How does he compare to the other Russian big boys and what stories would you recommend?
How does he compare to the other Russian big boys and what stories would you recommend?
I think Turgenev is a lesser writer than Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky ....
but others have a different opinion. Read his two short novels The Torrents of Spring and Fathers and Sons, then form your own opinion. He also wrote some short stories.
I am still realtively new to Russian litature so I do not have a lot in which I can use to compare and judge, but I can say that I abolsutely loved Fathers and Sons and thought it was a fabulous book.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
I didn't like Fathers and Sons as much as the works of Chekhov, Tolstoy, or Dostoevsky. But it's a quick & easy read, and worth investigating. The main character Bazarov is often p9nted to as the standard portrait of a nihilist. But his nihilistic negation of the spiritual realm of life gets little consideration in the novel. So its very low key compared to the spiritual struggles that Dostevsky's characters go through, and the novel has nothing like the scale and variety shown in Tolstoy's novels. The characters are rather bland compared to Chekhov's.
I love Fathers and Sons, i rate it up there with the best Russian novels i have read.
I really liked Fathers and Sons and The Torrents of Spring, but I haven't read any Dostoevsky and very little Tolstoy so I can't really say how Turgenev compares to them.
Try Tolstoy "The Cossacks" and Dostoevsky "Notes from the Underground" - Two short novels with a similar, perplexed young hero. For Chekhov try "Ward No. 6 and Other Stories". Turgenev isn't bad, but these works are as good as it gets.Originally Posted by Zach J.
I liked Fathers and Sons, which is the only Turgenev I've read. I thought of it as Russians-lite. It reminded me a bit of Austen, but I didn't loathe all of the characters the way I do in all of her books.
"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult."
~E.B. White
First thing I read by Turgenev was First Love (which is only about 100 pages). I'd recommend that as a good place to start.
"Yes, I was never silent, whatever I said I was never silent" Samuel Beckett Molloy
Anything to say about different translations? Is there a pevear and volonofsky or a facsimile for Turgenev?
It's difficult to compare Turgenev and Dostoevskiy. They are too different, they also look at Russia from different points of view- while Turgenev is definitely a Westerner ("Zapadnik"), Dostoevsky is a Slavyanofil. I've read a lot by Dostoevsky and "Fathers and Sons" and "Rudin" from Turgenev novels. Even though philosophically Turgenev is much easier understandable, I haven't felt the same deepeness, even though Feodor Mikhailovich is a nationalistic antisemitic crazy man.... The modern comparison I've read in Tsypkin's "Summer in Baden Baden" (highly reccomended book about Dostoevsky) is the difference in views between Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn.
I actually have copies of "Notes from the Underground" and "Ward No. 6 and Other Stories" laying on my shelf waiting to be read.
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