Superfluous Men (Chtenia)

By Ivan Turgenev

Book Overview

If there could be said to be a central river - a Volga, as it were - feeding Russian literature since its inception, it is this: heroes conform, accepting fate and the will of the community; antiheroes are individualists who do not fit into society, who battle against fate and often try to impose foreign ideals onto the community. Superfluous men are these latter sorts of outsiders, and they have been with Russian literature from the beginning of its modern existence. This issue of Chtenia (#28) looks at the rise of Superfluous Man in Russian literature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1502387131
• ISBN13: 9781502387134
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

How to characterize oneself while dying - superfluous

The narrator of this book, the "author" of the diary is a man anticipating death within a week. Chulkaturin is alone - only an old woman caring for him - facing death without family or friends. He begins writing a diary, an accounting of his life. What begins as a biography beginning with his childhood, becomes the narration of a single event, an event he believes illustrates beyond all doubt that he is a "superfluous man". This event is a one-sided love for a girl just becoming a woman. In this story Turgenev presents us with alienation - 1850's Russian style. For those of us raised on existential alienation, this book is an excellent reminder that alienation is a far more universal literary theme - a theme well executed in this book.

Russian Classic

Turgenev's novella about a dying 'superfluous' man . In a way, it's an update of Lermantov's "A Hero of Our Time" (without the tricky narrative structure) or Goethe's "Werther." Turgenev's story is notable for its more humane perspective; he truly was the "greatest French novelist writing in Russian."The only downside to this volume is its length: "Superfluous Man" is more of a long story or novella than a book in and of itself. Look instead for a collection.