Rudin
Turgenev’s first novel gave Russian literature one of its defining portraits of the superfluous man. Dmitri Rudin arrives at a wealthy country estate and dazzles the household with his eloquence and lofty ideals, above all the young and earnest Natalya, who begins to love him. Yet when feeling calls for action and courage, Rudin falters, exposing the gap between his soaring words and his weak will. Through him Turgenev examines a whole generation of Russian idealists raised on German philosophy but unable to act on their convictions. Spare, ironic, and quietly moving, the book closes with a glimpse of Rudin’s later years that deepens its sympathy. This free PDF and EPUB edition brings the novel to readers at no cost.
About the Author
Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) was a Russian novelist and playwright, the first of his countrymen to win a wide European readership. A friend of Flaubert and Henry James, he wrote with a spare lyricism, and his Fathers and Sons remains a landmark of the nineteenth-century novel.
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