reread Fathers and Sons for a couple reasonsI have been on a small Rereading Great Russian Novels kick the last couple years andI was interested in what the book might have to say about the relationships between fathers and sons.
As to, this novel was the first Great Russian Novel to achieve international fame, paving the way forin my estimationgreater works from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, but its also pretty legitimately great in its own right.
As to, I think its less actually about father and son relationships than generational cultural, political and philosophical differences in the Russia of the time though I just read Brian Friel's play adaptation of the novel, and that does a better jobin the shorter spaceof focusing on those "generation gaps.
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The book features a youngish nihilist botanist Bazarov who asserts that he basically believes in nothing which puts him somewhat to the left of anarchism, and well left of pragmatism, two lively nineteenth century sort of antiphilosophical frameworks for living and who is completely engagingif not all that likable.
This character in particular set off a firestorm of critique from the right who saw it as an attack on traditional Russian humane values because they thought Turgenev approved of Bazarov and the left, especially nihilists, who thought Turgenev denounced/satirized Bazarov.
Turgenev, who was interested in depicting with a kind of social realism the Russia of midnineteenth century, was not interested in didacticism or political essays.
His goal was to write a novel with complex characters, and in my opinion, pulls it off! He admitted he was fond of Bazarov as one of his characters, but disavowed any association with his cynical ideas.
And when we see the chinks in Bazarovs cynical armor, we get to like him a little, A little. But hes never a dull character,
Bazarov is kind of Lee, in a review I recall from weeks ago, calls him a nineteenth century punk, antisocial, antiarts, who puts more faith in rationalism and science than metaphysics or grand theories.
As he says, “What's important is that twice two is four and all the rest's nonsense, ” He prefers to debunk ideas more than anything else, While he says “first lets destroy everything, raze it to the ground, and well worry about rebuilding later,” hes really too lazy to do any of the actual razing.
Hes a sort of slacker, a puppy, all bark,
Bazarov accompanies a follower, fellow university student Arkady, to his summer home, when the freeing of the serfs was slowly taking place about the time slaves were being freed in the US.
Arkady mainly just agrees with everything Bazarov says, Has a kind of mancrush on him, but he has no ideas of his own, Arkadys Dad Nikolai and his uncle Pavel, old school humanists who want to Do Good in the World, are exasperated by these newfangled ideas.
Though Bazarov is the most memorable central character, my favorite character in the book is Uncle Pavel, for sure Lee calls him a metrosexual, which works, who is sophisticated and commonsensical and thinks the young guys are talking like idiots.
As he says of them, “The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they've suddenly become nihilists.
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So the young pups leave the uni for the country, run into a couple of bright and memorably strongwilled and articulate sisters, Katya and Anna, whom they promptly fall in love with, which takes the edge off their antiidealism in a kind of comic way.
In one memorable line, Bazarov, who is studying botany, remarks to Arkady about Anna: “What a magnificent body, how I should like to see it on the dissecting table.
” Ha! There, Bazarov is proven right: biology, love/lust triumphs over philosophy and big fancypants ideas, go figure, Light comedy. But both the older and younger generations are gently lampooned,
When the boys return to Arkadys place the uncle, Pavel, for some reasons one involving a woman, the other politics insists on dueling Bazarov, getting lightly wounded in the process, which is also a kind of comic story.
Hotheaded men and their talk! Again, the Clash of Big Ideas comes down to two guys fighting as if to the death.
Biology testosterone trumps philosophy. Again, light comedy, and Turgenev basically likes these folks,
The fathers/uncle and their liberal as opposed to radical ideas are not prominently featured in this book they basically shut up and let the young turks blather on, though they also love them a great deal.
Parents in this book love their crazy kids and just want them around and to maybe shut up about all the radical talk already!: Just fall in love, have babies, and grow up! Family, father and son relations matter! So spoiler alert love conquers all, and Arkady stops being all revolutionary and marries and reconnects with Dad, whew, back in the fold.
But he was never a real radical, so no big surprise there,
I wont tell you what happens to Bazarov, in the end, but I was surprised and liked it, too.
I will say I liked the book quite a lot, You wont forget Bazarov and Pavel, A classic that is also entertaining! Fathers feel that they now belong to bygone times and sons feel that they have learned enough to indoctrinate new scientific theories and philosophies to the fathers.
This happens today and this happened in this realistic classical work, based on the Russian society of the midth century.
The story
begins with two brothers, First one, Nikolai Petrovitch, who had lost his wife, but there remained a sense of wellspent life, as his son was growing up under his eyes and, second Pavel Petrovitch, on the contrary, was a solitary bachelor, who was entering upon a certain kind of indefinite twilight period of regrets that are akin to hopes, and hopes that are akin to regrets, when youth is over, while old age has not yet come.
On one fine day of May, Nikolai receives his son Arkady, who has just finished his graduation from the University of Petersberg.
“So here you are, a graduate at last, and come home again,” said Nikolai Petrovitch, touching Arkady now on the shoulder, now on the knee.
At last!.
Here comes the most interesting character of this novel Mr, Bazarov, who is a friend of Arkady and has returned with him, He stays at the estate of Arkadys father for some time before going to his own family place,
Bazarov a very clever and intelligent young man who has a strong sense of conviction and aggression about his thoughts and words.
He scorns art, family life, and women, He is representative of the theory of Nihilism, I did not know if this concept of nihilism was already popular at that time in Russia or was made popular by Turgenev through this book.
Then I learned that the epithet of nihilism was in use sinceand this book only extended its interpretation,
Bazarov does not believe in anything, He only believes in himself, He is cynical about his love affairs and he does not at all care about paternal tenderness, One day he sees the father of Arkady reading Pushkin and he says to Arkady, . .
The day before yesterday I saw him reading Pushkin, Bazarov was continuing meanwhile, Explain to him, please, that that is no earthly use, He is not a boy you know its time to throw up that rubbish, And what an idea to be romantic at this time of day! Give him something sensible to read,
What ought I to give him Asked Arkady,
Oh, I think Buchners Stoff and raft to begin with,
Bazarov is full of scientific theories and he has plans for the mankind and for lower classes but Pavel Petrovitch, an uncle of Arkady, slowly inculcates the vehement feeling of contempt to Bazarov, because of his nihilist ideology, which somewhere in the middle of the story, takes the form of a very unnecessary and egoistic clash in the form of a duel between them.
This classic story moves ahead in style and covers multiple themes and contexts,
I came to know that Turgenev was an enthusiastic hunter and it was his experience in the woods of his native province that supplied material for A Sportsman's Sketches, the book that had first brought him a reputation.
I have not read it yet, however, I witnessed a different sort of hunting abilities of the author in this book.
He has hunted the prevailing belief and order through his character of Bazarov, whom he has made so strong that all existing philosophies die away in front of him.
You may not like him for his rudeness and crudity but you would certainly get impressed by his astonishing brilliance.
I got a wonderful picture of Russian society, of its aristocracy, of its middle class and of its peasantry life.
The content of this book is very rich in its prose and style, I read two different translations of this work, I enjoyed both. I found nothing unnecessary in the plot, one thing complemented the other, Conversation among the characters is extremely lively and at those places, I was nearly absorbed with the characters and ambiance.
Though he has not created any dominated woman character here, the fancy towards young girls is well depicted, Conflict of personality in male characters and struggle against 'the clutches of circumstances among female characters can be felt at many places.
As a reader, I can not be more satisfied when I find the characters of a book so real and engrossing that they go directly into me and get embedded somewhere within me with their own viewpoints and tenets.
I would very much like to read more of this great writer, I have already enlisted some of his major works.
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