SOURCE: Lagerberg, Robert. “Images of Night and Day in Turgenev's Pervaia liubov'.” New Zealand Slavonic Journal (1994): 57-68.

In the following essay, Lagerberg surveys the critical assessments of First Love and discusses the images of light and dark in the narrative.

Critical assessments of the conclusion to Turgenev's story Pervaia liubov' (First Love) (the death of the old woman and also the absent frame), although few in number, have varied from the positive to the negative. An unequivocally positive response to the episode of the dying woman is provided solely by Victor Ripp: “[…] The description of her pathetic demise […] provides a fitting end to the story.”¹ For Ripp the success of this passage lies in its ability to state the underlying message of the story: “The hope that imputing power to woman would allow her to confer purpose on man, who would then battle prevailing evil, is exposed as...