Essential Turgenev

by Ivan Turgenev, Elizabeth Cheresh Allen (Editor)

The Essential Turgenev will provide American readers with the first comprehensive, portable edition of this great Russian author's works. It offers an extensive introduction to the writings that established Turgenev as one of the preeminent literary figures of his time, and reveals the breadth of insight into changing social conditions that made Turgenev a portal to Russian intellectual life.

Readers will find complete, exemplary translations of Turgenev's finest novels, Rudin, A Nest of Gentry, and Fathers and Sons, along with the lapidary novella First Love. The volume also includes selections from Sportsman's Sketches, seven of Turgenev's most compelling short stories, and fifteen prose poems. It also contains samples of the author's nonfiction drawn from autobiographical sketches, memoirs, public speeches, plus the influential essay "Hamlet and Don Quixote" and correspondence with Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and others.

Genres: Literature, Fiction, Russian Literature

885 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Cyrillic: Иван Сергеевич Тургенев) was a novelist, poet, and dramatist, and now ranks as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. His major works include the short-story collection A Sportsman’s Sketches (1852) and the novels Rudin (1856), Home of the Gentry (1859), On the Eve (1860), and Fathers and Sons (1862).

These works offer realistic, affectionate portrayals of the Russian peasantry and penetrating studies of the Russian intelligentsia who were attempting to move the country into a new age. His masterpiece, Fathers and Sons, is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.

Turgenev was a contemporary with Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. While these wrote about church and religion, Turgenev was more concerned with the movement toward social reform in Russia.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took forever to read because it includes 4 or 5 of his novels, some short essays, and letters to other Russian authors. It was super long and I had to take breaks between novels. But I did it. I finally finished it.

Turgenev does this thing in his writing where he acknowledges that he is telling you a story every once in a while. He doesn't quite insert himself into the book. He just calls the reader's attention to the storyteller function. It's super charming, since he does it so sparingly--maybe once or twice in the course of a novel. But each time it made me happy.

In the past, I have really disliked books that deal with aristocratic people because their stupid social norms stop them from saying what they mean. Often the main problem in the story would be solved if two people just sat down and had a conversation. I never felt like that with the novels in this collection. I was never exasperated by the social conventions and I genuinely grew to care about some of his characters.

I enjoyed Turgenev's books much more than I had expected.

[Keely]

It seems poignant that I finished my 30th Turgenev novel/novella/play/collection the day after I turned 30. I read my first Turgenev at the age of 23 and I have been reading my way through this collection, and others, since then. He has become someone I admire for his artistry, for his wisdom and for his lifelong passion for social reform... He is someone I turn to when I need answers to the questions life asks of you. All I can say is I wouldn't be the person I am today without his words and I think that is the beauty of finding that one writer who you feel can see your soul - even if they are no longer here.

I look forward to the next 30 stories of his I am yet to discover (did this man ever sleep) and I know ill be the better for it.

[Asyoulikeit · Rating 5 out of 5]

in the past month I've been reading his works and still can't get past this profoundly sensitive gentle soul. Turgenev is the answer for those who consider Dostoevsky to be a sort of a whiner and/or find Tolstoy too preachy.