Ivan
Turgenev
Source: New World Encyclopaedia
Ivan
Sergeyevich Turgenev (Russian: Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́нев) (November 9, 1818 –
September 3, 1883) was a Russian realistic novelist, poet, and playwright.
A social reformer, Turgenev occupied an uneasy
position between old-guard Tsarist rule and increasingly fashionable political
radicalism. Turgenev's novels were less ambitious than the vast canvasses of
his great contemporaries Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. Also unlike these
writers, Turgenev was less nationalistic or preoccupied by Russia's religious
identity.
Signature1. What
is Ivan Turgenev known for?
Ivan
Turgenev is known for being a prominent Russian novelist and playwright,
particularly renowned for his works focusing on social issues and the human
condition.
2. What
are some of Ivan Turgenev's famous literary works?
Some of
Ivan Turgenev's famous literary works include "Fathers and Sons,"
"A Month in the Country," "Rudin," and "On the
Eve."
3. How
did Ivan Turgenev's writing style influence Russian literature?
Ivan
Turgenev's writing style, characterized by realism and psychological depth, had
a significant impact on Russian literature, influencing future generations of
writers and contributing to the development of the Russian novel.
4. What
themes did Ivan Turgenev often explore in his works?
Ivan
Turgenev often explored themes such as love, social class, generational
conflict, and the complexities of human relationships in his literary works.
5. How
did Ivan Turgenev's works contribute to the Russian literary canon?
Ivan
Turgenev's works are considered essential contributions to the Russian literary
canon due to their insightful depiction of society, vivid characterizations,
and lasting relevance to contemporary readers.
Born into
a wealthy family with an estate of 5,000 serfs and educated in St. Petersburg
and Germany, Turgenev eventually settled in Paris, where he became friends with
the French novelist Gustave Flaubert. He shared the French writer's largely
pessimistic political sentiments as well as Flaubert's rigorous aesthetic
principles. Called by Henry James a "novelist's novelist," Turgenev
authored spare, carefully crafted works, Russian in subject matter but informed
by attachments to Western political and social trends. Turgenev's early
short-story collection, A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), presented an
affectionate, liberal-minded picture of the peasantry, helped educate the intelligentsia
about the plight of Russian serfs, and is thought to have contributed to their
eventual emancipation by Alexander II in 1861.
Turgenev's
best-known novel, Fathers and Sons (1862), is among the most important works of
nineteenth century fiction. Set during the period of social unrest following
Russia's defeat in the Crimean War, the central character, Bazarov, became the
archetype of the nineteenth century nihilist (a word first popularized by
Turgenev) and has been described as the "first Bolshevik" in Russian
literature.
The character type was more fully realized in
the works of Dostoyevsky and Joseph Conrad, as well as later existential
fiction.
Contents
1 Life
2 Early
career
3 Fathers
and Sons
4 Later
career
5
Bibliography
Significantly,
Turgenev portrayed the ineffectiveness of the older generation of liberal
reformers as the background for the rise of radicals for whom institutions of
authority were beyond reform. The rise of political radicalism and violence,
culminating in the Russian Revolution, was anticipated in this early work.
Life
1844
Turgenev
was born on November 9, 1818, into an old and wealthy family who owned a large
estate in Orel, Russia. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, a colonel of a
cavalry regiment, died when he was sixteen, leaving Turgenev and his brother
Nicholas to be brought up under the care of their abusive mother, Varvara
Petrovna Lutovinova, who owned large estates and many serfs. After the normal
schooling for a child of a gentleman's family, Turgenev studied for a year at
the University of Moscow, then the University of St. Petersburg focusing on the
classics, Russian literature, and philology. He was finally sent, in 1838, to
the University of Berlin. There, his studies focused sharply on the philosophy
of Hegel and history. Turgenev was impressed with the more modern society he
witnessed in Western Europe, returning home a committed
"Westernizer." He believed that Russia could improve itself by
imitating the West and abolishing outdated institutions such as serfdom.
Turgenev's early attempts in literature, poems, and sketches had indications of genius and were favourably spoken of by Belinsky, then the leading Russian critic. During the latter part of his life, Turgenev did not reside much in Russia; he lived either at Baden-Baden or Paris, often in proximity to the family of the celebrated singer Pauline Viardot, for whom the author harbored an ardent, life-long admiration. His advances were rebuffed, but Turgenev became a family friend. Turgenev never married, although he had a daughter with one of his family's serfs. Tall and broad, Turgenev's personality was timid, restrained, and soft-spoken. His closest literary friend was Gustave Flaubert. Turgenev occasionally visited England, and in 1879, the degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford.
Doctor Literature 1879
He died at Bougival, near Paris, on
September 4, 1883.
Early
career
Turgenov 1843
Turgenev
made his name with A Sportsman's Sketches (Записки охотника), also known as
Sketches From a Hunter's Album or Notes of a Hunter. Based on the author's own
observations while sport hunting birds and hares in his mother's estate of
Spasskoye, the work appeared in a collected form in 1852. As a writer, Turgenev
excelled at description, especially landscape. He did not care for the complex
psychological portraits of Russia's other great nineteenth century novelists,
Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. His talent did not lie in that direction,
but in his ability to evoke a mood and paint a verbal portrait of the Russian
countryside. His style of writing was unique. He kept a notebook of
descriptions that he would fit into appropriate places in his novels. He did
not really consider himself a novelist, and his novels were quite slender in
comparison to most nineteenth century Russian novels. He wrote many short
stories as well. His novels, like his short stories, were based on rather
simple plots, closer to drama than most novels, with fewer characters and
subplots.
In 1852,
after publication of his sketches, he wrote a now notorious obituary to his idol
Nikolai Gogol in the St. Petersburg Gazette. The key passage reads: “Gogol is
dead!…what Russian heart is not shaken by those three words? …He is gone, that
man whom we now have the right, the bitter right given to us by death, to call
great.” For reasons known only to the censors, its publication was banned and
the young writer landed in prison for a month. Afterwards, he was forced into
exile at his estate for nearly two years.
His
novel, Rudin, was important not for its artistic merit, but because it told the
story of the so-called men of the 1840s, the generation of Russian liberals
that opposed the authoritarian regime of the arch conservative Tsar Nicholas I
but were generally weak and ineffective in their opposition. This spawned a
type of character that would be popularized in certain nineteenth century
Russian novels, the "superfluous man." This character is idealistic
but unable to effect any positive changes. Rudin is a good example. He is no
longer young, but at 35, he still hangs on to his ideals yet is unable to act
on them. What might have seemed noble for a student appears slightly ridiculous
in a middle-aged man. When Natasha, a young woman, is inspired by his dreams
and offers to elope with him, he is unable to muster the courage of his
convictions in order to act, preferring to remain alone with his ideals.
His next
work was A Nest of Nobles (Дворянское гнездо) in 1859, and was followed the
next year by On the Eve (Накануне), a tale which contains another of his
beautiful female characters, Helen. On the whole, Turgenev's female characters
are more noble and resolute than the males. On the Eve (of reform) portrayed
the Bulgarian revolutionary Dmitri, continuing Turgenev's interest in social
and political topics that made him quite popular in his day.
Fathers
and Sons
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In 1862,
his best and most successful novel, Fathers and Sons (Отцы и дети), was
published. The novel takes up the social themes of the day, but as the title
suggests, it is structured around a generational gap between two brothers, both
"men of the 40s" and two representatives of the new radical
intelligentsia, or "men of the 60s." Arkady Kirsanov is the son of a
well-to-do landowner who invites his friend Bazarov to stay the summer with him
at his family estate. This sets up a series of encounters with Arkady's father
and especially his uncle, Pavel. Bazarov is a nihilist whose ideas elicit a
heated response from Pavel. For the most part, Bazarov is more intelligent and
gets the best of Pavel, leading to heated exchanges. When Pavel suspects
Bazarov of trying to seduce his brother's mistress and challenges him to a
duel, he is slightly wounded, but his ego takes a more grievous hit. However,
while Bazarov easily bests Pavel, professing no belief other than science while
dismissing liberal culture, he nonetheless falls in love with Madame Odintsova.
She rejects him and, heartbroken, he lets himself go. Failing to dress a wound
inflicted while dissecting a corpse, his wound becomes infected and he dies.
Bazarov is heralded by many as one of the finest characters of the nineteenth
century novel, but he was not accepted by the younger generation, who thought
that Turgenev was mocking them. Turgenev's more conservative readers did not
appreciate his treatment of Pavel. They saw in him a caricature of their
romantic idealism. The stinging criticism, especially from younger radicals,
disappointed Turgenev and he wrote very little in the years following Fathers
and Sons.
Later
career
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Turgenev's
later novels, with their antiquated language and stilted situations, are
considered inferior to his earlier efforts. Smoke (Дым) was published in 1867,
and his last work of any length, Virgin Soil (Новь), was published in 1877.
Aside from his longer stories, many shorter ones were produced, some of great
beauty and full of subtle psychological analysis, such as Torrents of Spring
(Вешние воды), First Love, Asya, and others. These were later collected into
three volumes. His last works were Poems in Prose and Clara Milich, which
appeared in the European Messenger. Turgenev is considered one of the great
Victorian novelists, ranked with Thackeray, Hawthorne, and Henry James. A
melancholy tone pervades his writings, conveying a tone of lost ideals and weakness.
Other Facts about Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev had a passion for hunting and spent a significant amount of time in the countryside pursuing this hobby, which often inspired his writings.
Bibliography
Novels
1857—Rudin
1859—Дворянское
гнездо (Dvoryanskoye Gnezdo or Home of the Gentry, A Nest of Gentlefolk, or A
Nest of Nobles)
1860—Накануне
(Nakanune or On the Eve)
1862—Отцы
и дети (Ottsy i Deti or Fathers and Sons)
1867—Дым
(Dym or Smoke)
1877—Новь
(Virgin Soil)
Short
Stories
1850—Dnevnik
Lishnego Cheloveka (The Diary of a Superfluous Man)
1851—Provintsialka
(The Provincial Lady)
1852—Записки
охотника (Zapiski Okhotnika or A Sportsman's Sketches)
1858—Acia
(Asia )
1860—Pervaia
Liubov' (First Love)
1870—Stepnoy
Korol' Lir (A Lear of the Steppes)
1872—Вешние
воды (Veshinye Vody or Torrents of Spring or Spring Torrents)
1881—Pesn'
Torzhestvuiushchei Liubvi (The Song of the Triumphant Love)
1882—Klara
Milich (The Mysterious Tales)
Plays
1849/1856—Zavtrak
u Predvoditelia
1850/1851—Razgovor
na Bol'shoi Doroge (A Conversation on the Highway)
1846/1852—Bezdenezh'e
(The Poor Gentleman)
1857/1862—Nakhlebnik
(The Family Charge)
1855/1872—Mesiats
v Derevne (A Month in the Country)
1882—Vecher
V Sorrente (An Evening in Sorrento)
Membered Ivan Turgenev
This
article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a
publication now in the public domain.
With affection,
Ruben
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