Fathers and Sons

Ivan Turgenev (1818 - 1883)
Translated by Richard Hare

The fathers and children of the novel refers to the growing divide between the two generations of Russians, and the character Yevgeny Bazarov has been referred to as the "first Bolshevik", for his nihilism and rejection of the old order.

Turgenev wrote Fathers and Sons as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw between liberals of the 1830s/1840s and the growing nihilist movement. Both the nihilists (the "sons") and the 1830s liberals sought Western-based social change in Russia. Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with the conservative Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality.

Fathers and Sons might be regarded as the first wholly modern novel in Russian Literature (Gogol's Dead Souls, another main contender, is sometimes referred to as a poem or epic in prose as in the style of Dante's Divine Comedy). The novel introduces a dual character study, as seen with the gradual breakdown of Bazarov's and Arkady's nihilistic opposition to emotional display, especially in the case of Bazarov's love for Madame Odintsova and Fenichka. This prominent theme of character duality and deep psychological insight would exert an influence on most of the great Russian novels to come, most obviously echoed in the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

The novel is also the first Russian work to gain prominence in the Western world, eventually gaining the approval of well established novelists Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, and Henry James, proving that Russian literature owes much to Ivan Turgenev. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Genre(s): General Fiction

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Chapter 01 Roger Melin
00:09:49
Play 02 Chapter 02 Roger Melin
00:05:07
Play 03 Chapter 03 Roger Melin
00:14:40
Play 04 Chapter 04 Roger Melin
00:11:35
Play 05 Chapter 05 Roger Melin
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Play 06 Chapter 06 Roger Melin
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Play 07 Chapter 07 Roger Melin
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Play 08 Chapter 08 Roger Melin
00:18:52
Play 09 Chapter 09 Roger Melin
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Play 10 Chapter 10 Roger Melin
00:32:32
Play 11 Chapter 11 Roger Melin
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Play 12 Chapter 12 Roger Melin
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Play 13 Chapter 13 Roger Melin
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Play 14 Chapter 14 Roger Melin
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Play 15 Chapter 15 Roger Melin
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Play 16 Chapter 16 Roger Melin
00:26:51
Play 17 Chapter 17 Roger Melin
00:29:39
Play 18 Chapter 18 Roger Melin
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Play 19 Chapter 19 Roger Melin
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Play 20 Chapter 20 Roger Melin
00:29:21
Play 21 Chapter 21 Roger Melin
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Play 22 Chapter 22 Roger Melin
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Play 23 Chapter 23 Roger Melin
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Play 24 Chapter 24 Roger Melin
00:45:00
Play 25 Chapter 25 Roger Melin
00:27:08
Play 26 Chapter 26 Roger Melin
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Play 27 Chapter 27 Roger Melin
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Play 28 Chapter 28 Roger Melin
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