Turgenev Ivan

Ivan Tourgueniev na t Orel ( 350 km au sud de Moscou) en 1818, de Serge Nicola vitch (1793-1834) et Varvara Petrovna Loutovinova (1787-1850). Son p re, officier sup rieur, est issu d'une grande famille aristocratique d'origine tatare, tablie Toula; sa m re, d'une famille de noblesse de service d'Orel, d'origine lituanienne, orpheline 16 ans, est une riche propri taire terrienne, poss dant 5 000 mes. Tout oppose le p re de l' crivain, bel officier, l gant, voire eff min , effac en famille, de sa m re, plus g e, brutale pomi chtchika (propri taire), tyrannique jusque dans sa propre famille, aux traits grossiers: c'est un mariage d'int r t pour le descendant des khans de la Horde d'or.

A delight for dog-lovers, with a passing interest for dog-haters, this collection is published for the first time in English, in a new translation. Turgenev's Mumu is rescued from drowning by a mute serf, Gerasim, and quickly becomes his closest friend and comforter until Gerasim's mistress intervenes with tragic consequences. Shchedrin's Trezor is the perfect embodiment of canine fidelity, carrying out his duties to the letter, despite being chained up, badly treated and sometimes not even fed. Chekhov's Kashtanka, when lost, is taken in by a circus clown and trained for an act in the ring. However, she prefers to return to her former abusive master, sitting in the audience at her first performance, rather than remain with her new caring, thoughtful owner. These stories have long been held in high esteem, tugging at the readers' heartstrings. When Turgenev died in 1883 a wreath was sent to the grave of 'the author of Moomoo' by British Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

On one level the novel is about the homecoming of Lavretsky, who, broken and disillusioned by a failed marriage, returns to his estate and finds love again - only to lose it. The sense of loss and of unfulfilled promise, beautifully captured by Turgenev, reflects his underlying theme that humanity is not destined to experience happiness except as something ephemeral and inevitably doomed. On another level Turgenev is presenting the homecoming of a whole generation of young Russians who have fallen under the spell of European ideas that have uprooted them from Russia, their 'home', but have proved ultimately superfluous. In tragic bewilderment, they attempt to find reconciliation with their land.

Ivan Turgenev's first literary masterpiece is a sweeping portrayal of the magnificent nineteenth-century Russian countryside and the harsh lives of those who inhabited it. In a series of sketches, a hunter wanders through the vast landscape of steppe and forest in search of game, encountering a varied cast of peasants, landlords, bailiffs, overseers, horse traders, and merchants. He witnesses both feudal tyranny and the fatalistic submission of the tyrannized, against a backdrop of the sublime and pitiless terrain of rural Russia. These beautifully embellished, evocative stories were not only universally popular with the reading public but, through the influence they exerted on important members of the Tsarist bureaucracy, contributed to the major political event of mid-nineteenth-century Russia, the Great Emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Rarely has a book that offers such undiluted literary pleasure also been so strong a force for significant social change. With an introduction by Ivan Turgenev, this version was translated by Charles and Natasha Hepburn.

When Arkady Petrovich comes home from college, his father finds his eager, naive son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen under the powerful influence of the friend accompanying him. A self-proclaimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father by criticizing the landowning way of life and by his outspoken determination to sweep away the traditional values of contemporary Russian society. Turgenev's depiction of the conflict between generations and their ideals stunned readers when "Fathers and Sons" was first published in 1862. But many could sympathize with Arkady's fascination with the nihilistic hero whose story vividly captures the hopes and regrets of a changing Russia.