Fathers and Sons [antikvár]

introduction Ivan Turgenev lived largely in Baden-Baden and Paris and developed a sensibility and literary technique peculiarly akin to those of contemporary Western European writers. He was the first of the great authors of nineteenth-century Russia to make a name for himself outside his own coimtry, and his novels, which illuminate the political, social and philosophical preoccupations of the day by focusing on individual lives, became extremely influential. Conrad, Galsworthy, Virginia Woolf and George Moore are all indebted to Turgenev, and Henry James particularly admired his supreme artistic rigour and control of the elusive novel form. Turgenev's fourth novel, Fathers and Sons was first published in March of 1862. It is a story of universal significance that presents a revelation of humanity through depiction of contemporary Russian life. Turgenev conveys a striking vision of the ubiquitous clash between generations, focusing on the confhct between the younger members of the Russian inteUigentsia who became prominent after the Crimean War, and the older intellecmals who, though sympathetic to the need for reform, were fundamentally committed to both the political and aesthetic ideals of Western civilisation, and gave no quarter to talk of revolution. Objectivity was Txirgenev's great gift:, and though he himself clearly identifies with the 'fathers' of the novel, he has been much lauded for his discerning portrayal of a 'son' in the character of Bazarov. The novel was conceived during a visit to Ventoor on the Isle of Wight where Turgenev was struck by the personality of a young Russian doctor. He used attributes of this Dr Paulov, of the famous Russian critic Dobrolyubov and of the radical journaHst Preobrazhensky to create the character of the first 'nihilist' hero of Western fiction. Turgenev consciously gave even the minor figures in his novels a dioroughly sound backgroimd, building up details with punctilious