Отцы и дети

About this book

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.

Themes & subjects

About the author

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Russian: Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́нев) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West. His first major publication, a short story collection titled A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), was a milestone of Russian realism. His novel Fathers and Sons (1862) is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction.