Virgin Soil

Every class of society, every type of character, every degree of fortune, every phase of manners, passes through his hands; his imagination claims its property equally, in town and country, among rich and poor, among wise people and idiots, dilettanti and peasants, the tragic and the joyous, the probable and the grotesque. He has an eye for all our passions and a deeply sympathetic sense of the wonderful complexity of our souls.— Henry JamesTurgenev’s Russia is but a canvas on which the incomparable artist of humanity lays his colours and his forms in the great light and free air of the world….All his creations, fortunate and unfortunate, oppressed and oppressors, are human beings, not strange beasts in a menagerie or damned souls knocking themselves out in the stuffy darkness of mystical contradictions. They are human beings, fit to live, fit to suffer, fit to struggle, fit to win, fit to lose, in the endless and inspiring game of pursuing from day to day the ever-receding future.— Joseph Conrad

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was born into a wealthy family of the Russian landed gentry and educated in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Berlin. He made his name as a writer with A Sportsman’s Sketches, an unvarnished picture of Russian country life that is said to have influenced Tsar Alexander II’s decision to liberate the serfs. In later years, Turgenev lived in Europe, returning only rarely to his native country. He was the author of poems, stories, plays, and six novels, the most celebrated of which include Fathers and Sons, Rudin, and On the Eve.

Charlotte Hobson divides her time between translating and writing. She is the author of Black Earth City.

Constance Garnett (1861-1946) was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature, and introduced Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov on a wide basis to the English speaking public.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.