Smoke

Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book Smoke by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, anboco
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev ISBN: 9783736414235
Publisher: anboco Publication: September 6, 2016
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
ISBN: 9783736414235
Publisher: anboco
Publication: September 6, 2016
Imprint:
Language: English

'Smoke' was first published in 1867, several years after Turgenev had fixed his home in Baden, with his friends the Viardots. Baden at this date was a favourite resort for all circles of Russian society, and Turgenev was able to study at his leisure his countrymen as they appeared to foreign critical eyes. The novel is therefore the most cosmopolitan of all Turgenev's works. On a veiled background of the great world of European society, little groups of representative Russians, members of the aristocratic and the Young Russia parties, are etched with an incisive, unfaltering hand. Smoke, as an historical study, though it yields in importance to Fathers and Children and Virgin Soil, is of great significance to Russians. It might with truth have been named Transition, for the generation it paints was then midway between the early philosophical Nihilism-vi- of the sixties and the active political Nihilism of the seventies. Markedly transitional, however, as was the Russian mind of the days of Smoke, Turgenev, with the faculty that distinguishes the great artist from the artist of second rank, the faculty of seeking out and stamping the essential under confused and fleeting forms, has once and for ever laid bare the fundamental weakness of the Slav nature, its weakness of will. Smoke is an attack, a deserved attack, not merely on the Young Russia Party, but on all the Parties; not on the old ideas or the new ideas, but on the proneness of the Slav nature to fall a prey to a consuming weakness, a moral stagnation, a feverish ennui, the Slav nature that analyses everything with force and brilliancy, and ends, so often, by doing nothing. Smoke is the attack, bitter yet sympathetic, of a man who, with growing despair, has watched the weakness of his countrymen, while he loves his country all the more for the bitterness their sins have brought upon it.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

'Smoke' was first published in 1867, several years after Turgenev had fixed his home in Baden, with his friends the Viardots. Baden at this date was a favourite resort for all circles of Russian society, and Turgenev was able to study at his leisure his countrymen as they appeared to foreign critical eyes. The novel is therefore the most cosmopolitan of all Turgenev's works. On a veiled background of the great world of European society, little groups of representative Russians, members of the aristocratic and the Young Russia parties, are etched with an incisive, unfaltering hand. Smoke, as an historical study, though it yields in importance to Fathers and Children and Virgin Soil, is of great significance to Russians. It might with truth have been named Transition, for the generation it paints was then midway between the early philosophical Nihilism-vi- of the sixties and the active political Nihilism of the seventies. Markedly transitional, however, as was the Russian mind of the days of Smoke, Turgenev, with the faculty that distinguishes the great artist from the artist of second rank, the faculty of seeking out and stamping the essential under confused and fleeting forms, has once and for ever laid bare the fundamental weakness of the Slav nature, its weakness of will. Smoke is an attack, a deserved attack, not merely on the Young Russia Party, but on all the Parties; not on the old ideas or the new ideas, but on the proneness of the Slav nature to fall a prey to a consuming weakness, a moral stagnation, a feverish ennui, the Slav nature that analyses everything with force and brilliancy, and ends, so often, by doing nothing. Smoke is the attack, bitter yet sympathetic, of a man who, with growing despair, has watched the weakness of his countrymen, while he loves his country all the more for the bitterness their sins have brought upon it.

More books from anboco

Cover of the book More Misrepresentative Men by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book A Complete History of Music by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Western North Carolina - The Heart of the Alleghanies by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Neighbours on the Green and My Faithful Johnny by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Bird Children: The Little Playmates of the Flower Children by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Woodwork Joints: How they are Set Out, How Made and Where Used by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Electrical Guide by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book The Liberty Minstrel by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book The Critique of Pure Reason by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Heart of Darkness by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Plane and Plank; or, The Mishaps of a Mechanic by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Archag the Little Armenian by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book The Voyage of the Beagle by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Mother's Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers of the United States and Canada by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Cover of the book Bill Bolton and Hidden Danger by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy