Fathers and Children, Ivan Turgenev, 1862
Fathers and Children was written by Ivan Turgenev and published in 1862. I heard about this novel when reading Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. I’ve been working my way through Dostoevsky over the past few years, but overall I am not that knowledgeable about the Russian literary tradition outside of Dostoevsky. I picked up this copy at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington DC, along with Beloved (the last book I read) as a kind of going away ritual there. The plot of Fathers and Children is simple. Arkady Nikolayevich Kirsanov returns home from university in Saint Petersburg. Home is an aristocratic but comparatively modest country estate - about five thousand acres and two hundred serfs - owned by his father Nikolay Petrovich Kirsanov. The plot begins with Nikolay waiting for his son in town as he reminisces about raising Arkady and grieves the now long-ago loss of his wife, Arkady’s mother. Nikolay is a very thoughtful person with a love of poetry and the beauty of nature. Arkady arri...