Virgin Soil

By Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, Ivan Tourgueniev, et al.

Book Overview

Turgenev was the most liberal-spirited and unqualifiedly humane of all the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists, and in Virgin Soil , his biggest and most ambitious work, he sought to balance... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B0010YM91I
• Release Date: January 1937
• Publisher: J. M. Dent & Co.
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Quintessential Turgenev

Encompassing social commentary, a (albeit fairly simplistic) love story, and a homage to Russia's beauty, this work does not fail the lover of Turgenev. Certainly this might not necessarily be the best work with which to begin one's odyssey through Turgenev, but this very effectively pulls together all the familiar elements of his writing. Turgenev is not known for his plot development, and this is again the case here: very little actually occurs. The absence of plot and of action, however, is not to say that this dry, boring drivel. Rather, Turgenev's material, this work in particular, becomes a pleasant marriage of the classic novel with the novel of ideas. His commentary, both political and human, is both trapped in the amber of history and universally relevant (a lovely dichotomy) to the human condition. "Virgin Soil" is a very fine story, and the translation is flowing and literate (having no Russian, I cannot speak to how accurately this might reflect the original).

Do not start your Turgenev tour with this

Having read all of Turgenev's major works, this would be the best one to close one's odyseesy of Turgenev works as it provides his finally achieved view of the desparate situation of then Russia and the skepticism toward the revolutionary movements aiming at social re-engineering. Story is very simple, and no significant action was involved, but a minimum knowlwedge of Russian literature, changing revolutionary movements and intelligentsia situation is required to grasp the width of the topics and issues covered.