Book Description
The 1860s witnessed one of the most vibrant periods in the history of modern Russian literature. This book focuses on what was arguably its most influential genre-the Russian tendentious novel. While tracing the genre's early development through works such as Fathers and Sons and Notes from Underground, it simultaneously unfolds a unique approach to reading late-nineteenth-century Russian literature by showing how rich conflicting interpretations of the classics continue to be possible and by indicating numerous deep-rooted connections between the tendentious novels of the nineteenth century and their twentieth-century literary progeny. ... Read more

Book 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

Customer Reviews (3)

chronicle of wasted time
"superfluous man " (Russian : Lishny Chelovek) : a character type whose frequent recurrence in
19th-century Russian literature is sufficiently striking to make him a national archetype. He is
usually an aristocrat, intelligent, well-educated, and informed by idealism and goodwill but
incapable, for reasons as complex as Hamlet's, of engaging in effective action.
-Encyclopaedia Britannica

In his great autobiography, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, Albert Jay Nock meant that he was
superfluous because his ideas, particularly his belief in freedom, had become so outmoded at the time
he was writing--the 1940s.But the original superfluous men were Russian nobles, who led utterly
meaningless lives of leisure, while peasants worked their land, servants took care of them, and
autocratic government mostly ignored them.They were felt to be superfluous because they had so
little to do and made so little contribution to Russian culture.For the most part though, they were
treated, in literature anyway, as kind of tragic heroes, as Russian Hamlets.

Thus, in Ivan Turgenev's novella, The Diary of a Superfluous Man, the young protagonist,
Tchulkaturin, humiliates himself in a romantic entanglement and a resulting duel, all the while
conveying the sense that there's nothing else really left for him to do with himself.Turgenev's
portrayal of this hopeless character combines tragicomedy with social criticism, but it is certainly more
sympathetic than not.

As always, Turgenev is the most accessible of Russian authors; the Constance Garnett translation is
very readable; and it is blessedly short.Even if you're, understandably, intimidated by Russian
novelists, you'll enjoy it.

GRADE : B+

First Love and The Diary of a Superfluous Man
The Diary of a Superfluous Man is a diary of a fictional 30 year old man written during the last two weeks of his life. The dying man, Tchulkaturin, is exceptionally introspective and obssessed with his sense of failure and inferiority. His heated sensibilities stifle his will. He was a particular type in Russian literature, especially hated by the reformers of the day. In their eyes, he made no social contribution--hence, the term "superfluous".
The Diary is not just a negative romp of a self-pitying aesthete. True, there's much complaints, hysteria, and sentimentality, but it's relieved by Tchulkaturin's amusing self-awareness. Likening himself to a useless fifth horse on a carriage, dragged along by life, he says, "But, thank goodness, the station is not far off." It was said that his birth was the "forfeit" his mother paid in the card game of life. Turgenev's ironic humor and relentless yet light-hearted social criticism add sharp levity.
Tchulkaturin supports his self-assessment as superfluous with the "folly" of his life, a failed three week love affair which he claims was his only happiness. Through this vehicle Turgenev explores the themes of love, passion, illusion and will versus weakness, which is also the focus of the companion story, First Love.
Tchulkaturin remembers bliss and humiliation, but he did take action. We see that no one wants to be rescued from passion, not even Tchulkaturin. Does it matter whether he reached his goal? The townspeople eventually esteemed him--perhaps he did make a social contribution and wasn't, afterall, a superfluous man. Irony upon irony and no answers.
In his small room, confronting death, Tchulkaturin realizes that none of the pathetic facts of his life matter. Yet he laments he has "gained sense" too late. He sees what things have had meaning for him. No matter how small, he wants to hold onto them--he wants to live. The tragedy is that Tchulkaturin is universal, not superfluous. He, like most of us, come to realize that it is part of the human condition to feel that happiness and life seem to have hardly begun when nearly over.
At the end of the diary, after Tchulkaturin has died, Turgenev adds another ironic touch that doubles as a social comment and as a device to force the infinitely unvarnished and necessary view that life goes on however it will, regardless of how we may think we have lived.
First Love is the story of an adolescent who falls in love with the same woman as his father. It sensitively portrays the transformation of a child to a young man, precipated by his first passion. The unusual triangle intensifies the suspence as we wonder how the son will find out who his rival is--he knows there is one. His inevitable realization deepens his emotional life and his understanding of the complexities of human life.
The story has an episodic structure from which the poetry and drama effortessly unfold, showing the son's growing love and helpless flip-flopping from child to man.The parlor games portentuously hint at the untold subplot. No character is wasted. Each has a distinct purpose for plot development and highlighting the boy's predicament.
Turgenev's incomparable nature depictions have such a clarity of vision that vivid and penetrating images automatically arise in the mind's eye whether he uses them to symbolically presage events or to reflect a character's emotional state. Or, Turgenev can use his visions of the expansive beauty of nature in opposition to the character's emotional condition to distance us from it to show human insignifcance in the face of the vastness of existence.
The pairing of The Diary with First Love is good. Each is a meditation on life, love and death. The juxtaposition of the two love stories, the neurotic dying man, the intelligent, passionate young son, and the powerful, archetypal father stimulate profound thought: How should life be lived--passionately or safely? Why to we cling to life so, no matter how we perceive it? Who decides whose life is superfluous and whose is meaningful? What are the criteria? Is any life meaningful? Does it matter how we have lived if we can discard our regrets and wonder at the paradoxical smallness and greatness of life? Is any significance we attach to life a mere crutch to face life or a crutch to face death? Each rereading of the stories reveals more perspectives and more layers of meaning.

Just get it.
You heard me. Read the headline over again, and then do what it says. ... Read more

Book Description
(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

It's clear self-sacrifice is sweet for some people
This review is about 'First Love'. It follows the reading of three other Turgenev novels - from which you can guess I like this author a lot. In the three earlier novels ('Fathers and Sons', 'Spring Torrents' and 'Virgin Soil') there is one constant theme - men rejecting women - not because they see the women as inadequate, but because they see themselves as unworthy. In this novel it is the woman who does the rejecting - and the person she rejects is herself - instead of withdrawal we now face self-sacrifice. But why did she see herself as so inadequate when she lined up the group of suitors any one of whom would have accepted her much to the envy of all the others? And her self-sacrifice - why is it to the person to whom it is made? Without any regard to the effects on others - they too are all sacrificed.

If you enjoy the company of women as I do, perhaps you will be repelled by lines such as 'fear the love of women; fear that bliss, that poison....' On the other hand this novel - despite it troubled ending - is wonderfully readable and it gave me a lot to reflect on.

Lovely for a first Turgenev
I am an avid reader of American and European fiction from the late 19th century onwards and have never delved into the Russians, so, instead of going in headlong to a War and Peace or Brothers Karamazov, i picked up the novella First Love by Turgenev. The writing is simple, the story instantly engaging and the sentiment easy enough to relate to.

Three men sit around following supper and discuss their respective first loves, neither of the first two has an interesting tale to tell, but the third has an intriguing story which he writes down and proceeds to tell us.

Aged 16 our young hero spends the summer in a cottage in the country with his rather detached parents when an aged and impoverished princess and her daughter move in next door. The daughter is beautiful, our narrator becomes infatuated and he suffers all the agony of a first love, a first realisation that such things do not always turn out as we might have hoped, and all the while struggling to understand his own life and his own relationship to his parents.

The twist in the tale is a little obvious and the extra cast of characters perhaps a little under-developed, but the central narrator is a journey through the emotions and his journey is extremely engaging. A very successful first Russian for me and i shall now move on and report back with the findings!!

Wonderful Example of a Russian Romantic
This book contains three short works that provide a wonderful example of the Russian approach to romantic literature. The form is wonderful, the characters perfectly created and the plot shores up the authors ideas with an most resonant clarity.

First love shows the blend of comedy and tragedy that is so prevalent in Russian works of the period. The events portrayed are those that could occur in daily life even to today. The emotions that are evoked are real and timeless. It surely adds proof to the argument that Russian works of this period age so much better than do those authors from other countries whose works have survived.

Spring Torrents is the longest of the works and still provides a feel that the length is exactly perfect for the tale. If the prologue does not pull you into the story you have an absences of a great concern that plagues many of us. How many of us fear reaching that point (or have reached that point)in life where we recognize all of the great loss of opportunity which has occurred in our life. From this prologue the story races along explaining how one of us has reached the position when the concern has become a reality. Wonderful feelings are evoked on the path.

This book is highly recommended for all and is a must read for the Tolstoy, Chekov, Gogol and Dostoevsky fans.

An appreciative reader writes....
First love is a wonderful evocation of youth, love and life in 19th century Russian life. I challenge anyone not to be moved by this book, which is both humorous and touchingly melencholic.

Turgenev's true-to-life writing won me over.
If reading in translation has proved difficult for you in the past,Freeborn's translation of Turgenev's short stories will suprise you in awonderful way. There were times when I forgot that I was in the process ofreading, but rather felt that these very scenes were being lived out beforeme, a bodiless and voiceless viewer.

Turgenev's understanding of andability to capture the complete emotional processes of people in love inthis collection touched me in its sincerity and genuine clarity. All theinsane, skipping-over-themselves thoughts and quick jealousies that peopleexperience are completely captured in stories like "First Love"and "Diary of a Superfluous Man."

Turgenev is a greatintroduction to Russian fiction. I'm sorry that I didn't discover himearlier. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (11)

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.

"During the past month, I had grown much older..."
Turgenev's brief novel, "First Love" is about growing older and lossing innocence. Vladimir, the central character who tells the story, makes a large memory excersice to remember, to write and to communicate his unusual first love experience when he was sixteen. He does that in beautiful prose, realistic and lyric simultaneusly.

Love in this novel for Vladimir ismainly an emotional experience, not physichal. There is no sex and, more important, not explicit sexual desire. This could be considered old fashioned or artificial by contemporary readers but somehow Turgenev manages to make it credible and moving.

The translation by Isaiah Berlin is excellent, at least much better that the one I've read into Spanish. ... Read more

Book Description
Debate over the representation of Jews in Russian literature has long been dominated by the dichotomy of anti- and philo-Semitic discourses. Rather than analyzing "the image of the Jew" in terms of negative or positive characteristics, and branding the authors respectively as anti- or philo-Semitic, Elena M. Katz explores the complex and the ambiguous construction of Jewishness as "Otherness" in the works of three of Russia's greatest nineteenth-century authors. Katz identifies Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Turgenev as creators of special modes of Jewish discourse in Russian literature. She tackles traditional tropes of Jews in light of the sociohistoric and cultural contexts of the time and of the writers' own politics and aesthetics. ... Read more