Ivan Turgenev

[SFG75]

Just had to start a thread on him, a great writer of the 19th century. I truly enjoyed Fathers and Sons and the reading of the various interpretations of how political factions in Russia read "into" the book more than what was there. Leave it to Turgenev to be misunderstood.l


Turgenev Wikipedia page.

University of Adelaide online Turgenev texts

Amazon.com search page for Turgenev

 

[LS Collison]

I really enjoyed "First Love," a supposedly autobiographical, coming-of-age piece. I really enjoy such intensely personal novels, when written with the exquisite economy Turgenev employs.
Linda Collison/Star-Crossed (Alfred A. Knopf)

 

[Heteronym]

Fathers and Sons just didn't enthrall me. If this is the origin of Nihilism, then I don't see what's all the fuss about. Bazarov's philosophy doesn't seem particularly threatening, fascinating or repulsive. It's just... just.

Hardly seem slike the Great Demon that Dostoevsky is always beating on in his novels, like it threatened to take over the world. Interesting too that Dostoevky, although opposed to Nihilism, created some far more interesting nihilists: Raskolnikov, Stavrogin, Stepanovitch, etc.