The novelists’ novelist

by R.L. Lalprema

In expression of love, it is the shared opinion of many critics that Turgenev has no equal in the realm of fiction writing among his contemporaries in Russia or perhaps outside. He displays in his works a talent that is unique to him in transforming love into a deep, serene feeling giving it a dignified status, never treated in a lighter vein stained with humour or disrespect.

His concept of love offers as a test of human values, in addition to its being a gift of fortune and blessing. The love enshrined in an exalted feeling that we come across in his short novels; Asya, First Love and Spring Torrents will come to stay in our memory for the rest of our lives with the same fervour we had experienced in our first reading.

I was only a teenager with no experience of anything, such as, romantic connections when I happened to read Turgenev’s My First Love. I was an avid reader, yet indiscriminate in my choice.

But the dramatic experience embodied therein, touched my inner self, and awakened me to a world of beauty and serenity, I had not known before. However, it had a tragic end; the young hero is struck with the cruelty of fate as he detects in secrecy before his own eyes, how his enchantress betrays his tender love.

It started reverberating in me as if I was the affected character and was deeply wrapped up in disgust and melancholy. The inexperienced protagonist under the illusion of enjoying a woman’s love failed to see how brazenly she was driven by pure lust always hidden in human nature.

Unlike my life as a student then, with many decades already behind me, now, my preference goes to Turgenev’s masterpieces like Fathers and Sons, which discusses the ever-recurring conflict between the Wise Old Ones of the Cave, and the Young Hot Heads of the Tribe.

Further, his works, A Nest of the Gentry, Hunter’s Sketches, On the Eve have stood ageless with their profound experiences rendered to the readers, since the lapse of one century and a half or more.

“Even the success of Doctor Zhivago did not come within an ocean’s breath of the success of Fathers and Sons which not only awakened more interest than any previous or any subsequent work of Turgenev but aroused more controversies than any other Russian novel of the 19th century, controversies the heat of which persisted literally for decades and which had not died out in certain quarters to this day,” says Bernard Cuilbert Guerney. (Translator’s foreword Modern Library College edition)

Western authors

Works of fiction of the 19th century Russian masters enriched the world literature with their expression of harsh reality adorned with such beauty, that they exerted an overwhelming effect on the writings of many celebrated Western authors.

Among the galaxy of writers on a par with one another in their creative ability and originality in portraying the Russian life from the landed gentry down to the pitiable serf, Ivan Sergheievich Turgenev came to be recognized as one who had been emboldened by the conception of the Western novel, in addition to the great Russian tradition that moulded and coloured his literary life.

His works emanated a flavour of western concept of form and content, which was felt by the critics as evidence of his becoming westernised, however, not unfounded, for the greater part of his life, he lived outside Russia.

It got him the privilege of mixing with novelists from various parts of the globe e.g. England, Germany, Italy and Switzerland and, particularly, France, which later became his second home.

Having got acclimatized to the foreign soil Turgenev continued with his literary life whereas other greats like Chekhov and Tolstoy had no heart to engage themselves in creative writings as and when they had sojourned in foreign countries away from their motherland.

In the company of Flaubert he enjoyed the opportunity of being received and treated equally by Maupassant, Daudet, the Goncourt brothers.

Turgenev introduced Henry James, the American author to the Flaubert’s Circle in Paris when he came to live in Europe.

This association of international recognition had the new member to represent the American side while Turgenev stood for Russia. His self-imposed exile got him exposed to the literary concepts of the Western masters having free dialogue on matters, denied in his own country.

“What was discussed,” writes Henry James in his recollections, “was chiefly questions of taste, questions of art and form ... relation of art of morality ... question as to the degree in which a novel might or might not concern with the teaching of a lesson.”

He further emphasises, “No one could desire more than he that art should be art; always ever, incorruptibly art ...” and that Turgenev had an incomparably broader understanding of the peculiarities of art than had his French conferrers.”

Undisputed was the fact that novels of Henry James could be traced to the direct influence of Turgenev, whom he held in high esteem for his profound knowledge and reality, emitted through his magnificent gallery of characterisations.

Researches made at the Cambridge University on the Russian novel disclose Turgenev’s influence on George Gissing, George Moore, Arnold Bennet, Galsworthy, Joseph Condrad and Virginia Woolf. It is a paradox that George Moore himself, no mean teller of tales, said the best storytellers are the Russians, and the best among them was Turgenev.”

Inspiration

Apart from the said host of authors, who drew inspiration from him, we will come to learn about the devotional feelings of Earnest Hemingway, the celebrated American author, had nurtured for this great novelist during his self-imposed exile in France.

Turgenev’s masterpiece, Fathers and Sons, however, received a harsh reception in Russia, particularly, about its main character, Bazarov that represented the younger generation.

Those who failed to understand the novel in its artistic depth levelled scathing attacks on him.

He says one of the two persons who grasped the author’s intentions in the correct perspective was Dostoevsky. Yet sensitive to the developments at home that shattered all his expectations about his new book, he left Russia only to revisit from time to time for short stays. Turgenev died in his self-imposed exile on September 3, 1883 at Bougival, near Paris.

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