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Summary: Great philosophy and characterization
Review: the only flaw is that he is a horrible prose writer. The first nihilist in lit (1861) is a biology major, who knew?
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Summary: A great piece of Russian literature.
Review: What I love about Turgenev is his prose. Unlike other Russian authors, Turgenev's prose is clear, concise, and stays away from needless details. I would highly recommend this book, or any of his others, to those who, in the past, have disliked Russian literature.
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Summary: Insights Into Nihilism and Its Implications
Review: In this novel, Turgenev names, defines, and discusses the concept "nihilism." This book belongs in the same league with Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and Camus' "The Stranger," as a masterpiece that successfully marries literature, philosophy, and valuable psychological insights. Through the character of Bazarov we also get a whiff of the character of the Russian society--and not just of the mid 19th century, but also of the Russian society today--a society chosen by history to be a place of drastic measures and extremes. It is no wonder that since Turgenev's time, Russian society and its intellectuals have oscillated between anarchy and tyranny, idealism and cynicism. Turgenev, who came from a wealthy family and never needed to write to make a living, nevertheless was a prolific author, and with this novel he made a significant contribution to Russian and world literature.
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Summary: an ageless look at intergenerational conflict
Review: I'm still a little disoriented at this Amazon site. I'm not sure if this is the Edmonds translation circa 1960s or not. That is when I first read this novel and it is the copy I still own. The Penguin Classics version is the one I am referring to. I've written other critiques, thinking I was talking about Penguins, only to subsequently discover I was on the wrong entry. If this is indeed the Edmonds-Penguin edition, let me first refer the reader to the eloquent and unsurpassed introduction by Isaiah Berlin. It runs for 50+ pages, but is the most precise, uncorrupted look at mid-19th century Russian literature that I have come across. If you want a supreme overview by a great thinker on a great subject, go directly to this introduction, do not pass go. If you have even indirectly perused The New York Review of Books, you know who Berlin is, and how revered a thinker he is. Here he sums up pre-revolutionary Russia in a few pithy phrases. He also speaks for me and for those of my particular generation who are caught between ideologies, as the "liberals" in Turgenev's time were. On Turgenev, the author: "He went on believing - perhaps this was a relic of his Hegelian youth - that no issue was closed for ever, that every thesis must be weighed against its antithesis, that systems and absolutes of every kind - social aand political no less than religious - were a form of dangerous idolatry." This is a novel about a "superfluous" man who was trapped between ideologies in 19th centrury Russia, when the young "nihilists" were at odds with the old-line liberals. This is what makes the novel so relevant in any age. There are always going to be clashes between generations and between those who hope for the "de-struction" of an old edifice for an only partially imagined design for a new one. Turgenev presents us with perhaps the most truthful representation of this timeless, generational conflict. Russian literature is essentially a triumvirate : Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev. If I were a manager, I would probably have Turgenev bat leadoff. He gets his point across better than the other two, though he doesn't have the bat speed. Chekov or Pushkin (though not in the triumvirate) could bat second, depending on who was hot at the time. I would have a really difficult time deciding between Tolstoy or Dostoevsky for clean-up hitter. E-mail me for your votes. I would also like some reader feedaback as to the origin of the word "nihilst" or nihilism. I doubt sincerely whether Turgenev coined the term. It sounds more like Bakunin or Herzen to me. What are your thoughts on the subject?
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Summary: Old vs. New
Review: Fathers and Sons is the story of two friends, Eugene Bazarov and Arcady Kirsanov, and how they relate to the older generation and each other. It is also a story about the changes that were taking place in mid-19th century Russia.Arcady and Bazarov have come home from college for the summer to visit their families. What we see by their visits are the ways in which the older and the younger generations are always struggling for control. This struggle is really shown in the disagreements between Bazarov and Arcady's uncle, Paul. Underneath this struggle is the omnipresent Russian literary theme of the family. Arcady is torn bewteen his new friend and his family. He makes attempts at defending his uncle while at the same time holding true to the principles espoused by Bazarov. The ending to Fathers and Sons gives a good account of what is needed to really change a society completely. It is the break from all ties and family affections that is needed. Those that cannot make the break will fall back into the typical idiosyncrasies of the previous generation. Those that can make the break may create a new society; but, they are oftentimes destroyed in the process.
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Summary: Wonderful, emotional book of family love
Review: It's easy to get lost in a sub-plot and believe that this book is about a sociopolitical clash between the old and the new, with the new being a nihilist forerunner of Russian revolution. But the book is extremely weak in the area of political discussion. As a political statement this book would be a dismal failure. Fortunately, the little bit of oversimplified politics that was tossed carelessly into the book is fairly irrelevant to the story. This book is as good as anything ever produced in Russian literature, in the class of Solzhenitsyn, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. It's good because it's emotional. For me, the main character is one who appears for a very short time and seems to be a minor character - Bazarov's father. His love of his son, and the relationship between Arkady and his father, are what the book is named after, and what it's about. I love the protest that Bazarov's father makes to God. Two school graduates, Arkady and Bazarov, return home to their families after years away at school. Nihilist Bazarov clashes with Arkady's traditionalist uncle, but don't all generations clash a little over something. That's part of the relationship. Both young men fall in love with local women. I think Arkady and Katia would be great together. She would treat him like a king and lead him by the nose, and he would adore her his whole life and do whatever she told him to do.
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Summary: This is one of the worst books I've ever read!
Review: This book had no charater and no style it was dull and very boring. I think this book should be taken out of libraries and boostores etc.
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Summary: My favorite novel of all time
Review: Turgenev was a genius. His characters are well drawn, the plots well-constructed, the prose beautiful; the conversations, descriptions, historical interest and character development are fabulous. Evey character has an unmistakable humanity about him; Bazarov the nihilist and Petrovich the Romantic are both fundamentally decent, though not perfect, people. I can't understand anyone not enjoying the novel. Not a good novel for the beach? That's not what it was written for, folks, and I wouldn't want salt water getting on my copy anyway.
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Summary: A Bunch of Euro Trash Wanting to be French.
Review: Half backed, zanny at times but overall extremely boring for an IB ENGLISH student, I know my expertees are high school and nothing more, I don't recomend this book, if you want to read a book for the beach this one is surely not it.
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Summary: A must for the Russian Literature Lover
Review: 'Fathers and Sons' by Turgenev is no doubt a very importnat book - considered to be Turgenev best work, it features beautiful poetic descriptions, very sharp and wiity dialogues, poignant characters - some spiky and some very soft, and conflicts that will never die and remain relevant until today (like that of nihilism - the term which was coined by Turgenev in this book). It is very captivating and i found Bazarov to be a very interesting charcter (although it seems less original when you look on the literature of the last century. We must remember Bazarov was the Father of the Nihlisits to come. and the originality is his). However, I feel somewhat ambivalent about Turgenev - first of all because his ugly way of treating Dostoevsky at the time, and the way he mocked the young Dostoevsky. Secondly, i'm not sure if it's merely deformed hazy memory but i belive if found his book 'home of the Gentry' to be a better book - maybe because it was more naive and sublime. Anyway, it's certainly a very important book, maybe even a masterpiece - but for me it is not in the level of the great masterpieces of Tolstoi and Dostoevsky. That is because in my opinion his messages and his way of giving them are inferior in it's profoundness to those of the previous two.
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