Ivan Turgenev
Fathers and Sons — the Russian generation gap
The most European of the great Russian novelists and the first to win a wide Western readership. Fathers and Sons — its nihilist hero Bazarov the most discussed fictional character of the 1860s — defined the generational conflict between Romantic idealism and radical materialism. His prose style influenced Chekhov, Hemingway, and every writer who valued restraint.
Key works
- Fathers and Sons1862— Nihilism named and dramatized
- A Sportsman's Sketches1852— Peasant portraits that helped abolish serfdom