Book 1 - Ivan Turgenev "Fathers And Sons"

Ivan Turgenev "Fathers And Sons" (Oxford World Classics)




I started reading this novel back in November of last year. It is my first Russian novel from the classic period of Russian literature and is hence hailed or considered to be a masterpiece. I found it to be quite beguiling after a sluggish start with well thought out characters.

Written in the mid-19th century, it deals with intergenerational conflict and is centred around the historical event of the emancipation of the Russian serfs. It is also relevant to every generational conflict. The main protagonists are found in all part of Russian society of that period. The older generation who come from the fading world of the nobility and attempt to be liberal in their views, against those of the younger generation who advocate nihilism and free thought.

One of them, an intelligent young doctor called Barazov, represents the youth, strength and the new ways and ideas but at the same time, aware of his own naïveté and hypocrisy. He is arrogant of any manifestation of "weakness" such as the finer emotions, and when he falls deeply in love with a woman, who was his equal in strength of will and ideas, he goes through an intense struggle with himself. The other characters in the novel provide a brilliant counterpoint to the personality of Barazov, and the exchanges between and among them is subtly woven into the plot, and underlies the the slowly changing political and social landscape of the country, signalling a restlessness that tend to characterize periods of transition or upheaval. 

The extremists at either end will never understand each other, yet there is a delightful middle ground to be struck and exist happily in. This could have been a relatively dull classic but ended up as a good page turner.