A Sportsman´s Sketches

A Sportsman's Sketches

by Ivan Turgenev

Reproduction of the A Sportsman´s Sketches by Ivan Turgenev

Genres: Classic Literature

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2015

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

[Mollee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. Like with many short story collections, you have some that hit you hard, some that are fun to read, and some that you finish because they are short. I really liked The End of Chertopkhanov and The Living Relic the most, they’ve stuck best in my memory in the weeks since I’ve finished this. Turgenev’s style is so well-balanced, I find that it primes you for feeling rather than makes you feel, it sets up for the punchline and you punch yourself in a way.

[Lance Kinzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not every story is equally strong. But the best, like “A Living Relic” are exceptional.

[Katharine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still an amazing achievement, nearly 200 years on. The complete edition of this collection of stories is not widely available, and not really necessary for the non-specialist reader. However, having only read an abbreviated edition in high school and then again in college, I wanted to find out about the bits that had been missing, so when I found this Constance Garnett translation on the shelves in a summer house, I just had to pick it up and reread it. Still brilliant. The description of the conditions of life for the peasants encountered by our nameless sportsman in his search for ever more birds is truly appalling, and in fact this book was Russia's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in terms of creating an urgent call for the end of serfdom in the educated classes. The nature descriptions are some of the best I've read ever.

[Rohit Rai]

Russian countryside literature is one of those things that makes you nostalagic for these places you never visited.
You feel like you are sitting amidst that dewy freshness, the rolling openness, the vibrant sky and those slow-paced people. Words feel trite. You have to read it to know it.

[James Badger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the volume in which Turgenev hid all his non-cardboard women. Even so, I think I enjoyed putting this book down just slightly more than I enjoyed picking it up.