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 Children, Rudin, Virgin Soil and On the
Eve.
Nicolas Pasternak Slater is a translator of Russian literature. He
has translated work by Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo
Tolstoy, Mikhail Lermontov, Teffi, his uncle Boris Pasternak, and
many others.
Maya Slater is the author of the novel Mr. Darcy's Diary and a
senior research fellow at Queen Mary University of London. She was
a lecturer on French literature at London University for more than
three decades.
"Turgenev’s remarkable quality of insight, gives [Fathers and
Children] an uncanny position in Russian literature and life. . . .
The new English translation... is also highly readable, and can
occasion another look at the book, for those who’ve read it before,
or a first look for those who haven’t. . . . This rupture between
parents and their children is what happens, over and over, with
every new generation; there is nothing for it, no remedy, no
answer." —Keith Gessen, The New Yorker
"An excellent and highly readable translation by veteran
Russianists Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater. . . . What
makes the novel continually timely is Turgenev’s insight into the
psychology of such youthful rebellion. . . . We’ve seen enough of
the self-righteousness of children and the stubbornness of parents
to make Fathers and Children a book for our moment." —Adam
Kirsch, Air Mail
“In short, it’s a Russian masterpiece, one written so beautifully
and with such economy, that when you finish reading it you feel a
little shaken and a little stirred. A vodka martini on the front
porch might be in order.” —Gary Shteyngart, All Things
Considered
“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
James
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