Home of the Gentry (Classics)
£3.90
Home is where the heart is - Turgenev s second novel is indeed closest to the ideal of pure Turgenev, certainly reminiscent of his dramatic work, depicting the lives of the gentry, Russian society and family relationships, while maintaining a humanistic stance towards the circumstances of the peasantry, all with a deep connection and love for the country and the landscape itself. It s even initially staged like one of Turgenev s dramas, each of the principal characters making their walk-on entrances at the Kalitin household, but Turgenev novelistically fills out the relevant background detail of a number of the characters with depth and precision.It s at the Kalitin household that Lavretsky, on his way back home to his estate after the break up of his marriage in Europe, calls in on his relatives and falls in love with his cousin Liza Mikhaylovna. Liza is however being courted by an important but dull government official who Lavretsky feels is unworthy of the deeply religious young woman, but Lavretsky s own bad experiences in love and his uncertainty over the position of his ex-wife causes him to hesitate about whether he should declare his feelings to Liza.For all the humanistic position of Tugenev s work, his superb evocation of the Russian landscape, the circumstances of its people and the gentrification of society towards the European model, Home of the Gentry is more than anything about affairs of the heart. Another s heart is like a dark forest, the author muses here and perhaps only Chekhov really has the ability to delve there, but Turgenev brilliantly manages to identify how the conflicting emotions between a man and a woman drive one s actions more than any social conscience or lofty ideal, and is without peer in depicting those feelings with truth and beauty in his works (as opposed to Chekhov s darker cynicism). Magnificent.
Returning to the nest - An elegaic meditation on ageing, love and happiness, this has been called the most Turgenevian of Turgenev s novels. It is set in the externally placid countryside, with the metropolises of Moscow and St Petersburg (and Paris) mentioned only as distant lands of troubles and bureaucracy.The novel is mainly concerned with Lavretsky, who has returned to the countryside following his wife s unfaithfulness. She has gone to Paris, and he has now fled back to the country, as if he has been scalded by life and has now scarpered from it like a whimpering dog - or perhaps it is more like a bird returning after migration, as the Russian title The Nobility s Nest suggests. While he fully expects to pass the remainder of his days in seclusion, he falls in love with Liza and the torments of love and unattainable happiness assail him once again, as it conspires that the two of them are unable to be together for the wheel of fate has spun them away from one another.A Russian novel that if not epic in size, is certainly epic in its strength and beauty. It s concern with Russia s relationship with Europe is one that we can also find in War and Peace, and it s certainly no slander against Turgenev to say that this novel could easily find its place slipped within the pages of that epic masterpiece.