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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The generation gap!, 1 Nov 2006
One of the many delights of reading fiction from any literary period is the sense of timeless authority fashioned by the rich imaginations of talented writers. Although the historical settings may seem distant the characters behave pretty much as they do today, for example, they feel pain, fall in love, philosophise, act benevolently, contradict themselves, are conceited and pretentious. And these traits of human nature are compassionately handled by Turgenev in a novel that skilfully captures the ageless dilemma of youthful idealism (the sons) versus contented maturity (the fathers) thrust against the socio-political conservatism and burgeoning radicalism of mid 19th century Russia. The principle protagonist, Bazarov, is the archetypal angry young man, an Epicurean nihilist with romantic tendencies! Such are the contradictory dimensions belonging to this strain of Russian reactionaries, who want to destroy society's institutions whilst not caring about what to put in their place. In dismissing the existing social order and its moral obligations Bazarov is forced to confront his own despair and loss. In a telling passage Bazarov details, to his friend Arkady, his sense of `spiritual' insignificance in an indifferent universe, "I feel nothing but depression and rancour." Bazarov, however, is only human, and when he encounters the independent, educated, beautiful widow, Madame Odintsov, his self-imposed emotional detachment is tested to breaking point with catastrophic consequences. The story is an extraordinary examination of the cost of moral principles even if you think, as Bazarov does, you don't have any. This edition contains an excellent lecture and introduction detailing Turgenev's literary life, contemporary reaction to Fathers and Sons and the political climate of the period.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We're Old ... And Done For, 21 May 2009
The struggle between the generations. It's nasty, heartbreaking and futile. And it's easily recognisable by about all young men who've fought to build a personality independent of their parents. The young regard with disdain efforts by the ancients to "understand" the new generation. The old recall with regret their vanquished youth and cannot understand why their grown-up children shun them. As Nikolai Petrovich notes all old people were young once too. It's a vicious merry-go-round from father to son to his son on and on and explored in F&S to brutal effect. What is it all for - this existence with its sighs, hopes, banalities and the crushing disappointments and humiliations that one must endure to get to the finishing line? Nihilism. Love. Duty. Faith. Reason. Tradition. Each to his own as Turgenev's characters disperse.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece... as wonderful now as ever., 12 May 2009
[This review discussed key parts of the plot. If you have not read the novel and don't want the plot spoiled, stop now.]
In this great novel Turgenev details the changes happening in Russian society through the opposition of the young, nihilistic and brilliant student, Bazarov, to the world of comfortable liberalism. For his trouble Turgenev was attacked by the Left and the Right; the former for his emphasis on the world of feeling and the latter for his seeming sympathy for the amoral Bazarov. It is Bazarov around whom the novel is centred and lives long in the memory. He is the strident materialist who rejects wholly the world of feeling and value, and reduces everything to science. He dissects animals out of curiosity and wins both arguments and duels against his elders and betters. Yet he finds it awkward just to be in the presence of his devoted loving parents. Their genuine, motiveless affection and love cannot be abided for long. For Bazarov, attachment to any individual makes no sense. Just as all trees are the same so all humans share the same nature. To study one is to study them all.
Yet, just as this young Turk's challenge to the values of the old world matures and his wholesale rejection of feeling and art reaches its peak, he falls in love. For Bazarov, the materialist, to find himself in this position is a failure of intellect rather than anything else. Yet he, like so many before and after him, is powerless to prevent his pointless love for the charming, cold and beautiful Madame Odintsov determining the course of his short life. His love, unrequited, leads to such a sadness of the soul that he almost embraces death by inviting typhus on himself.
Even in his dying fever Madame Odintsov can visit Bazarov but cannot return his love. There is no happy ending. So he dies, bringing such a depth of grief and sorrow to his father and mother that the reader can hardly bear it. They asked for nothing from their son but to be. Struck by love, with his nihilism destroyed, he could not even do that.
In a world so many think of, Dawkins-like, as prescribed by our genes and devoid of meaning, the triumph of feeling over materialism in Turgenev is as relevant today as ever. However we came to be as we are are on this earth there is no accounting for the mystery of love. That feeling defines our humanity. And it is the depth and tragedy of our humanity that Turgenev's great novel brings so painfully into focus.
Turgenev's novel is so beautifully written that it rewards reading and re-reading.
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