bewilderment, they attempt to find reconciliation with their land. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Home is where the heart is
Turgenev's second novel is indeed closest to the ideal of pure Turgenev, certainly reminiscent of his dramatic work, depicting the lives of the gentry, Russian society and family relationships, while maintaining a humanistic stance towards the circumstances of the peasantry, all with a deep connection and love for the country and the landscape itself. It's even initially staged like one of Turgenev's dramas, each of the principal characters making their walk-on entrances at the Kalitin household, but Turgenev novelistically fills out the relevant background detail of a number of the characters with depth and precision.

It's at the Kalitin household that Lavretsky, on his way back home to his estate after the break up of his marriage in Europe, calls in on his relatives and falls in love with his cousin Liza Mikhaylovna. Liza is however being courted by an important but dull government official who Lavretsky feels is unworthy of the deeply religious young woman, but Lavretsky's own bad experiences in love and his uncertainty over the position of his ex-wife causes him to hesitate about whether he should declare his feelings to Liza.

For all the humanistic position of Tugenev's work, his superb evocation of the Russian landscape, the circumstances of its people and the gentrification of society towards the European model, Home of the Gentry is more than anything about affairs of the heart. "Another's heart is like a dark forest", the author muses here and perhaps only Chekhov really has the ability to delve there, but Turgenev brilliantly manages to identify how the conflicting emotions between a man and a woman drive one's actions more than any social conscience or lofty ideal, and is without peer in depicting those feelings with truth and beauty in his works (as opposed to Chekhov's darker cynicism). Magnificent.

Remembrance of things gone
Already in his thirties, Lavretsky returns to his hometown of O... in Russia. He descends form a strange family of landed gentry. At some point in the book his biography is revealed, a life of reclusion, loneliness, and disappointment. Very Russian. Lavretsky returns a defeated man, for his wife has cheated on him in every corner, has taken lots of money from him, and disgraced him through half Europe. And everybody knows. After dismissing her, he travels to Italy, in order to get himself together, and he decides that his mission is Voltaire-like, to go back to Russia and "tender his own garden". He decides not to go back to the old estate where he had suffered so much, but to a smaller house where a wicked old aunt had died. Trying to recover some social links, he visits a distant relative, Maria Dimitrevna Kalitin, a widow with two young daughters. I won't spoil the rest, but what follows is a tale of mishap, love, suffering, unwelcome surprises. The epilogue is masterful, an ode to memory, to the passage of time, and to bodily-felt homesickness.

Traditional, serene, and making no concessions, this novel is part of the work that makes Turgenev deserve his place up above with Tolstoi and Dostoevsky, in his own style. Russian to the bone, but without paranoid delirium or epic ambitions, it is a perfect novel. I would like to read it again when I am old, sitting on a bench of a park, in autumn.

An exquisite gem of a novel
An exquisite gem of a novel. Henry James was right in his praise for this book, and you can also see why Flaubert was such a fan--and how much he was influenced by Turgenev. I should add that the translation is exceptional, far better than many of the clunky translations that detract from other Russian novels I've read (including Turgenev's "Torrents of Spring" in the Barnes and Noble edition). I expect to come back to this one again and again.

A melancholic homecoming...
It is the archetypal story of the 'homecoming'. Turgenev captures the pathos and longing of returning. Where Tolstoy is the master of the epic, the greatrenouncer of sex and lust, Russia's prophet, Turgenev is the poet of landscapes, emotions, quiet moods and unfulfilled love. When you read Tolstoy, you can feel his brooding presence in the pages of his stories; with Turgenev, it is a bit more solemn, modest and melancholic. He is the wistful Russia, a thinker, a romantic. When the large tempos of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky overtake you, turn to Turgenev and appreciate his brief glimpses of beauty. First Love, On The Eve and A Month in the Country are also equally rewarding.

Not to be Missed!
All congenitally melancholy souls will love this novel, where intense romantic and spiritual conflicts unfoldin the dreamlike setting of a nineteenth century Russian estate.This is a beautifully written,extremelylyrical work...it will especially appeal to devotees of Romanticpiano music.The final few paragraphs areunforgettable andheartbreaking.I consider Home of the Gentry to be the mostquintessentially"Turgenevian" of all the author's works.Ihave read the novel many times, and I never tire of it.If you arenew tonineteenth century Russian literature, this is a good work with which tostart.The novel is not long,and most chapters are quite short.Eachone stands like a perfect little jewel, and many passages will remaininyour memory for a long time.Like most Russian novels of the period, Homeof the Gentry is a novel ofideas.Your reading will be enhanced if youhave some background in the cultural dynamics of the periodand understandthe intellectual caste to which the protagonist belongs - he is a"superfluous man," and hisconflicted ideological stance relatesdirectly to issues that were intensely debated in the 1840s.Although knowing something about this situation is helpful, I imagine that eventhose readers who have no priorknowledge of the period will enjoy thework immensely.If nothing else, Turgenev's elegiac portrayal of the Russian countryside is unrivaled....even Tolstoy cannot match Turgenev'saffecting depictions of the landitself.Freeborn's translation readssmoothly, and there is a helpful introductory essay in this edition. ... Read more

Product Description
Introduction by Ivan Turgenev; Translation by charles and Natasha Hepburn ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Da!
One of Theodore Roosevelt's secretaries of state, John Hay, had trouble dealing with Russian diplomats because they lied.Now, Mr. Hay had been his country's good servant since the Lincoln administration.In that time he had almost certainly come across a liar or two.His problem with Russians, as he explained it, was that they lied for no apparent reason:Not to hide an unfortunate truth, not to advance a position, but as a seemingly automatic reaction to any question.Mr. Hay simply couldn't understand Russians.

The character sketches that pop off the pages of Ivan Turgenev's "Sportsman's Notebook" go a long way to helping explain the Russian psyche.Under the guise of a narrator afield with dog and gun, the author introduces us to a collection men and women who through their personalities and personal tales seem to explain some essential truths about the Russian folk.

The short story collection unfolds like a 19th century "Canterbury Tales," complete with characters of high, middle and low estate, educated and not.It has serfs and masters and there's even a Miller's Tale, of sorts.Unfortunately for Mr. Hay, there's little talk of lying.

Turgenev wrote much of the Notebook when he was abroad.But is seems he forgot nothing about his either his countrymen or the Russian land, which becomes almost its own character in the stories.Steppe and forest, cloud and sky, the author makes the reader feel the dust and experience summer heat as a palpable entity.

Turgenev's observations are always on the mark.In reference to a servant's questionable response to his master he says, "...in Russia it is never possible to distinguish the surly from the merely sleepy."Writing the Notebook stories long before Twentieth Century upheavals, he notes that, "It's a strange thing when the old order passes and there's no new one to take its place."The new century would certainly provide something to take the old order's place.



The Everyman's Library edition of "Sportsman's Notebook" uses the Charles and Natasha Hepburn translation, which dates to 1950.It includes an introduction by Max Egremont and a literary and historical chronology of publications and events which occurred during the author's lifetime.

Mr. Turgenev's stories get a five star rating only because Amazon doesn't offer reviewers six or seven stars as possible choices.

An All-Time Great Collection of Stories in the Grand Russian Style
This is the classic book that put Turgenev on the literary map--both in his own time and for all of history.The strength of this, his first book, was such that, even if Turgenev had never written another book, he would still be recognized as the father of the modern short story.Indeed, A Sportsman's Notebook was Hemmingway's favorite book, and it is not hard to see traces of Turgenevs influence in the work of Hemmingway and other later-day masters of the short story.

Notebook contains twenty-five stories in which Turgenev shares shares memories from the hunting expeditions that lead him throughout the Russian countryside.His writing is strong because there is real life in his people and real beauty in his landscapes.

The translation by Charles and Natasha Hepburn is absolutely amazing; it far surpasses the work of Constance Garnett, whose Turgenev is for me nearly unreadable.

Feels great
Anyone who has read literature knows the best and most noteworthy volumes.This is not necessarily because the work is 'well written' or conveys ideas easily to the reader, or because someone else says it's good.Good literature is the work that has a completely positive effect upon the reader.I have been reading serious literature for several years now, and A Sportsman's Notebook is quite possibly the most wonderful literary work I have yet encountered.If I'm feeling down, I crack it open, and by the time I'm done reading I feel better.If I'm feeling good, it makes me feel that much better.Turgenev's words ring true in this volume -- to me it's as sweet as candy.

A Desert Island Necessary
This fine gem of a book typifies the sort of volume that one must be able to extract from the water-logged valise when the steamer has gone down and one finds oneself stranded on the proverbial desert island.After 30 years of rather serious reading, I still tend to think that Turgenev is one of the finest authors ever to put ink to paper.A Sportsman's Notebook is a wonderful place to start an exploration of Russian literature.Now, if I can just find my tramp steamer tickets.

Brilliant
This book has some of the best short fiction ever written. Hemingway said, "Tolstoy wrote the best books, BUT TURGENEV WAS THE GREATEST WRITER." And then he went on to praise the short story "A Rattle of Wheels" above all other Turgenev stories. So if Hemingway thought Turgenev the greatest writer, and "Rattle of Wheels" the greatest story he wrote, then he certainly thought "Rattle of Wheels" the greatest short story ever written (aside from his own works, of course, egomaniac that he was). And "Rattle of Wheels" is in this collection. I personally prefer "The Singers". Read this collection. You won't regret it. ... Read more

Product Description
Love can be surprising. Love can be heartbreaking. Love can be an art. But love is the singular emotion that all humans rely on most . . . and crave endlessly, no matter what the cost. United by this theme of love, the nine titles in the Penguin Great Loves collection include tales of blissful and all- encompassing, doomed and tragic, erotic and absurd, seductive and adulterous, innocent and murderous love. A deeply moving addition to the Penguin Great Ideas and Great Journeys series, each gorgeously packaged book will challenge all expectations of love while celebrating the beauty of its existence.

All books in this series: Cures for Love
Doomed Love
The Eaten Heart
First Love
Forbidden Fruit
The Kreutzer Sonata
A Mere Interlude
Of Mistresses, Tigresses and Other Conquests
The Seducer's Diary
... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

What is love?
I love the way Ivan Turgenev writes; his language is wonderful; his paragraphs well formed and lengthy-true art of a very good writer who was also very well educated. I especially love the way Constance Garnett translates his work from the Russian. It's a story of a 16 year old boy's love interest; his feelings are so well written one can not help but to feel his many live and vivid emotions.

A "Regular People" Review
This book is good, with language anyone can understand and a story that is interesting from the start. About idealistic hopes and ugly realities.Don't be afraid of reading this classic....and keep me updated!

"Let us be friends--that's what."
So Zinaida, the 21-year-old object of desire in FIRST LOVE, tells the 16-year-old narrator.

So the accursed "let's be friends" line that objects of desire crush the hearts of men with dates back to at least 1833.(It's probably been around since the dawn of man, but I've heard it since the 1970s).

FIRST LOVE is a short but powerful novella that captures a young man's awakening while exploring all the "ecstacy" and "that slow poison" of adult love.

What struck me about reading it was how little people have changed.Societies and manners may shift a bit but the passions and betrayals that take place in the novel are as dramatic and real as anything you hear about today.

"O youth! youth! you go your way heedless, uncaring--as if you owned all the treasures of the world; even grief elates you, even sorrow sits well upon your brow.You are self-confident and insolent and you say, 'I alone am alive--behold!' even while your own days fly past and vanish without trace and without number, and everything within you melts away like wax in the sun...in the snow...."

For such a short work, there were many such passages that really connected with me.Turgenev was a master.

A Tight Effort
Turgenev, a friend of Flaubert, makes a good effort at this slow moving eternity in the ephemeral type novel. The ephemeral being beauty eternity being the cycle of life ending in death. He made every epigram and scene intertwine in a pricking of subconscious introspection. It almost worked. Chekhov seemed to have greater success in creating this sort of ambiance with less words but Turgenev is no less interesting.

The translator was Isaiah Berlin.

Adolescent innocence.
An old man reflects on his most dearest love in his life: his first love at 16 for a girl of 21.
His love is not requited for a truly astounding reason.

This short novel is a masterful evocation of an adolescent love, pure and without interest, but dramatic and cruel (whipping).

An unforgettable masterpiece. ... Read more

Product Description
From Content:

"Anyone who has chanced to pass from the Bolhovsky district into the Zhizdrinsky district, must have been impressed by the striking difference between the race of people in the province of Orel and the population of the province of Kaluga. The peasant of Orel is not tall, is bent in figure, sullen and suspicious in his looks; he lives in wretched little hovels of aspen-wood, labours as a serf in the fields, and engages in no kind of trading, is miserably fed, and wears slippers of bast: the rent-paying peasant of Kaluga lives in roomy cottages of pine-wood; he is tall, bold, and cheerful in his looks, neat and clean of countenance; he carries on a trade in butter and tar, and on holidays he wears boots. The village of the Orel province (we are speaking now of the eastern part of the province) is usually situated in the midst of ploughed fields, near a water-course which has been converted into a filthy pool. Except for a few of the ever- accommodating willows, and two or three gaunt birch-trees, you do not see a tree for a mile round; hut is huddled up against hut, their roofs covered with rotting thatch-. The villages of Kaluga, on the contrary, are generally surrounded by forest; the huts stand more freely, are more upright, and have boarded roofs; the gates fasten closely, the hedge is not broken down nor trailing about; there are no gaps to invite the visits of the passing pig-. And things are much better in the Kaluga province for the sportsman. In the Orel province the last of the woods and copses will have disappeared five years hence, and there is no trace of moorland left; in Kaluga, on the contrary, the moors extend over tens, the forest over hundreds of miles, and a splendid bird, the grouse, is still extant there; there are abundance of the friendly larger snipe, and the loud-clapping partridge cheers and startles the sportsman and his dog by its abrupt upward flight.

Product Description
When a young graduate returns home he is accompanied,much to his father and uncle's discomfort, by a strangefriend "who doesn't acknowledge any authorities, whodoesn't accept a single principle on faith."Turgenev'smasterpiece of generational conflict shocked Russiansociety when it was published in 1862 and continuestoday to seem as fresh and outspoken as it did to thosewho first encountered its nihilistic hero. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Underrated Masterpiece
There are multiple Fathers and Sons translations, and Richard Freeborn's is particularly controversial. It is certainly readable and does a remarkable job of conveying Turgenev's poetic prose. However, Freeborn tries to convey the character Bazarov's slangy speech by using Southern American dialect - a risky tactic that many will appreciate but some will loathe. Anyone looking for a worthy translation who is not bothered by this would do well to pick up Freeborn's version, but others are warned.

Now to the book itself. Though not Russian fiction's father in Nikolai Gogol's sense of adapting the language and producing its first notable fictional works, Ivan Turgenev is the direct antecedent of the psychological characterization and philosophical dramatization that is most closely associated with it and thus arguably its true father. Fathers and Sons, his most famous work and masterpiece, was the first Russian novel to attract Western praise, particularly winning over Henry James, who hailed it as a masterwork and championed Turgenev over the Russian writers who soon overshadowed him. One can debate Turgenev's merits relative to giants like Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy, but he certainly provides an interesting contrast, and Fathers and Sons has long had an indisputable place alongside their great works in the world canon.

The book is of course most famous for Evgeny Vasilevich Bazarov, its protagonist, who is both painstakingly realistic and thoroughly symbolic. He typifies the young, European-influenced, middle-class liberal that Turgenev rightly thought was a rising Russian power. A self-proclaimed nihilist, he rejects religion, conventional morality, and nearly every other traditional Russian virtue. He claims to believe in nothing but has a great passion for science and seems to believe in a sort of self-reliance. Though influenced by archetypes like Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, he was an essentially original creation - Turgenev's most memorable and famous character. Anyone at all familiar with Russian literature can immediately see that he became a prototype, his most famous manifestation being Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment a few years later. However, he is interesting enough in his own right, and his ambivalent depiction is fascinating. Though he is ostensibly a cautionary figure, a negative example, Turgenev was open-minded enough not to condemn him outright. His dark end is indeed a warning that pure nihilism is a dead end, but Turgenev at times seems as enthralled by Bazarov as anyone. This ambiguity was the main reason that the novel got very mixed reviews; it satisfied neither those who sympathized with Bazarov nor those who condemned him. Turgenev was stung and wrote less prolifically and enthusiastically from then on, but time has shown that the uncertain portrayal is exactly the book's greatest strength. Bazarov represents a path that Russia could have taken - or, if you will, one pole of human nature -, though admittedly an extreme one, and cannot be lauded or condemned outright. Turgenev was brave enough to give an honest portrayal, and the profoundly believable and insightful psychological portrait retains its power. Bazarov is one of the most interesting characters in a century full of great ones. He is hard to fully love or hate; he certainly has many despicable qualities, but only Pollyannas can deny some of his points, and the force with which he argues, in combination with his cynical apathy, has a certain perverse charm. We can debate him and what he stands for ad nauseum, but it is unlikely that anyone who reads the book will soon forget him.

There is of course far more to the novel, not least its vivid dramatization of the title's implied generation gap. Turgenev saw an ever-widening chasm between the liberals of his generation and the Bazarovs, dramatizing it with striking verisimilitude and stunning philosophical and psychological depth. His generation is represented by the brothers Nikolai and Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov. They have also embraced Europeanization but in ways that Bazarov finds contemptibly superficial:speaking French, wearing foreign clothes, etc. More fundamental is their continued clinging to traditional morality and institutions. Their interactions with Bazarov make clear that, religion and morality aside, the generation gap was to a great extent a class issue. The Kirsanovs are aristocrats, and Pavel Petrovich in particular resents the upstart Bazarov. Their clash soon culminates in a highly symbolic duel suggesting, especially in its aftermath, that while the Bazarovs may initially gain the upper hand, there is much to be said for the older generation, which should not be written off so quickly. Nikolai Petrovich is more moderate, abandoning tradition to the extent of taking a lower-class woman as a mistress and even having a child with her, yet aware enough to constantly worry about offending his brother. He can sympathize with Bazarov and is even willing to listen to his ideas but above all simply wants harmony. His son Arkady is at yet another place on the spectrum, respecting the elders but so naïve and joyous in his youthfulness that he becomes a Bazarov disciple almost without knowing.

These conflicts play out in various ways but primarily through Arkady, the only character who really changes. It can be assumed that he was squarely in familial tradition before college, where he nearly became a Bazarov clone, and he finally takes solace in love's redemptive power. There is no doubt that Turgenev thinks this last the right path - that we are supposed to think, as Arkady finally does, that Bazarovism leads only to wasteful self-destructiveness, making true happiness impossible and keeping us from doing the world any good. Some will of course disagree, but Arkady's progression is very plausibly written; it is hard not to sympathize and be glad for his eventual peace and bliss. The novel is thus among other things an excellent bildungsroman.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the book is how Turgenev dramatizes all this - and even makes his point clear - without heavy-handedness. Novels tackling such weighty issues often let didacticism overwhelm story, but Fathers and Sons is never guilty of this nearly always fatal sin. He is also a master stylist; his often lyrical prose encompasses not only dense philosophical speculation but also much sublime beauty. The last paragraph in particular is unforgettable in its precise beauty and profoundly moving sentiment - so well-written that even those who cynically disagree with the conclusion, and thus the book's overall message, cannot deny its immense power. Most notable of all is that Turgenev manages to do all this in under 250 pages. This is the greatest difference between him and the more famous Russian masters known for their thick tomes. Turgenev eschews their great attention to detail, lengthy dialogue, and long philosophical asides. Those who, like James, detested such "loose, baggy monsters" may join him in preferring Turgenev, and the differences are substantial enough that even those who dislike Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and their ilk should not pass over Turgenev automatically on account of it. That said, he shares enough of their great elements - indeed, inspired many of them - that their fans should check him out. His remarkable conciseness is certainly less intimidating, and there are many benefits to reading the Russian greats chronologically. In short, the appeal of Fathers and Sons is so great and diverse that the book is a must for practically anyone who appreciates great literature.

Not the best of the Russian classics but has its merits


For many people in the West, especially in the US, nineteenth-century Russian literature means Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and many reviewers note that this ain't like either of them. In fact, thisfeels a lot like what could be called `the rural English novel' -- novels that poetically describe rural life, deal with the rise of new ideas and ways of life brought on by modernization, focus on romantic desires, resolve characters into either death or marriage, etc.

This particular story follows two men, Barazov, who is a self-proclaimed nihilist (much to the irritation of older men) and Arkady, who is his prodigy (who has a less committed, more exploratory approach to modern ideas). They are returning to their familial rural estates after time elsewhere. They move back and forth between these estates and one that has several women of interest. Much of the novel is a series of conversations, often about political change or high ideals. A lot happens in the novel, though it doesn't feel like it: the characters lead relatively privileged lives and we rarely even hear about them working, so it feels the novel is mostly about relaxing.

One of the main strengths of the novel is the depiction of the male characters. The female characters seem to act the way they do to advance the plot without conveying a sense that the author understood their motivations. He just knows that women sometimes act in certain ways. On the other hand, the two men, their fathers and one uncle are vividly depicted and evolve over the course of the novel (or are adamant in their refusal to do so). What I particularly like is the generational conflict in tension with the blatant affection of the fathers for their sons. In so many novels, characters don't seem to really like each other (or we're told that they do but the novelist can't convey it). This seems especially true of serious novels about families. I'm hard pressed to think of any other novel in which fathers are so interested in the lives of their grown sons and so pained by the gulf between them.

There are also some powerful chapters. The duel, for instance, comes out of nowhere, seems totally unmotivated, to the point of being comic even though the situation could quickly become tragic, and then only in its resolution becomes clear that there was a reason for it. This would have been easy to botch but it comes off quite well.

I was left with the feeling, however, that the whole was somehow less than the sum of the parts. It's possible to point to particular faults, like the irritations of the translation that others have pointed out (e.g., the attempt to replicate Barazov's `hip' speaking by the use of slang), but it seems like the positive characteristics of the novel ought to outweigh them. For a reason I cannot explain, they somehow don't. If you're into nineteenth-century Russian literature, you're going to read this book regardless of any review -- and you'll find pleasures in it. I'd also recommend it to people who like George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. If you're just looking to try imperial Russian literature, you'll probably find that Dostoevsky or Tolstoy or even Chekhov `speak to' you more. (Then once you're seduced, read Turgenev.)

I'd also recommend saving _Fathers and Sons_ for a time when you're going to have a long stretch to read it: the novel has a lot of characters for its length and taking breaks makes it harder to keep them straight. Likewise, this translation is faithful to the Russian etiquette of names, which can get confusing when the name used to describe a character's actions isn't the same as how other characters address them in dialogue. If this is a problem, there are some webpages that can be found by searching for `Russian naming conventions'.

It's gratuitous to the reading experience, but I have to say that this, like the other new Oxford World Classics, is a beautiful book. It has a very agreeable crispness to it. The cover, the binding, etc. all feel right. Even the font seems particularly sharp. I often read library or used copies of books, but in holding this for the first time I felt a sense of impeding loss: there are art forms that are going to be killed off by the now easy to predict replacement of paper books with electronic ones, just as downloadable music is the end of the album cover. (But also like the other new Oxford World Classics, the font size could be a point or two bigger. It would hurt their profit margin calculations, I'm sure, but my feeling is that easy to read fonts and the sensation of turning the page more frequently increase the pleasure of reading.)

Books from amazon
I think every thing was good except the time it took to arrive. I received the shipment notice and had to wait for a solid 3 weeks before the book arrived. I am not sure what means of shipping is being used but it seems even lousier that the UPS. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are ¿difficult, and often encountered¿ in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many areprovided for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language, and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word's meaning within context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the book; synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster's Online Dictionary.

PSAT¿ is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT¿ is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE¿, AP¿ and Advanced Placement¿ are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT¿ is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT¿ is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved. ... Read more

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He passed his hand over his face and with slow steps crossed the road towards the hut. But I did not want to give in so quickly and went back into the kitchen garden. That someone really had three times called "Ilyusha" I could not doubt; that there was something plaintive and mysterious in the call, I was forced to own to myself.... But who knows, perhaps all this only appeared to be unaccountable and in reality could be explained as simply as the knocking which had agitated Tyeglev so much. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a good suprising read
Downloaded this just because I was experimenting with the kindle and foundthat Iloved it. The title story is really page turning - very atmospheric as only russian writers can be without being so dour as to make you suicidal ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Turgenev-lite
Turgenev's first short novel takes place in a setting familiar from his dramas and indeed many of his later novels - a country house setting where a widowed society lady from St. Petersburg, Darya Mihailovna entertains local dignitaries and distinguished men of letters. Almost invariably, the setting is one where romance takes place, Turgenev thereby pitting the men against each other in ways that brings out their strength or lack of moral character.

In Rudin, it is Darya Mihailovna's daughter 17 year old Natalya who becomes the centre of the romantic entanglements that ensue when a new guest comes into the household, Dimitri Nikolaitch Rudin. Natalya is dazzled by the eloquence and wisdom of the man, who eclipses the empty pose, cynicism and 'bon mots' of the others, and Rudin comes to replace the rather dull and inarticulate Volintsev in her affections. Some of the men who have known Rudin in the past have doubts however about Rudin's strength of character and the conviction of his romantic intentions towards Natalya.

The majority of the novel then may seem rather lightweight, structured around a brief scarcely existent romance, featuring lots of ineffectual talking, discussion and gossip between society gentlemen on subjects of art, poetry, music, and romantic ideals - but the setting, the talk and the behaviour of the characters tells us rather more about the individuals than might be expected. Certainly, it's all very entertaining, and some wisdom is indeed dispensed amid much empty theorising and philosophising, but there appears to be no sincerity or willingness on the part of anyone to do anything but talk about it all.

Affairs of the heart are however Turgenev's speciality, and it is through their conduct with women that the author best manages to examine the essential character of Russian men. Not untypically - at least until he came to write his masterpiece Fathers and Sons - he finds something wanting in his leading men. In comparison to Volintsev, Lezhnyov, Pandalevsky and Pigasov, Rudin would appear to be an intellectual as well as a man of ideals and practicalities, but he proves - through his behaviour with Natalya - to be a man without conviction, sincerity, substance and more importantly a man without passion. As another reviewer here has commented, this isn't necessarily the fault of the young man, since like the others in this period before social reform, there is no outlet yet for his fine ideas.

All the same, while the subject is perfectly in keeping with Turgenev's usual themes, the ideas as they are expressed by the author in this slim novel are fairly lightweight and thin. Although there is some attempt here at using nature through meetings in gardens and allusions to branches on a oak tree as an expression of the inner lives of the characters, Turgenev would much more successfully bind his characters - of a greater variety of social classes moreover - with the very earth of Russia in his subsequent novel, Nest of the Gentry, and approach the reality of the underlying complexities of the dilemma faced by the individual in a progressive, modern world of social reform with a great deal more precision in Fathers and Sons.

Superb. Rudin illustrates is one of the greatest portraits of man ever written.
I found Rudin profoundly touching and an almost astonishing work for a novel so slender. Rarely in so few pages can a writer have illustrated his themes so emphatically and so artfully. Throughout Turgenev uses nature as a proxy for narrative description and as a result the novel has a very calm and controlled feel. The characters are bound by their differing natures and their development is shadowed by changes in the natural environment they find themselves in.
More importantly, to my mind, however is the way in which the character of Rudin exposes the central contradiction between a desire for truth and a desire for love. By his nature, as we discover, Rudin is unable to conquer love but is however able to remain true to his ideals, despite being unable to act upon them. To this extent Rudin is impotent, he is clear about what he wishes to achieve - to become a man of action - yet he is fundamentally unable to achieve such a goal. As such he is destined to remain unhappy. However, unlike others, he perceives this and so is able to remain truthful to his self and thus in contrast to those other characters in the novel that are destined to remain unhappy, as he too is destined, he at least discovers and embraces his true self and as such realises the higher being in him. A higher being so often alluded to by others.
In such a fashion Turgenev exposes this central dialectic beautifully. By positing Rudin amidst a decaying social setting and allowing his seemingly constant passage of self-discovery inadvertently to fuel the self-discovery of those who come into contact with him, Turgenev demonstrates how a synthesis between self-knowledge and self-sacrifice is essential before true love can be sown within one's soul. Rudin, by being so lucid regarding what he loves (truth), whilst simultaneously illustrating to all the futility of his love, shines a light upon the ready attainability of the loves of other characters. Thus those characters who sought to see in Rudin something approaching an ideal are shocked and provoked into attaining their own, real, ideals. It is only those who refused to see in Rudin anything but impotence, coldness and bluster who emerge unchanged characters at the novel's conclusion.
As of Rudin himself, his love (truth) is attained only at the cost of discovering that he is less a mighty oak and more a shallow tumbleweed (Rudin himself goes from using the Oak as an analogy for his feelings to that of a tumbleweed by the end of the novel). Perhaps it is this inevitable conclusion to Rudin's long search, the same search that befalls all of us, that provokes Rudin (in the Epilogue) to finally attain his ideal as a man of action and thus ensure that, against the greatest odds, his seed was not, after all, sown upon barren ground.

Second reading, twenty years later
I was very pleased to read this one for the second time. No doubt I was too young to appreciate its virtues twenty years ago. I look forward to reading more of his work, much of which will be new to me.

non-essential Turgenev
_Rudin_ is a good novel by Ivan Turgenev, but altogether non-essential, unless you want to read all of his works.

The character Rudin is a fortunate young man in 1860s Russia, a man around thirty years of age, in the prime of his life.He is very much a superfluous man, like the man Turgenev wrote of in his shorter story "A Superfluous Man."He is all talk and no action.He has high-minded ideals but can not transfer them into deeds.

I suppose Turgenev saw many young Russian men of his generation who served as the basis for Rudin, the character.Natalya, Rudin's love interest, at least has the fortitude to translate her ideals into actions, but she is offered fewer possibilities by Russian society.She comes off more sympathetically than the title character, but she is female, and therefore a minor character in a Turgenev work.I found her more interesting, and similar to the female main character in _Oblomov_ by Goncharov.

The political edge on this novel is not nearly so sharp as that on _Fathers and Sons_.Mostly this seems a personal and emotional novel, rather than a political novel.A student wanting a general grounding in the major novels of Russian Literature can probably skip _Rudin_.On the other hand, if you read _Fathers and Sons_ and found that book very rewarding, you may want to take a peek at _Rudin_, to see what another (earlier) novel by Turgenev is like.

ken32

Sad tale of early existentialist-'hero' in 19th century Russ
Rudin is the lead character in this short novel, which reads like a playset in mid nineteenth century Russia. He enters into a provincial societypeopled by the usual array of grand dames, eccentrics, local radicals, andbeautiful / eligible debutant-daughter, with whom he (believes he) falls inlove.

Whilst the characters and setting is characteristic of manyEuropean novels of the time, the story takes an unexpected turn. Rudin is afateful character, and one whose shallowness and egotism is exposed by theyoung daughter who he seduces. Turgenev manages to present Rudin as asympathetic character albeit imbued with the resignation that he is a 'superfluous man' (cf. 'A Hero of Our Times' by Lermontov)

The book iswell written and deserves aplace in the canon of nineteenth centuryRussian novels . Particularly recommended for anyone who has read Fathersand Sons. ... Read more

Product Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook edition contains the collected works of Ivan Turgenev, including his highly acclaimed 'Fathers and Sons,' five other novels, and 57 short stories.Includes an active table of contents.


Contents


Novels

Fathers and Sons
Rudin
The House of Gentlefolk
On the Eve
Smoke
Liza
Virgin Soil


Short Stories

The Diary of a Superfluous Man
A Tour in the Forest
Yakov Pasinkov
Andrei Kolosov
A Correspondence
Hor and Kalinitch
Yermolai and the Miller’s Wife
Raspberry Spring
The District Doctor
My Neighbour Radilov
The Peasant Proprietor Ovsyanikov
Lgov
Byezhin Prairie
Kassyan of Fair Springs
The Agent
The Counting-House
Biryuk
Two Country Gentlemen
Lebedyan
Tatyana Borissovna and Her Nephew
Death
The Singers
Piotr Petrovitch Karataev
The Tryst
The Hamlet of the Shtchigri District
Tchertop-Hanov and Nedopyuskin
The End of Tchertop-Hanov
A Living Relic
The Rattling of Wheels
Epilogue: The Forest and the Steppe
The Rendezvous
A Desperate Character
A Strange Story
Punin and Baburin
Old Portraits
The Brigadier
Pyetushkov
Clara Militch
Phantoms
The Song of Triumphant Love
The Dream
Poems in Prose
The Jew
An Unhappy Girl
The Duellist
Three Portraits
Enough
Knock, Knock, Knock
The Inn
Lieutenant Yergunov’s Story
The Dog
The Watch
Father Alexyei’s Story
The Torrents of Spring
First Love
Mumu
... Read more

Product Description

This collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download, and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and footnotes. The collection is complimented by an author biography.

Customer Reviews (2)

Ivan Turgenev (Kindle edition)
Works of Ivan Turgenev. Fathers and Sons, First Love, A Nobleman's Nest (Home of the Gentry), Rudin, A Sportsman's Sketches, Virgin Soil, The Torrents ... & more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

In Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" nothing much really happens. People talk a lot and that's about it. Should be dull, right? But it isn't. The talk, and the characters revealed, reflect the profound changes that were being felt in Russian society at the end of the 19th Century; changes that would set the stage for much of what was to happen in the 20th Century. But more important to a modern reader, the ideas and the real life implication of those ideas are as current and relevant as when Turgenev wrote.
"A Sportsman's Sketches" contains twenty-five stories in which Turgenev shares shares memories from the hunting expeditions that lead him throughout the Russian countryside. His writing is strong because there is real life in his people and real beauty in his landscapes.
Great ebook!

Wonderful collection
Works of Ivan Turgenev. Fathers and Sons, First Love, A Nobleman's Nest (Home of the Gentry), Rudin, A Sportsman's Sketches, Virgin Soil, The Torrents ... & more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

Everybody should read some Turgenev. He has inspired great western authors. By reading Turgenev today, one will find that his writing is still astonishingly modern. Turgenev was one of the greatest, and all of his tales are imbued with his unique feeling for the texture and dignity of all human in life. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 11; Original Publisher: Heinemann; Publication date: 1906; Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Romance / General; Fiction / Romance / Contemporary; History / Europe / Russia ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not the Best Translation
This may be the most accurate translation, but if you want to really read the Russians, especially Chekov and Turgenev, you've got to have the Constance Garnett.She may have victorianized (is that a word?) some things, but the sentiment she adds suits the Russian Soul to a tee.Some company needs to reprint her 15-volume Complete Novels of Turgenev--it's available in larger libraries.You'll love The Torrents of Spring (the subject of a string quartet by William Alwyn), also First Love, Home of the Gentry, The Diary of a Superfluous Man, and Fathers and Sons.

Preferred "Torrents" Translation
This is the translation that I first read (years after it was published) and loved.The novel has been around a long time but its attraction can be won or lost according to the translation.Another, later translation irked me so much that I didn't want to finish reading it.Now that I've found myfavorite translation -- which I think is more poetic and does betterjustice to the style and mood of the Russian original -- I'm buying a copyfor myself and one for a gift to someone in high school. ... Read more

Product Description
Turgenev is an author who no longer belongs to Russia only. During the last fifteen years of his life he won for himself the reading public.

As regards his method of dealing with his material and shaping it he surpasses all the prose writers of his country, and has but few equals among the great novelists of other lands.

To one familiar with all Turgenev's works it is evident that he possessed the keys of all human emotions, all human feelings, the highest and the lowest, the novel as well as the base. He make himself almost exclusively the poet of the gentler side of human nature. We may say that the description of love is Turgenev's specialty.

Rudin is the first of Turgenev's social novels, and is a sort of artistic introduction to those that follow, because it refers to the epoch anterior to that when the present social and political movements began. This epoch is being fast forgotten, and without his novel it would be difficult for us to fully realise it, but it is well worth studying, because we find in it the germ of future growths.

Introduced in English, the text is in Russian and the notes are in English. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Turgenev-lite
Turgenev's first short novel takes place in a setting familiar from his dramas and indeed many of his later novels - a country house setting where a widowed society lady from St. Petersburg, Darya Mihailovna entertains local dignitaries and distinguished men of letters. Almost invariably, the setting is one where romance takes place, Turgenev thereby pitting the men against each other in ways that brings out their strength or lack of moral character.

In Rudin, it is Darya Mihailovna's daughter 17 year old Natalya who becomes the centre of the romantic entanglements that ensue when a new guest comes into the household, Dimitri Nikolaitch Rudin. Natalya is dazzled by the eloquence and wisdom of the man, who eclipses the empty pose, cynicism and 'bon mots' of the others, and Rudin comes to replace the rather dull and inarticulate Volintsev in her affections. Some of the men who have known Rudin in the past have doubts however about Rudin's strength of character and the conviction of his romantic intentions towards Natalya.

The majority of the novel then may seem rather lightweight, structured around a brief scarcely existent romance, featuring lots of ineffectual talking, discussion and gossip between society gentlemen on subjects of art, poetry, music, and romantic ideals - but the setting, the talk and the behaviour of the characters tells us rather more about the individuals than might be expected. Certainly, it's all very entertaining, and some wisdom is indeed dispensed amid much empty theorising and philosophising, but there appears to be no sincerity or willingness on the part of anyone to do anything but talk about it all.

Affairs of the heart are however Turgenev's speciality, and it is through their conduct with women that the author best manages to examine the essential character of Russian men. Not untypically - at least until he came to write his masterpiece Fathers and Sons - he finds something wanting in his leading men. In comparison to Volintsev, Lezhnyov, Pandalevsky and Pigasov, Rudin would appear to be an intellectual as well as a man of ideals and practicalities, but he proves - through his behaviour with Natalya - to be a man without conviction, sincerity, substance and more importantly a man without passion. As another reviewer here has commented, this isn't necessarily the fault of the young man, since like the others in this period before social reform, there is no outlet yet for his fine ideas.

All the same, while the subject is perfectly in keeping with Turgenev's usual themes, the ideas as they are expressed by the author in this slim novel are fairly lightweight and thin. Although there is some attempt here at using nature through meetings in gardens and allusions to branches on a oak tree as an expression of the inner lives of the characters, Turgenev would much more successfully bind his characters - of a greater variety of social classes moreover - with the very earth of Russia in his subsequent novel, Nest of the Gentry, and approach the reality of the underlying complexities of the dilemma faced by the individual in a progressive, modern world of social reform with a great deal more precision in Fathers and Sons.

Superb. Rudin illustrates is one of the greatest portraits of man ever written.
I found Rudin profoundly touching and an almost astonishing work for a novel so slender. Rarely in so few pages can a writer have illustrated his themes so emphatically and so artfully. Throughout Turgenev uses nature as a proxy for narrative description and as a result the novel has a very calm and controlled feel. The characters are bound by their differing natures and their development is shadowed by changes in the natural environment they find themselves in.
More importantly, to my mind, however is the way in which the character of Rudin exposes the central contradiction between a desire for truth and a desire for love. By his nature, as we discover, Rudin is unable to conquer love but is however able to remain true to his ideals, despite being unable to act upon them. To this extent Rudin is impotent, he is clear about what he wishes to achieve - to become a man of action - yet he is fundamentally unable to achieve such a goal. As such he is destined to remain unhappy. However, unlike others, he perceives this and so is able to remain truthful to his self and thus in contrast to those other characters in the novel that are destined to remain unhappy, as he too is destined, he at least discovers and embraces his true self and as such realises the higher being in him. A higher being so often alluded to by others.
In such a fashion Turgenev exposes this central dialectic beautifully. By positing Rudin amidst a decaying social setting and allowing his seemingly constant passage of self-discovery inadvertently to fuel the self-discovery of those who come into contact with him, Turgenev demonstrates how a synthesis between self-knowledge and self-sacrifice is essential before true love can be sown within one's soul. Rudin, by being so lucid regarding what he loves (truth), whilst simultaneously illustrating to all the futility of his love, shines a light upon the ready attainability of the loves of other characters. Thus those characters who sought to see in Rudin something approaching an ideal are shocked and provoked into attaining their own, real, ideals. It is only those who refused to see in Rudin anything but impotence, coldness and bluster who emerge unchanged characters at the novel's conclusion.
As of Rudin himself, his love (truth) is attained only at the cost of discovering that he is less a mighty oak and more a shallow tumbleweed (Rudin himself goes from using the Oak as an analogy for his feelings to that of a tumbleweed by the end of the novel). Perhaps it is this inevitable conclusion to Rudin's long search, the same search that befalls all of us, that provokes Rudin (in the Epilogue) to finally attain his ideal as a man of action and thus ensure that, against the greatest odds, his seed was not, after all, sown upon barren ground.

Second reading, twenty years later
I was very pleased to read this one for the second time. No doubt I was too young to appreciate its virtues twenty years ago. I look forward to reading more of his work, much of which will be new to me.

non-essential Turgenev
_Rudin_ is a good novel by Ivan Turgenev, but altogether non-essential, unless you want to read all of his works.

The character Rudin is a fortunate young man in 1860s Russia, a man around thirty years of age, in the prime of his life.He is very much a superfluous man, like the man Turgenev wrote of in his shorter story "A Superfluous Man."He is all talk and no action.He has high-minded ideals but can not transfer them into deeds.

I suppose Turgenev saw many young Russian men of his generation who served as the basis for Rudin, the character.Natalya, Rudin's love interest, at least has the fortitude to translate her ideals into actions, but she is offered fewer possibilities by Russian society.She comes off more sympathetically than the title character, but she is female, and therefore a minor character in a Turgenev work.I found her more interesting, and similar to the female main character in _Oblomov_ by Goncharov.

The political edge on this novel is not nearly so sharp as that on _Fathers and Sons_.Mostly this seems a personal and emotional novel, rather than a political novel.A student wanting a general grounding in the major novels of Russian Literature can probably skip _Rudin_.On the other hand, if you read _Fathers and Sons_ and found that book very rewarding, you may want to take a peek at _Rudin_, to see what another (earlier) novel by Turgenev is like.

ken32

Sad tale of early existentialist-'hero' in 19th century Russ
Rudin is the lead character in this short novel, which reads like a playset in mid nineteenth century Russia. He enters into a provincial societypeopled by the usual array of grand dames, eccentrics, local radicals, andbeautiful / eligible debutant-daughter, with whom he (believes he) falls inlove.

Whilst the characters and setting is characteristic of manyEuropean novels of the time, the story takes an unexpected turn. Rudin is afateful character, and one whose shallowness and egotism is exposed by theyoung daughter who he seduces. Turgenev manages to present Rudin as asympathetic character albeit imbued with the resignation that he is a 'superfluous man' (cf. 'A Hero of Our Times' by Lermontov)

The book iswell written and deserves aplace in the canon of nineteenth centuryRussian novels . Particularly recommended for anyone who has read Fathersand Sons. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Essential turgenev
WHO is the translator?? WHERE is the list of works included in it?? I was hoping to buy it, but I need this info FIRST.

Beautiful writing
Though Turgenev is not as household a name as the other Russian writers (though he certainly should be), you will see here in this wonderful collection, that his language breathes as sure as you do.His descriptions are full of life as are his characters.One mark, at least for me, of a great writer is that his readers are able to remember years later his visual and emotional conveyances.You won't struggle in this regard with Turgenev.

russian treasures
excellent russian literature
this book is a treasure for the letters included--particularly those he wrote to tolstoy

One of the greatest writers
Everybody should read some Turgenev. He was the man whom made the world outside Russia aware of that the great Russian literature existed. And he has inspired great western authors too, like Guy de Maupassant (whom in histurn inspired Chekhov), Henry James, Ernest Hemingway (whom again alsoadmired Chekhov and Maupassant). By reading Turgenev today, one will findthat his writing still is astonishingly modern and will continue to haveinfluence on new generations of writers. Turgenev was one of the greatestand all of his tales are imbued with his unique feeling for the texture anddignity of all human in life. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
In Rudin (1855) and On The Eve (1859), Turgenev portrays through tales of passionate, problematic love the conflicts of cultural loyalty and national identity at the heart of nineteenth century Russia. Both novels reflect Turgenev's concern with the failings of Russia's educated class, the only class he believed was capable of building a civilized and humane Russia based on the principles of European enlightenment. The only joint edition available, this fluent translation does full justice to Turgenev's delicate and emotional style. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Words, all words. There were no deeds!
Thus complains Rudin, apparently modelled after the Russian anarchist Bakunin whom Turgenev knew personally. Strangely my own reading of the two great Russian anarchists, Bakunin and Kropotkin, it was Bakunin who seemed to be the man of action, Kropotkin who was the great writer.

I took this book with me on a short working trip to Tanzania, a place I had never been to before; knew little of. What greater contrast could there be than Turgenev's Russians and other East Europeans compared to the open, uncomplicated welcome of the Tanzanian people. Rarely have I felt so absorbed and integrated into another society, and so quickly. I enjoy Turgenev's writing and have been reading him for some time now. The struggles he documents - Rudin and Natalya, Insarov and Yelena - are, for me, however, very remote. (Of course, I do realise Tanzanians probably have levels of complexity in their lives that were completely obscure to me in my short visit.)

Take Yelena in 'On the Eve' for example and her admirable love of the Bulgarian Insarov. She draws love from him just as he is trying to leave her, to withdraw from her, because he sees he is so unworthy - an entirely characteristic feeling expressed by many Turgenev characters. Yelena leaves everything behind for Insarov - family, friends, entirely satisfactory suitors, and, most of all, Russia itself. But what does she get? As if to justify Insarov's view (he is a revolutionary just like Rudin in the first of these two stories) Turgenev plunges Insarov into critical illness so that, when he and Yelena leave Yelena's homeland together - having confronted awful partings - Yelena is also leaving behind health and vitality. The price is too great! But, of course, we all do have to make decisions in our lives.

I recommend these stories as well worth reading - they are very rich experiences. On the other hand I can't help but think 'Thank God for the Tanzanians!'

other recommendations:

'Virgin Soil' - Ivan Turgenev
'Fathers and Sons' - Ivan Turgenev
'Under Western Eyes' - Joseph Conrad
'Dark Star Safari' - Paul Theroux (for some travels in Tanzania)

4 stars for 'Rudin,' 5 for OTE
Turgenev is my fourth-favourite writer, though I don't know if I'd have placed him so highly on my list of favourite writers if I'd been introduced to him through his novels (of which he wrote only six) instead of his short stories.His books are as good as his stories, make no mistake, but he's more of an idea novelist than an action novelist.The plots aren't full of unexpected edge-of-your seat twists and turns and suspense; he's not the man to go to if you like your novels full of page-turning excitement and events that happen quickly.His characters seem to be more important than the plots; the characters are the ones who espouse and convey Turgenev's ideas and philosophies.

'Rudin,' the first of the two novels contained in this small volume and Turgenev's first book, I found rather unmemorable.(In fact, I found the debut novel of Hermann Hesse, my next-fave writer, 'Peter Camenzind,' to be more interesting and memorable, and overall PC isn't even one of his most memorable books!)Maybe it's because it was a first novel, though.Not much really happens; there are some nice descriptive pieces, but overall it's just a bunch of characters espousing ideas and explaining why they believe what they believe.I also had a hard time keeping track of which character was which, it was that non-character-driven.

The second of the two books, 'On the Eve,' is brilliant by comparison.It's much more memorable, and much easier to remember which character is which, since they do more than just sit around philosophising.It also gets bonus points from me because the male protagonist is Bulgarian, since I love Bulgaria and Bulgarians.I was surprised that Yelena and Insarov actually managed to get married, given that nearly all of the love stories in Turgenev's writing end sadly, but the end is typically Turgenev.(My third-fave writer, Chekhov, also overwhelmingly has sad or pessimistic endings, but they wouldn't be who they were if their stories had happy endings!)I also like how Turgenev has an epilogue in his books (or in this case, a conclusion which may not be labelled as an epilogue but still serves the same purpose) to let the reader know what has happened to the characters since the main story wrapped up.Instead of just ending when the plot reaches its conclusion, he lets us know what has happened to the characters we've gotten to know and love.

Takes a while to get going...
This is a short portrait of bourgeois Russian society just before the Crimean war, mainly, and its loves and hates.

The most memorable character is a young Bulgarian, who moved to Russia as a child, and decides to go back and drive out the Turks. The reader gets something of the feel of the pan-Slavic movement of the time, which drove Europe to one of its major continental wars (which led almost inevitably to WWI and II). The most memorable scenes are in Venice towards the end - I won't give too much of the plot away.

This isn't Turgenev's best work, but is worth a look, if you have enjoyed his other books. ... Read more