First Love (Russian Texts) (Art of the Novel) (Library of Russian Classics S.)

by Ivan Turgenev

3 of 5 stars 1 rating • 0 reviews • 1 shelved
Book cover for First Love

Bookhype may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.

The title of the novella is almost an adequate summary in itself. The "boy-meets-girl-then-loses-her" story is universal but not, I think, banal - despite a surprise ending which notoriously turns out to be very little of a surprise. First Love is given its originality and poignancy by Turgenev's mastery of the piercing turning-point (akin to Joyce's "epiphanies") that transforms the character's whole being, making a tragic outcome inevitable. Even the nature symbolism is rescued from triteness by lovely poetic similes - e.g. "but at that point my attention was arrested by the appearance of a speckled woodpecker who busily climbed up the slender stem of a birch-tree and peeped out uneasily from behind it, first to the right, then to the left, like a musician behind the bass-viol."
  • ISBN10 1291618007
  • ISBN13 9781291618006
  • Publish Date 3 November 2013 (first published 30 November 1978)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Lulu.com
  • Format eBook
  • Language English