Classics of Russian Literature | The Stresses between Two Generations (Lecture 23)

Lecture 23: In addition to a series of extremely finely crafted short stories and novellas, Turgenev wrote several relatively short novels. One of them, Fathers and Sons of 1861, was destined to become one of Europe’s defining moments in 19th-century prose. Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, as well as many Western writers, took the form and ideas of this novel as a basis for their own work.

With his invention of the political word nihilist - one who wants to destroy all present institutions - Turgenev managed to touch the essence of the biblical question from Genesis 22:1−18, the story that relates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son. Any binding (the Hebrew title Akedah means “binding”) between generations requires not only accord but also friction that can even threaten to become mortal. It is the latter that we see in Fathers and Sons. Bazarov and the Kirsanov family become the modern characters in this universal drama.

Suggested Reading:
V. S. Pritchett, The Gentle Barbarian: The Life and Work of Turgenev.
Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons (A Norton Critical Edition), edited and translated by Ralph Matlaw, collected critical articles at the end of the Norton Critical Edition.