“Stirs the mind…because everything is permeated with the most complete and most touching sincerity.” Dmitri Pisarev, Russian writer and social critic
Description
One of the most controversial Russian novels ever written, Fathers and Sons dramatizes the volcanic social conflicts that divided Russia just before the revolution, pitting peasants against masters, traditionalists against intellectuals, and fathers against sons. It is also a timeless depiction of the ongoing clash between generations.
When a young graduate returns home, he is accompanied—much to his father and uncle's discomfort—by a strange friend who does not acknowledge any authority and does not accept any principle on faith. Bazarov is a nihilist, representing the new class of youthful radical intelligentsia that would come to overthrow the Russian aristocracy and its values. Uncouth and forthright in his opinions, Turgenev's hero is nonetheless susceptible to love and, by that fact, doomed to unhappiness.
Praise
“Stirs the mind…because everything is permeated with the most complete and most touching sincerity.” Dmitri Pisarev, Russian writer and social critic
“No fiction writer can be read through with a steadier admiration.” Edmund Wilson, American writer
“[A novel of] profound vitality.” N. N. Strakhov, Russian philosopher and literary critic
“Vividly portrays the unsettled state of Russian peasantry before the revolution.” Masterpieces of World Literature
“The subtlety and rightness of Turgenev’s technique is most clearly seen in the central character Bazarov…a prefiguration of twentieth-century man.” Masterpieces of World Literature
Details
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Release Day | Jun 1, 2011 |
| Release Date | June 2, 2011 |
| Release Date Machine | 1306972800 |
| Imprint | Blackstone Publishing |
| Provider | Blackstone Publishing |
| Categories | Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, Classics, Literary Fiction, Literature & Fiction, Classics, Evergreen Classics, Evergreen Classics, Literature & Fiction, Classics, Fiction - All, Fiction - Adult |
Author Bio
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818–1883) was the first Russian writer to gain a wide reputation in Europe. He witnessed the February Revolution in Paris (1848), and his subsequent connection with reform groups in Russia, along with his sympathetic 1852 eulogy of Nikolai Gogol (who satirized the corrupt bureaucracy of the Russian empire), led to his arrest and one-month imprisonment in St. Petersburg. In 1879 the honorary degree of doctor of civil law was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford.
Narrator Bio
Anthony Heald, an Audie Award–winning narrator, has earned Tony nominations and an Obie Award for his theater work; appeared in television’s Law & Order, The X-Files, Miami Vice, and Boston Public; and starred as Dr. Frederick Chilton in the 1991 Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs. He has also won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards for his narrations.
Overview
One of the most controversial Russian novels ever written, Fathers and Sons dramatizes the volcanic social conflicts that divided Russia just before the revolution, pitting peasants against masters, traditionalists against intellectuals, and fathers against sons. It is also a timeless depiction of the ongoing clash between generations.
When a young graduate returns home, he is accompanied—much to his father and uncle's discomfort—by a strange friend who does not acknowledge any authority and does not accept any principle on faith. Bazarov is a nihilist, representing the new class of youthful radical intelligentsia that would come to overthrow the Russian aristocracy and its values. Uncouth and forthright in his opinions, Turgenev's hero is nonetheless susceptible to love and, by that fact, doomed to unhappiness.
Reviews
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