‘Home of the Gentry‘ by Ivan Turgenev: “Woe to the heart that has not loved in youth!”

• About the author

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (b. 1818, Russia – d. 1883, France), was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator, considered to be the most westernized Russian writer. Turgenev studied Russian literature and psychology at the University of Moscow and, later, at the University of Petersburg. He continued his history and psychology studies at the University of Berlin, during which he devoted himself to the need for Westernization of Russia.

Between the years 1853-1862 he writes some of his most popular stories, short stories and novels, “Rudin”, “Home of the Gentry“, “On the Eve”, “Fathers and Sons”, the latter being the best known work of the author, a novel which sparked a hostile reaction in Russia, this fact contributing to the author’s decision to leave the country. Turgenev settled in Germany, later moved to London, and then settled in Paris. Here, his closest friend was the writer Gustave Flaubert, both sharing the same social and aesthetic ideas.

The central themes of these works are the beauty of first love, unfulfilled dreams, frustration in love, reflecting, in part, the unfulfillment of his fateful love for Pauline Viardot – a French mezzo-soprano with whom he had a lifelong affair.

• About the book

Classics, and especially Russian classics, are difficult to “tell”. Because action is not about the chaining of facts and events, as we generally define it, but the chaining of the inner life of the characters – emotions, dramas, anxiety, love, faith, the longing for happiness, for salvation etc. These are the favorite themes in Turgenev’s works, impossible loves or illusory dreams being the transposition of the author’s own sentimental unfulfillment.

In the “home of the gentry” we find various human typologies, illustrated with much charm and, at times, even with frothy dramaturgical accents. Turgenev gives great importance to the life story of each relevant character, so that the reader will find the origin of the character’s thinking and actions in his past.

The main character, Lavretzki, returns from a pilgrimage through Europe, leaving behind a broken marriage that devastated him and made him lose his faith in love, happiness, honesty. Arriving in Russia, he meets Liza again, a 19-year-old young woman about to get engaged. Her innocence, kindness, humility and delicacy will disturb Lavretzki in such a way that he will be revived and the belief that happiness is illusory will be shaken. Seeing love now in a whole new light – through being close to God -, should he dare to hope that he still has a chance at happiness?

The characters’ choices, or perhaps predestination, lead to a predictable ending. But the reader will be captivated by the way the author describes how this is reflected in the soul and mind of the characters, because it is not the result that matters, but the way it is perceived.

Returning to a classic writer after a long string of contemporary books was like meeting someone very dear whom I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed. That’s why I will remain for a while among the classics.

• To the author

Перефразируя цитату, выбранную в качестве названия рецензии, должен сказать: горе читателю, не читавшему Тургенева!

(Paraphrasing the quote chosen as the title for this review, I must say: woe to the reader who has not read Turgenev! – Google translation, Russian language)

• Quotes
• “Woe to the heart that has not loved in youth!”
• “Victims of misfortune are quick to sense another of their kind from a distance, but in old age they rarely become friends, which is in no way surprising: they have nothing to share together – not even hope.”
• “Death doesn’t wait, life doesn’t have to wait either.”
• “Man, if he did not delude himself, could not live on earth.”

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