- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (15 July 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192836897
- ISBN-13: 978-0192836892
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.2 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,058,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
"An excellent selection of short stories by Turgenev....Accurate and readable."--Leo Hecht, George Mason University
"A fine selection of stories, well translated and representative of Turgenev's shorter works."--Anne Netick, College of William and Mary
"A fine selection of stories, well translated and representative of Turgenev's shorter works."--Anne Netick, College of William and Mary
Product Description
This collection brings together six of Turgenev's best-known `long' short stories, in which he turns his skills of psychological observation and black comedy to subjects as diverse as the tyranny of serfdom, love, and revenge on the Russian steppes. These stories all display the elegance and clarity of Turgenev's finest writing. Richard Freeborn was until recently Professor of Russian at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am an avid reader of American and European fiction from the late 19th century onwards and have never delved into the Russians, so, instead of going in headlong to a War and Peace or Brothers Karamazov, i picked up the novella First Love by Turgenev. The writing is simple, the story instantly engaging and the sentiment easy enough to relate to.
Three men sit around following supper and discuss their respective first loves, neither of the first two has an interesting tale to tell, but the third has an intriguing story which he writes down and proceeds to tell us.
Aged 16 our young hero spends the summer in a cottage in the country with his rather detached parents when an aged and impoverished princess and her daughter move in next door. The daughter is beautiful, our narrator becomes infatuated and he suffers all the agony of a first love, a first realisation that such things do not always turn out as we might have hoped, and all the while struggling to understand his own life and his own relationship to his parents.
The twist in the tale is a little obvious and the extra cast of characters perhaps a little under-developed, but the central narrator is a journey through the emotions and his journey is extremely engaging. A very successful first Russian for me and i shall now move on and report back with the findings!!
2 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My first experience of Russian 19C. Loved this book and will enjoydiscussing it at our book group.
CONS: Felt half the characterssuperfluous and was left with little feeling of depth for most of them.
PROS: Translated sympathetically and, although the "twist int' tale" waspredictable, I felt somewhat pleased when it was discovered. It wasalmost as though Turgenev wanted us to guess it in advance!
Perfect screenplay material.
Read it once in an hour, then over again immediately.
CONS: Felt half the characterssuperfluous and was left with little feeling of depth for most of them.
PROS: Translated sympathetically and, although the "twist int' tale" waspredictable, I felt somewhat pleased when it was discovered. It wasalmost as though Turgenev wanted us to guess it in advance!
Perfect screenplay material.
Read it once in an hour, then over again immediately.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Turgenev's true-to-life writing won me over.
2 Sep 1998
Format:Paperback
If reading in translation has proved difficult for you in the past, Freeborn's translation of Turgenev's short stories will suprise you in a wonderful way. There were times when I forgot that I was in the process of reading, but rather felt that these very scenes were being lived out before me, a bodiless and voiceless viewer.
Turgenev's understanding of and ability to capture the complete emotional processes of people in love in this collection touched me in its sincerity and genuine clarity. All the insane, skipping-over-themselves thoughts and quick jealousies that people experience are completely captured in stories like "First Love" and "Diary of a Superfluous Man."
Turgenev is a great introduction to Russian fiction. I'm sorry that I didn't discover him earlier.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Wonderful Example of a Russian Romantic
10 Nov 2000
Format:Hardcover
This book contains three short works that provide a wonderful example of the Russian approach to romantic literature. The form is wonderful, the characters perfectly created and the plot shores up the authors ideas with an most resonant clarity.
First love shows the blend of comedy and tragedy that is so prevalent in Russian works of the period. The events portrayed are those that could occur in daily life even to today. The emotions that are evoked are real and timeless. It surely adds proof to the argument that Russian works of this period age so much better than do those authors from other countries whose works have survived.
Spring Torrents is the longest of the works and still provides a feel that the length is exactly perfect for the tale. If the prologue does not pull you into the story you have an absences of a great concern that plagues many of us. How many of us fear reaching that point (or have reached that point)in life where we recognize all of the great loss of opportunity which has occurred in our life. From this prologue the story races along explaining how one of us has reached the position when the concern has become a reality. Wonderful feelings are evoked on the path.
This book is highly recommended for all and is a must read for the Tolstoy, Chekov, Gogol and Dostoevsky fans.
8 of 13 people found the following review helpful
An appreciative reader writes....
7 Mar 1999
Format:Hardcover
First love is a wonderful evocation of youth, love and life in 19th century Russian life. I challenge anyone not to be moved by this book, which is both humorous and touchingly melencholic.
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