Fathers and Sons

Turgenev set off a storm in Russia with this 1862 novel about two generations that can no longer hear each other. Arkady Kirsanov comes home from university with his friend Bazarov, a medical student who calls himself a nihilist and refuses to accept any principle on authority alone, including art, romance, and the gentle liberal manners of Arkady’s father and uncle. The argument that follows is funny, painful, and never quite settled, and it turns inward once both young men fall in love and find that their convictions protect them from nothing. Radicals accused Turgenev of caricature, conservatives decided he had flattered the young, and the book outlived both complaints. Free to download here as a PDF and EPUB edition.