About
Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) was a major Russian writer, recognized as the first Russian author to achieve widespread fame in Western Europe. His short-story collection *A Sportsman's Sketches* (1852) helped create the climate for the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. His novel *Fathers and Sons* (1862) is considered his masterpiece and popularized the term 'nihilist'. He also wrote plays, including *A Month in the Country*, which anticipated Chekhov's psychological drama. Turgenev spent much of his life in Europe, maintaining a lifelong attachment to the opera singer Pauline Viardot. He died in Bougival, near Paris.
* 1818-10-28 — † 1883-09-03
Major works
- A Sportsman's Sketches (1852)short-story collection
- Rudin (1856)novel
- Home of the Gentry (1859)novel
- Fathers and Sons (1862)novel
- A Month in the Country (1855)play
Key milestones
- 1852Arrested and briefly imprisoned, then exiled to his estate for 18 months, for publishing an obituary of Gogol in defiance of censorship.
- 1860Elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
- 1879Awarded an honorary Doctor of Civil Law by the University of Oxford.
Themes
The peasant condition and serfdomNihilism and revolutionary ideasImpossible love and complex relatioClash between generations and ideolNature and Russian rural life
Sources: britannica.com · lccn.loc.gov · spasskoye-lutovinovo.ru