Отцы и дети
1867
- fiction
- social life and customs
- fathers and sons
- social conditions
- nihilism (philosophy)
- correspondence
- russian language
- texts
- readers
- translations into english
The story
Fathers and Sons takes the conflict between generations as its subject. The novel's central characters, Yevgeny Bazarov and his disciple and fellow student, Arkady Kirsanov, are self-proclaimed Nihilists: repudiators of all the received truths of art, religion, and politics-all claims to truth, in fact, except those verifiable by scientific experiment. Turgenev thrusts his snarling young radicals into the venerable world of fathers when Bazarov accompanies Arkady to the Kirsanov country estate. The visit inevitably turns sour, and Arkady's Uncle Pavel and Bazarov find themselves at one another's metaphysical throats. Their disagreements escalate into a dangerous confrontation.When Fathers and Sons was published in 1862, it enveloped its author in a storm of controversy. Those on the political right saw it as a dangerous glorification of nihilism, whereas those on the political left believed it to be a vicious caricature of the progressives of the younger generation. Today, the novel continues to engage us with its vital characters and subtle handling of universal themes.
What it’s like
Long summer afternoons on a provincial estate, with birch groves, lilac hedges, and dusty drawing rooms where the light falls slantwise through old windows. The prose is clear, measured and quietly ironic, the sentences balanced and unhurried, with the sensory world rendered in small precise strokes: a horse-drawn carriage on a country road, tea going cold, the smell of cut hay after rain. Much of the book is talk, sharp exchanges over dinner tables and in gardens, so the rhythm is conversational and the mood is wry, melancholy and reflective, with the odd flash of tension when an argument tips toward something more dangerous. Its people are shown changing slowly, young certainties worn down by love and loss, older habits giving way to grief and tenderness. Violence is limited to a single duel and a death from illness, both handled with restraint, so the register is gentle rather than frightening. It suits a slow weekend, a long train journey, or an evening alone with a pot of tea. It is for readers who enjoy character-driven literary fiction, intelligent debate, and the bittersweet pull of family and generational rift.
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