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Title: Smoke by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Constance Black Garnett ISBN: 1-885983-00-X Publisher: Turtle Point Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Where's the Fire?
Comment: Turgenev devotees will be pleased to find a copy of this most seldom reissued and perhaps least known of his novels. Its tidy paperback sheath, studded with sepia snapshots from the historical time it depicts, makes a fine outer garment for the spare and slender frame of a tale we find within. For, at first glance, "Smoke" will not appear to have many of the winning features which normally draw readers into Turgenev's fictional realms and keep them there, so happily immured: absent are the legendary lyrical descriptions of the Russian countryside and its owners to be found in such novels as "Rudin" and "Home of the Gentry," and missing are the complex character development and more involved political reflections which are hallmarks of the somewhat lesser yet still impressive "On the Eve." And the discoverer of "Smoke" will be sorely disappointed should she or he hope to find in this work something to satisfy the voracious literary appetite engendered by the sumptuous meal which "Fathers and Children" invariably is. "Smoke," like "Virgin Soil" which immediately followed it, has no dearth of defects. Its plot moves too swiftly, for example, giving no time for characters to change and events to move in credible ways. Its tone is often mean-spirited and sour. Practically no one likeable, aside, perhaps, from the unhappy Tatyana, appears in its pages. Its plot and even dialogue are too often puzzlingly predictable. Yet, for all its lacks, "Smoke" does accomplish the astonishing novelistic miracle, achieved by so few: the creation of two characters, in Irina Ratmirov and Grigory Litvinov, who are utterly unforgettable. Unsavory from first bite to final slurp, an encounter with them will leave the reader longing for some equally ferocious flavor as purgative to the palate. No small feat! Though to a 21st century American ear, this translation will sound quaintly Victorian (Constance Garnett, whose translating career death has not hurt one little bit) and cozily English (check out curiosities like "phiz" and "fly"), it is well-worth not only buying but reading. What better way, really, to point out the always-to-be-remembered truth that even immortals like the divine Turgenev were not continually engaged in the manufacture of masterpieces.
Rating: 4
Summary: Very readable, youthful Turgenev romantic/political novel
Comment: A very readable translation, although more can be gained with an elementary level of French to catch some of the untranslated idiomatic phrases of the faux aristocracy. This short novel is not as sentimental or melancholy as "Spring Torrents" or "First Love," and perhaps lacks the polish of his best-known work "Fathers and Sons," but the mixture of the setting (Baden Baden, Germany)with the characters from not only Russia, but also France, Germany et al., with a familiar plot device (love triangle) makes for not only an interesting love story but also an intriguing glance at the political history of Russia and western Europe. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a more complete understanding of Turgenev's works,the Russian novel in general, and the late 19th Century European literature. Personally, I have enjoyed all of Turgenev's novels and would recommend any of them. If you are new to Turgenev, however, I would definitely recommend starting with "Fathers and Sons." All of Turgenev's novels combined make for less reading than say Tolstoy's "War and Peace" or Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment." Sample some Turgenev!
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Title: Virgin Soil (New York Review Books Classics) by Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Turgenev ISBN: 0940322455 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: First Love and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Richard Freeborn ISBN: 0192836897 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Spring Torrents (Penguin Classics) by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Leonard Schapiro, Leonard Bertram Schapiro ISBN: 014044369X Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1980 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Rudin (Penguin Classics) by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev ISBN: 0140443045 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1975 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Home of the Gentry (The Penguin Classics) by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev ISBN: 0140442243 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1970 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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