Fathers and Sons (2024)
Turgenev’s masterpiece novel of generational conflict. Set in 1859, it portrays the clash between the “fathers,” the liberal-minded gentry of the 1840s, and the “sons,” a new generation of nihilists led by the character Yevgeny Bazarov. When young Arkady Kirsanov brings his friend Bazarov home from university, their arrival upends the Kirsanov household. Bazarov – proud, caustically rational, and “liberated from age-old conformities” – rejects all authority and romantic sentiment, scandalizing Arkady’s gentle father Nikolai and traditionalist uncle Pavel. The novel follows these ideological debates and also the romantic subplots (Bazarov’s brief, unrequited love for the elegant Anna Odintsova, and Arkady’s courtship of her sister Katya). In the end, Bazarov’s uncompromising nihilism isolates him; he tragically dies of typhus after an accident, mourned by his humble parents. Fathers and Sons (sometimes translated Fathers and Children) captured the tumult of 1860s Russia and introduced the term “nihilist” into the cultural lexicon, embodying “the generation gap during social upheaval” in timeless fashion. This work introduced the world to the concept of Nihilism (a term coined by…
- Published
- 2024
- Pages
- 214
