Five stories and a novella from an undisputed Russian master. Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883) was a Russian writer of novels, short stories, poems and plays. He is best known in the West for his novel Fathers and Sons. Love and Youth is a new translation of Turgenev's stories by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater. The collection opens with First Love, a 100 page novella about a sixteen-year-old youth, Vladimir, who falls in love with his neigbour, a princess named Zinaida. She is some six years older than Vladimir and is playing a group of male admirers off each other. Vladimir is clearly out of his depth, but desperately clings to Zinaida, futilely hoping to win a first place in her affections. First Love perfectly captures the tremulous quality of naive, youthful desire. In "Bezhin Meadow" a group of superstitious youths talk of frightening supernatural occurrences, all happening in a transcendentally beautiful Russian meadow; "The District Doctor" describes how a local doctor falls in love with his dying patient; the often humorous "Rattling Wheels" features a frightening coach journey taken on Russia's backroads by two men trying to avoid a group of drunken bandits; and finally, ending the collection, a story about a young woman who implores her listless, indifferent boyfriend to at least show her some affection. Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater's translation is sublime, capturing Turgenev's simple, naturalistic style. For example, the descriptions of the landscape and wildlife in “Bezhin Meadow” is breathtakingly beautiful. Turgenev also draws wonderfully humane and sympathetic characters that are easily recognisable today. A dreamy, realistic, deceptively simple collection that highlights what a master Turgenev was. Love and Youth: Essential Stories, by Ivan Turgenev. Published by Pushkin Press. $24.99 Reviewed by Chris Saliba Comments are closed.
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