Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (????? ??????j???? ?????????, November 9, 1818, Orel, Russia - September 3, 1883, Bougival, near Paris, France ) was a major Russian novelist and playwright. Although his reputation has suffered some setbacks during the last century, the novel Fathers and Sons should still be regarded as one of the defining works of the 19th-century fiction.

Assessment

Unquestionably Turgenev may be considered one of the great Victorian novelists, worthy to be ranked with Thackeray, Hawthorne, and Henry James; he has many affinities with the genius of the latter. His studies of human nature are profound, and he has the wide sympathies which are considered essential to genius of the highest order. A melancholy, almost pessimistic, tone pervades his writings, a morbid self-analysis which seems natural to the Slavonic mindset. Yet, ideologically speaking, Turgenev remained the Russian liberal who wanted to see progressive change in authoritarian and technologically backward Russia yet was also opposed to the new political radicalism which was emerging. The closing chapter of Fathers and Sons, his great masterful statement on this radicalism, is one of the saddest and at the same time truest pages in the entire collection of existing novels.

Related Topics:
Victorian - Thackeray - Hawthorne - Henry James - Self-analysis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~