Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818–83) was a Russian novelist, dramatist, and short-story writer. This founder of the Russian realistic novel ranks as one of the most excellent stylists in the Russian language.
Born into minor nobility in the town of Oryol in the heartland of Russia, Turgenev grew up on a vast estate with 5,000 serfs; his overbearing mother controlled it.
Turgenev went to university and joined the civil service, but dropped out to write. He gained distinction for A Sportsman’s Sketches or The Hunting Sketches (1852.) It exposed the abuse of serfs at the hands of landowners, much like his mother, and helped fuel the movement to abolish serfdom.
Turgenev’s novels explore individual lives to shed light on the social, political, and philosophical issues of his day. His work often opposed social and political evils and attracted official disapproval. His masterpiece Fathers and Sons (1862) introduced the term ‘nihilist’ to describe a person disgusted with the old order.
Currently regarded as one of the significant works of 19th-century fiction, Fathers and Sons aroused hostile criticism and forced Turgenev to leave Russia. He took up residence in Baden-Baden in southern Germany.
Turgenev’s other notable works include the novels Rudin (1856,) Home of the Gentry (1859,) On the Eve (1860,) and Smoke (1867.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ivan Turgenev
I believe love produces a certain flowering of the whole personality which nothing else can achieve.
—Ivan Turgenev
Topics: Love
Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man’s the workman in it.
—Ivan Turgenev
The heart of another is a dark forest.
—Ivan Turgenev
Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this: Great God, grant that twice two be not four.
—Ivan Turgenev
Topics: Prayer
Death is an old joke, but it comes like new to everyone.
—Ivan Turgenev
If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin.
—Ivan Turgenev
Topics: Procrastination
The only people who remain misunderstood are those who either do not know what they want or are not worth understanding.
—Ivan Turgenev
I share no one’s ideas. I have my own.
—Ivan Turgenev
Just try and set death aside. It sets you aside, and that’s the end of it!
—Ivan Turgenev
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