by Ivan Turgenev.
Turgenev's stories were sort of autobiographical. He had a flair of turning personal experiences into stories or short novels. Turgenev described vividly sceneries and the weather. He was a keen observer of human nature, and often presented his observation in a humorous way. In Rudin, the author's first novel, these characteristics were already apparent, as was the theme of the superfluous man, which was elaborated in subsequent novels. If you find this observation in Rudin insightful: “Deny everything and you will easily pass for a man of ability; it's a well known trick”, you will likely enjoy his amusing remark in Fathers and Sons: “A man’s capable of understanding anything – how the aether vibrates, and what’s going on in the sun – but how any other man can blow his nose different from him, that he’s incapable of understanding.”
In conclusion, Rudin is a good start into the literary works of Ivan Turgenev.
Turgenev receiving honorary doctorate, Oxford 1879 (Source: Wikipedia)
Illustration by Kardovsky. Rudin's first appearance at Lasunskaya's (Source: Wikipedia)
Link of review in amazon.com.
Review by Kai Fong Lee.
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