Why I read the book: Racine List — 40 to go.

What the book was about: Arkady Kirsanov graduates from university and goes home to visit his father, Nikolai. He brings along his friend Bazarov, a self-proclaimed nihilist who has trained as a doctor. Bazarov’s insistence that he cares about nothing and that nothing has meaning immediately puts him at odds with Nikolai’s aristocratic brother Pavel.

Arkady and Bazarov make a visit to Moscow where both of them fall in love with the stately young widow Anna Odintsova. When she invites the friends to stay at her place in the country, they leap at the opportunity. Intimidated by Anna, Arkady hangs around with her younger sister, Katerina. Bazarov soon decides he’s in love with Anna, a feeling that goes against his principles. When he confesses his love to her, and she rejects him, he runs off to his own house. His parents are poor, religious, but sincere. Bazarov can only bear three days with them before running back to Nikolai’s.

He takes up his quarrel with Pavel again, and when Pavel catches Bazarov flirting with Fenichka, Nikolai’s housekeeper/mistress, he challenges him to a duel. Bazarov hits Pavel in the leg, treats him, then goes back to his parents’ house. He begins working as a doctor but soon catches an infection and dies. Anna comes to see him on his deathbed. Arkady, meanwhile, realizes he loves Katerina. He takes her back to his father’s farm, and they have a dual wedding with Nikolai and Fenichka. Everyone lives happily ever after.

What I liked about the book: It was just interesting enough to keep me reading. For a Russian novel, it was short. Arkady’s character — a young man who got caught up in the philosophical fashion of the moment but chucked it when he met a girl he loved — was likeable, as were Nikolai, Pavel, Fenichka and Katerina.

What I didn’t like about the book: The novel took place during the period when everyone was dividing up the land and releasing their serfs. I didn’t fully understand what was going on with that. Bazarov’s philosophy was annoying, as was Anna’s flirtation with, then rejection of him. I also was irritated by the ending, where Bazarov’s parents are apparently (no pun intended) praying him into heaven and sure to be successful because of their piety.

I don’t know if Turgenev’s writing was choppy, or if that’s the result of the translator, but it could have been smoothed-over some.

The most interesting quote: Describing Bazarov’s mother: She was frightened of mice, snakes, frogs, sparrows, leeches, thunder, cold water, draughts, horses, goats, red-haired humans and black cats and considered crkckets and dogs unclean. She did not eat veal, pigeon, crayfish, cheese, asparagus [who would?], artichokes, rabbit or melon, because a severed melon resembled the severed head of John the Baptist. She could not speak of oysters without shuddering.

Recommendation: I gave it a 5. It’s shorter than War and Peace.

Further Comments: This is what the back of the book said: This new translation by Richard Freeborn makes Turgenev’s masterpiece about the conflict between generations seem as fresh, outspoken, and exciting as it was to those readers who first encountered its famous hero. The controversial portrayal of Bazarov, the ‘nihilist’ or ‘new man,’ shocked Russian society when the novel was published in 1862. The image of humanity liberated by science from age-old conformities and prejudices is one that can threaten establishments of any political or religious persuasion, and is especially potent at the present time.

It can threaten political or religious persuasions, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily will.