Ivan Turgenev Summary

The Russian novelist, dramatist, and short-story writer Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was a founder of the Russian realistic novel. He ranks as one of the greatest stylists in the Russian lang... Read more

Henry James--friend, colleague, and student--said of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev that he was "in a peculiar degree what I may call the novelist's novelist, an artistic influence extraordinarily valuable,... Read more

In the essay below, Sayler surveys Turgenev's dramatic output, stressing the realistic aspects of his work. When the art and the literature of two countries are as widely separated by the barri... Read more

In the following excerpt from a work that was first published in 1966, Valency finds Turgenev's plays a mixture of realism and idealism, noting that they demonstrate "a very different re... Read more

The first American performance of A Month in the Country in English was a Theater Guild presentation that premiered on 24 March 1930. In the following assessment, Skinner praises nearly every aspect o... Read more

In this review, Young offers a mixed evaluation of the Theater Guild presentation of A Month in the Country, arguing that the actors were unable to fully convey the subtleties of Turgenev's cha... Read more

In the review below, Wyatt declares: "For characterization and acting, A Month in the Country is unex-celled. " Feeling perhaps that their season so far has lacked luster, the Theater Gu... Read more

In the following essay, Allen considers Turgenev's Poems in Prose as the appropriate conclusion to a great literary career in an attempt to reassert the author's position in literary his... Read more

In the following essay, Smyrniw explores possible sources for Turgenev's representation of treacherous women in his novels. Nimm dich in acht vor ihren schönen Haaren, Vor diesem Schmuck... Read more

In the following essay, Traill discusses elements of the paranormal and the supernatural in Turgenev's fiction. If the transformations in Dickens's fantastic tales correspond roughly to ... Read more

In the following essay, Freeborn discusses Turgenev's literary legacy one hundred years after his death. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born in 1818 and died in 1883. He was born into the privile... Read more

In the following essay, Woodward discusses Turgenev's consistent treatment in his novels of characters who are powerless and unable to direct their own lives. The essential impotence of man is ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Knowles discusses Turgenev's novels Smoke and Virgin Soil, both poorly received in Russia but acclaimed by critics elsewhere in the world. Smoke Smoke, Turgenev'... Read more

In the following essay, Barta discusses Turgenev's short story “Faust” in conjunction with the author's 1856 review of a translation of Goethe's Faust. Both Turgenev... Read more

In the following essay, Dalton finds parallels between Karolina Pavlova's “A Double Life” and Turgenev's “Faust.” At first glance a comparison between one of ... Read more

In the following essay, Jackson rejects the unfavorable critical reviews of “Knock … Knock … Knock! …,” calling Turgenev's story one of the strongest in Russi... Read more

In the following essay, Costlow explores the influence of Evgeniia Tur's Antonina on Turgenev's “Neschastnaia.” In a letter of 1868 to Pavel Annenkov, Ivan Turgenev spoke o... Read more

In the following essay, Seeley explores the dominant motif of the superfluous man in Turgenev's stories written from 1853 to 1862. In the decade from 1843 to 1852, superfluous men, or forerunne... Read more

In the following essay, Frost examines the imagery in “Living Relics,” maintaining that “Turgenev's craftsmanship in weaving a complex network of subtle images merits fulle... Read more

In the following essay, Silbajoris discusses the ways in which the aesthetic principals of Ivan Turgenev inform the realist social critique expressed in his short story collection Sportsman's N... Read more