Love and Youth: Essential Stories

by Ivan Turgenev, Nicolas Pasternak Slater (Translator), Maya Slater (Translator)

From the most romantic of the Russian greats, an enthralling selection of short stories and novellas

An icon of Russian literature, Turgenev was able to contain the narrative sweep of a novel in a single short story. His protagonists experience the joy and painful turbulence of first love, the thrilling adventures of youth, and the layered reflections of maturity. His great skill is to make his readers feel alongside these characters, rendering their complex interiorities, whether nobility or serf, in these stories charged with a profound social conscience.

This collection, in a lyrical new translation by Nicolas Slater, places Turgenev's great novella First Love alongside a selection of his classic stories. From the evocative rural scenes of 'Bezhin Meadow' and 'Rattling Wheels', to the pathos and humanity of 'The District Doctor' and 'Biryuk', these are stories to be lingered over.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Russia, Russian Literature

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 2020

About the author

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Cyrillic: Иван Сергеевич Тургенев) was a novelist, poet, and dramatist, and now ranks as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. His major works include the short-story collection A Sportsman’s Sketches (1852) and the novels Rudin (1856), Home of the Gentry (1859), On the Eve (1860), and Fathers and Sons (1862).

These works offer realistic, affectionate portrayals of the Russian peasantry and penetrating studies of the Russian intelligentsia who were attempting to move the country into a new age. His masterpiece, Fathers and Sons, is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.

Turgenev was a contemporary with Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. While these wrote about church and religion, Turgenev was more concerned with the movement toward social reform in Russia.

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

My blood was in a ferment, my heart ached so sweetly and absurdly; I was endlessly waiting for something, dreading something, filled with wonder and anticipation; my imagination fluttered and soared and returned to the same fancies over and again, like martins circling a bell tower at sunrise; I was dreamy and gloomy, and even wept; but through my very sorrows and tears, brought on perhaps by the music of a verse or a beautiful evening, there sprang up, like the fresh grass in springtime, a joyful sense of youth and burgeoning life.

'First Love' is also my first Turgenev and this came as a surprise to me: I expected the lyrical evocation of boyhood first love but I wasn't prepared for the rather whimsical humour that Turgenev inserts, or for the later developments that may well be foreseeable by the reader but which shock our poor narrator irredeemably.

I was very aware while reading of how this novella reaches out to other texts both preceding and following: the articulation of obsessive love that is also a kind of cover for portraying masculine subjectivity and a melancholy sense of the abject (the female object of desire has little subjectivity of her own) looks back to classical texts from the erotic elegies of Catullus, Propertius and Ovid, to their Renaissance imitations in Petrarch, Sidney, Ronsard and others. There's a touch of Goethe's Werther, as well as Proust (of course!) - and there's clearly another story that could be told from Zinaida's perspective that is almost completely muted here.

The trope, too, of the moment at which boyhood is left behind for a sober and saddened step into the complexities of adult life - a kind of Fall into knowledge - helps structure this story and, again, sets off memories of other books, not least The Go-Between: for Vladimir Petrovich, too, the past is 'another country'.

A lovely resonant little tale, then, that tracks a boy's coming of age. The other handful of stories in this collection are less decisive but offer up an interesting taster of Turgenev's scope.

Thanks to Pushkin Press for an ARC via NetGalley

[Saturday's Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the descriptions of the outdoor environment made for a peaceful lunchtime read.

[Sharadha Jayaraman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories written by the renowned Russian author Ivan Turgenev about love/lovers and young people (as main characters) or those recounting stories of their youth.

What I liked about these stories was how effortlessly the author detailed the mundane things constituting everyday life, like the park nearby the protagonist's house and how it affects their moods or how a doctor tends to an ailing patient. While these may seem generic on the face of things, for a promising future author, these stories can serve as a good blueprint. The stories also dealt with some bold topics of abuse (verbal and physical), which I appreciate would have been quite forward to explore in the 19th century. However, the downside to this was a tedious read and stories that seem dated (any rightly so).

All in all, I'm glad to have picked this author and hope to read more of his works in future. Thank you Netgalley and Pushkin Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

a sweet spring sunday read

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came to this thinking that a name as recognisable as Turgenev would demand an 'Essential Stories' several hundred pages, and many entries, thick. Well, this is one novella, and just five stories. And it would appear there is no introduction to guide us into the output of this chap, nor to dissuade me of whatever thoughts such paucity gave me. The novella, 'First Love', is OK up to a point – it's certainly an over-long and over-wrought tale of a young man in love with the daughter of the household his parents are putting up – oh, and the five or six other men doting on her cuckold-styled flirting. It also contains what might charitably be called a 'twist', which you can see coming a mile off – or verst.

Second, a story that tries to get a spooky atmosphere up, with a game hunter losing his way in a landscape he should by rights know, and finding a handful of lads tending horses and telling each other the latest ghostly, ethereal gossip. Ultimately it's a waste of time, for not having much in the way of drama, to say the least. Also a bit too inconsequential, a second hunter is put up for a stormy night with a potentially malicious forest keeper; as a character study it's OK but the way it ends means it again leaves much to be desired. More success comes next, however, with yet another hunter on an errand, on a strange road, with a strange coachman, and noises getting louder from behind. It's pacily read, but there's more fun to be had after that with a melodramatic doctor falling for his patient and she likewise in return. We close with a scene, rather than a story, of a disfunctional couple, reported to us by an observer who might well be a hunter – it seemed that Turgenev wanted to put so much knowledgable description and discussion of the skies and nature that only that character would fit his voice. I can't say this selection struck me as really 'essential', but I am glad I've ticked this author off my list with these easy-to-read pages. Two and a half stars.

[Jean-Luc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love & Youth brings together a newly translated collection of Ivan Turgenev's best short stories & novellas. First love, the most famous, and probably one of the best examples of Russian & European 19th century Romanticism is a story about the destructive nature of unbridled emotional passion seen through the sentimental education of a 16yo adolescent, Vladimir and his unrequited love for Zenaida, a 27yo manipulative, proud & haughty hussy (une garce in French) who in turn will eventually fall prey to the seductive game of Vladimir's father, an unscrupulous & violent man. First love is the best study of what I would call the twin aspects of "Emotional despotism" This is a great collection and it would be the best introduction for anyone interested or willing to discover one of the most important writers of the 19th century. Turgenev was one of the greatest masters of character studies. Please enjoy without moderation! Many thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for the opportunity to read this wonderful collection prior its release date

[M]

Starting off National Poetry Month with a poem stuck in a novel. Or is the novel stuck in a poem?I have known of Turgenev for awhile but it's only this year that I've begun to know him through his words.

Russian romanticism at its finest - love and death, and everything in between. I'll find myself mulling over lines like "I was like soft wax in her hands" and "Some people, obviously, find it sweet to sacrifice themselves."

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent volume from the wonderful Pushkin Press. Five of Turgenev’s short stories and his novella First Love are gathered here and are an excellent introduction to his writing. I’m not a great fan of his short stories in general, finding him too lyrical and romantic and too inclined to linger on landscape descriptions – I much prefer the novels – but these comprise a gentle and pleasant collection which aficionados and newcomers alike will enjoy.

[Noah Graham is Dead · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was short and sweet for the time, just horribly boring after the first story. And the first story that’s worth sticking around for really isn’t anything special on its own either. Short review for a short book. Not a horrible book, just excruciatingly boring and surprisingly simplistic in its writing.

[Seher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC!

This was a great collection of short stories that really are about love and youth, together and apart. They were funny, whimsical, and utterly charming even when they were sad. The first story was easily the best, but the collection as a whole is a strong one.

[Michael Martin]

Perceptive and poignant stories. As promised by reviewers, the descriptions, particularly of nature, are necessary and a pleasure to read, and the stories are all involving. First Love is complex, Behzin Meadow elegiac, The Rattling tense and unnerving.

[Mandy Hazen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written and laid out. I absolutely love love stories and poetry. These stories transported me to another world of love and light. Some stories were confusing and I wasn’t really sure where they were doing or what the point was. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Cristiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 I only really liked First Love and The District Doctor

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very simple stories without any clear moral lessons or maxims. The caliber of the stories varied but I liked the idea of this collection a lot.

[Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of Turgenev's stories.

[Aleksandra Nastić · Rating 4 out of 5]

као и увек, одушевљена сам са руском књижевношћу 🥰

[Emilia Tombolesi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t even know why I went back to Turgenev. BOOORING

[selin · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of these stories are so flowy and nice they could be read without catching your breath and others were way less remarkable but i did thoroughly enjoy how incessantly vivid they all were (felt like i was teleported to the pastoral russia of the 19th century the entire time)