Few works of art have zeroed in on intergenerational strife with such focused intensity as Fathers and Children by Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883). This translation by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater revitalizes a classic of 19th-century literature.
It is 1859 in provincial Russia, and 44-year-old Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov is waiting for his son, Arkady--a recent graduate of the university in Petersburg--to return home. Eager for reunion, Nikolai joyfully welcomes Arkady and Bazarov, his new friend from school. But in their reacquaintance, anxious strains emerge, for Nikolai and Bazarov have joined themselves to an avant-garde, "enlightened" and revolutionary youth movement. They cast suspicious eyes on the naïve and idealistic liberalism of their fathers, many of whom defended or were insufficiently denunciatory regarding recently abolished serfdom. More than Arkady, it is Bazarov who incites passionate discord as he, a proud, self-proclaimed nihilist, confesses his beliefs in nothing, obsessively criticizing all societal traditions and practices with complete disregard for any and all universal principles. As the drama accelerates, its drawing room and pastoral scenes of argument collectively take the shape of a splintering civil society--with ruinous consequences.
The novel's drama plays out across crackling conversations, moving from innocent and sentimental joy to devastating modern irony before concluding in tragedy. The Slaters' translation renders Turgenev's prose in striking directness, effortlessly packing in detailed family histories and wondrous visual descriptions that are scientifically precise and materially conscious but that retain the full pathos of classic 19th-century social and naturalistic realism. --Walker Minot, freelance writer and editor