[RYD]∎ Read Free Virgin Soil New York Review Books Classics Ivan Turgenev Constance Garnett 9780940322455 Books

Virgin Soil New York Review Books Classics Ivan Turgenev Constance Garnett 9780940322455 Books

Download As PDF : Virgin Soil New York Review Books Classics Ivan Turgenev Constance Garnett 9780940322455 Books

Virgin Soil New York Review Books Classics Ivan Turgenev Constance Garnett 9780940322455 Books

Virgin Soil, published in 1877, is the final novel by Russian author Ivan Turgenev. The narrative takes place in the late 1860s, at a time when the Narodnik or Populist movement was gaining influence in Russia. Middle-class intellectuals preached socialist ideas to workers and the rural poor, urging them to organize, rise up against their masters, and seize farmlands and factories, with the long-term goal of a nationwide overthrow of the feudal system maintained by the Tsarist government. The story focuses on one such populist revolutionary, Alexai Dmitrich Nejdanov (the spellings of names used here are from the English translation by R. S. Townsend). He and his circle of bohemian friends in St. Petersburg carry on the work of their revolutionary cell, spreading propaganda and taking orders from a mysterious Moscow superior named Vassily Nikolaevitch. Despite their objections to the capitalist system, these insurgents still need to make a living, so Nejdanov accepts the job of live-in tutor at the country estate of Sipiagin, an aristocrat and ministerial chamberlain. While in the country, Nejdanov decides to take advantage of his proximity to the peasantry by converting some to his radical cause.

Although Nejdanov and his friends talk like idealists, the reader is never quite sold on the courage of their convictions or the efficacy of their actions. The collective portrait Turgenev paints of these revolutionaries is frequently unflattering. Nejdanov and his cronies often come across as posers who talk a good game but don’t actually accomplish anything. Nejdanov fails miserably in his initial attempts to mingle with the common folk. The peasants he’s trying to incite to rebellion are not excited by his socialist rhetoric, and he begins to question his own devotion to the cause. Meanwhile, Sipiagin is ostensibly a liberal as far as government bureaucrats go, but he shares little ideological common ground with his new employee. This brings about almost immediate conflict between the tutor and his boss. When Nejdanov falls in love with Sipiagin’s niece, it only aggravates the already strained relations between the two.

Though Virgin Soil deals with serious matters, it is often quite comical. After taking up residence at the Sipiagin estate, Nejdanov meets with other revolutionaries in an attempt to organize a resistance movement. The reader is thus introduced to a series of characters, representing various positions on the political spectrum, who resemble caricatures from the sketchbook of Daumier, each more laughable than the next in their hypocrisy or cluelessness. This satirical tour culminates with a visit to Fomishka and Fimishka, a married couple who live as if they were frozen in the 18th century.

Even though Nejdanov makes for a pathetic hero much of the time, one still becomes sufficiently engaged by his story and actively involved in the lives of his circle of acquaintances. Their very failure to live up to their revolutionary ideals makes them all the more identifiable as realistic human beings, and you sympathize with their hopes and fears. Although Fathers and Sons may be Turgenev’s best known work, at least to English language readers, it is positively boring compared to the much livelier Virgin Soil. Despite of, or perhaps because of, its satirical bent, this social tragicomedy ultimately succeeds as a naturalistic depiction of its time and place, and one learns a lot about the history of Russia from reading it.


Tags : Virgin Soil (New York Review Books Classics) [Ivan Turgenev, Constance Garnett] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Turgenev was the most liberal-spirited and unqualifiedly humane of all the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists,Ivan Turgenev, Constance Garnett,Virgin Soil (New York Review Books Classics),NYRB Classics,0940322455,19th century fiction,Classic fiction (pre c 1945),Classics,FICTION Classics,FICTION Literary,FICTION Political,Fiction,Fiction-Classics,GENERAL,General Adult,Literature - Classics Criticism,LiteratureClassics,Literature: Classics,classic;literary fiction;classic literature;classic books;classic novels;classics;fiction;politics;political books;novels;fiction books;literature;books fiction;classics books;realistic fiction books;political;classic fiction;election;russian;russian literature;short stories;philosophy;drama;satire;war;translation;existentialism;essays;german;american literature;school;historical;psychology;modernism;soviet union;communism;french;plays;romance;russian history;socialism;comedy;science fiction,russian; russian literature; 19th century; translation; classic literature; drama; 20th century; philosophy; german; american literature; school; satire; literary fiction; novella; literary; war; german literature; historical; existentialism; russian fiction; tolstoy; modernism; dostoevsky; classic books; politics; political books; fiction; fiction books; classics; literature; political; classic; short stories; nabokov; communism; dostoyevsky; psychology; eastern europe; caucasus; soviet; russian history; dystopia; soviet union; comedy

Virgin Soil New York Review Books Classics Ivan Turgenev Constance Garnett 9780940322455 Books Reviews

It is an unreadable book. Very badly published. The name of the translator is not given. Who is ER who describes the life of Ivan Turgenev. The form of the publication is an insult to the great Russian author Ivan Turgenev. The syllables of the words are separated by dashes.. should take it off from the list.
While I'm unable to compare Turgenev's Russian with Constance Garnett's English translation--lucky those who know both languages--I would agree that Garnett's version is at times banal and lackluster. Perhaps the problem is that while the characters's dilemmas have become familiar (because of 20th-century Soviet history), the characters's turbulent inner dramas, the emotions, seldom catch fire on the page. And I don't know if the characters's lives are more exciting in Turgenev's original; however, I would not expect a novel published in 1877 to have the same appeal in 2008, when the heat of the era is long past. What's very familiar, and why this novel is essential reading for an understanding of the literature of the past 140 years, is that Turgenev illustrates the conflicts of men and women in their nation-building struggle. (This plot design, and the cast of characters, is probably what interested Constance Garnett's readers of her 1890 translation up to at least the 1930s.)

(Please read on, but my apologies to all I don't yet know how to write a short review.)

We have met Turgenev's women and men before the jingo-patriot imperialist, Tsarist landowner; the politically liberal but socially conservative landowner and his pampered, gossipy, social-climbing wife; the impulsive, hot-headed rebel; the artist-poet who would like to be a revolutionist but is more suited to writing lyrically by candlelight; and the even-tempered rational, physically attractive female rebel who, as a sign of her dedication to the cause, rejects the bourgeois marriage pact; then, not least, the ignorant, retrograde peasants, the silent factory workers, and the hard-pressed, abused man of "anonymous Russia" who must blend into the urban jungle.

But Virgin Soil is literature. Turgenev did not write with a template of socialist realism; this is not a "how to" novel on creating democracy in a system that knows only Tsarist imperialism. But, the central dilemma which Turgenev created has not changed what should the well-meaning, educated person do when she or he is caught between two extremes? The author set up the plot of the novel by identifying himself with--and perhaps many readers will, too--the central consciousness of the novel Alexey Dmitrievitch Nezhdanov, "the Hamlet of Russia," the educated, peace-loving poet, born out of wedlock to a Russian aristocrat.

Highly recommended Henry James's novel, same theme but set in London, The Princess Casamassima, published in 1886. James had met Turgenev in Paris and knew the plot of Virgin Soil, and perhaps James read a French translation. But Henry James makes his characters come alive on the page they are part and parcel of their personal and political predicaments. There's a paradox here According to Constance Garnett and her circle, Henry James was old stuff, an old fuddy-duddy; but James was able to make the reader feel the bite of poverty, the pain of ignorance, and the tragedy of betrayal. Henry James focused on the people he created--the characters's differing levels of awareness--and, as a result, he achieved a more dynamic blending of plot and character. Certainly, The Princess Casamassima is a more cunning and cutting picture of plot and counter-plot, a behind-the-scenes look at the role of the individual in nation building. Also read Edmund Wilson's narrative non-fiction masterpiece on the rise of socialism in Europe, To the Finland Station (1940).
Virgin Soil, published in 1877, is the final novel by Russian author Ivan Turgenev. The narrative takes place in the late 1860s, at a time when the Narodnik or Populist movement was gaining influence in Russia. Middle-class intellectuals preached socialist ideas to workers and the rural poor, urging them to organize, rise up against their masters, and seize farmlands and factories, with the long-term goal of a nationwide overthrow of the feudal system maintained by the Tsarist government. The story focuses on one such populist revolutionary, Alexai Dmitrich Nejdanov (the spellings of names used here are from the English translation by R. S. Townsend). He and his circle of bohemian friends in St. Petersburg carry on the work of their revolutionary cell, spreading propaganda and taking orders from a mysterious Moscow superior named Vassily Nikolaevitch. Despite their objections to the capitalist system, these insurgents still need to make a living, so Nejdanov accepts the job of live-in tutor at the country estate of Sipiagin, an aristocrat and ministerial chamberlain. While in the country, Nejdanov decides to take advantage of his proximity to the peasantry by converting some to his radical cause.

Although Nejdanov and his friends talk like idealists, the reader is never quite sold on the courage of their convictions or the efficacy of their actions. The collective portrait Turgenev paints of these revolutionaries is frequently unflattering. Nejdanov and his cronies often come across as posers who talk a good game but don’t actually accomplish anything. Nejdanov fails miserably in his initial attempts to mingle with the common folk. The peasants he’s trying to incite to rebellion are not excited by his socialist rhetoric, and he begins to question his own devotion to the cause. Meanwhile, Sipiagin is ostensibly a liberal as far as government bureaucrats go, but he shares little ideological common ground with his new employee. This brings about almost immediate conflict between the tutor and his boss. When Nejdanov falls in love with Sipiagin’s niece, it only aggravates the already strained relations between the two.

Though Virgin Soil deals with serious matters, it is often quite comical. After taking up residence at the Sipiagin estate, Nejdanov meets with other revolutionaries in an attempt to organize a resistance movement. The reader is thus introduced to a series of characters, representing various positions on the political spectrum, who resemble caricatures from the sketchbook of Daumier, each more laughable than the next in their hypocrisy or cluelessness. This satirical tour culminates with a visit to Fomishka and Fimishka, a married couple who live as if they were frozen in the 18th century.

Even though Nejdanov makes for a pathetic hero much of the time, one still becomes sufficiently engaged by his story and actively involved in the lives of his circle of acquaintances. Their very failure to live up to their revolutionary ideals makes them all the more identifiable as realistic human beings, and you sympathize with their hopes and fears. Although Fathers and Sons may be Turgenev’s best known work, at least to English language readers, it is positively boring compared to the much livelier Virgin Soil. Despite of, or perhaps because of, its satirical bent, this social tragicomedy ultimately succeeds as a naturalistic depiction of its time and place, and one learns a lot about the history of Russia from reading it.