A Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), was a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons (1862) is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction.
Contents
Fathers and Sons
Rudin
A House of Gentlefolk
On the Eve
Smoke
Virgin Soil
A Sportsman's Sketches, Complete 2 Volumes (1852)
Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories (1922)
The Torrents of Spring (1897)
Dream Tales and Prose Poems (1916)
The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories (1899)
A Desperate Character and Other Stories (1899)
The Jew and Other Stories (1899)
Annouchka (1884)
A Nobleman's Nest (1858)
A Reckless Character And Other Stories (1907)
The Rendezvous (1907)
Liza or, A Nest of Nobles (1873)
Fathers and Sons -
Arkady Kirsanov has just graduated from the University of Petersburg and returns with a friend, Bazarov, to his father's modest estate in an outlying province of Russia. The father, Nikolai, gladly receives the two young men at his estate, called Marino, but Nikolai's brother, Pavel, soon becomes upset by the strange new philosophy called "nihilism" which the young men advocate.
Nikolai feels awkward with his son at home, partially because Arkady's views have dated his own beliefs, and partially because he has taken a servant, Fenichka, into his house to live with him and has already had a son by her.
The two young men remain at Marino for a short time, then decide to visit a relative of Arkady's in a neighboring province. There they observe the local gentry and meet Madame Odintsova, an elegant woman of independent means who invites them to spend a few days at her estate, Nikolskoe.
At Nikolskoe, they also meet Katya, Madame Odintsova's sister. They remain for a short period over the course of which they both change a lot, especially their relationship for each other, because they both find themselves drawn to Madame Odintsova. Bazarov in particular, finding this distressing because falling in love goes against his beliefs. Eventually, he announces that he loves her....
On the Eve -
The story revolves around Elena, a girl with a very affected mother and a father who is a retired guards lieutenant and keeps a mistress. On the eve of the Crimean War, Elena is pursued by a free-spirited sculptor (Shubin) and an uptight student (Berzeniev). But when Berzeniev's dashing Bulgarian friend Insarov meets Elena, they soon fall in love. Secretly marrying the Bulgarian revolutionary, Elena invites the ire of her parents, who had hoped to marry her to a more respectable suitor. Insarov falls ill, but partly recovers. On the outbreak of the war, Insarov's call home only complicates matters further. Insarov returns with Elena to Bulgaria, but dies on the way in Venice. Elena is never heard of again.
Rudin was the first of Turgenev’s novels, but already in this work the topic of the superfluous man and his inability to act (which became a major theme of Turgenev's literary work) was explored. Similarly to other Turgenev’s novels, the main conflict in Rudin was centred on a love story of the main character and a young, but intellectual and self-conscious woman who is contrasted with the main hero.
樂天KOBO
