Home of the Gentry

Resumen del libro

On one level the novel is about the homecoming of Lavretsky, who, broken and disillusioned by a failed marriage, returns to his estate and finds love again - only to lose it. The sense of loss and of unfulfilled promise, beautifully captured by Turgenev, reflects his underlying theme that humanity is not destined to experience happiness except as something ephemeral and inevitably doomed. On another level Turgenev is presenting the homecoming of a whole generation of young Russians who have fallen under the spell of European ideas that have uprooted them from Russia, their 'home', but have proved ultimately superfluous.

In tragic bewilderment, they attempt to find reconciliation with their land.

Biografía del autor

Iván Turguénev (Oriol, Rusia, 1818 -Bougival, Francia, 1883) Escritor ruso. Perteneciente a una familia noble rural, pasó su infancia en la hacienda materna hasta que se trasladó a Berlín para seguir estudios superiores, momento en el que entró en contacto con la filosofía hegeliana. De vuelta a su país, inició su carrera literaria con relatos que se inscriben dentro de la estética posromántica del momento (años treinta), mientras trabajaba como funcionario público, cargo que abandonó en 1843 por un gran amor, Pauline Viardot, cantante rusa constantemente en gira, con la que Turguénev mantuvo