Rudin On the Eve

In Rudin (1855) and On the Eve (1859), Turgenev portrays, through tales of passionate, problematic love, the conflicts of cultural loyalty and national identity at the heart of nineteenth-century Russia. Although sensitive and intelligent, Turgenev's anti-heroes are unable to establish a relation to the real world of decision, commitment, and achievement. In Rudin, Turgenev presents a man who quails before the challenge posed by a young woman stronger than himself, while in On the Eve Yelena's genteel family makes it impossible for her to join the Bulgarian nationalist she so fervently adores. Both novels reflect Turgenev's concern with the failings of Russia's educated class, the only class he believed was capable of building a new civilized and humane Russia based on the rational principles of European enlightenment. This fluent new translation does full justice to Turgenev's delicate style and the elegiac emotion of the stories.