A vivid picture of nineteenth-century Russian society, but above all the poignant story of a man whose mortality becomes the only aspect of life that he shares with his fellow man.
When Turgenev published Diary of a Superfluous Man in 1850, he created one of the first literary portraits of the alienated man. Turgenev once said that there was a great deal of himself in the unsuccessful lovers who appear in his fiction. This failure, along with painful self-consciousness, is a central fact for the ailing Chulkaturin in this melancholy tale. As he reflects on his life, he tells the story of Liza, whom he loved, and a prince, whom she loved instead, and the curious turns all their lives took.
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Text: English, Russian (translation)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
David Patterson is professor of English at Oklahoma State University and translator of Tolstoy's The Forged Coupon, also available in Norton paperback.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The narrator of this book, the "author" of the diary is a man anticipating death within a week. Chulkaturin is alone - only an old woman caring for him - facing death without family or friends. He begins writing a diary, an accounting of his life. What begins as a biography beginning with his childhood, becomes the narration of a single event, an event he believes illustrates beyond all doubt that he is a "superfluous man". This event is a one-sided love for a girl just becoming a woman. In this story Turgenev presents us with alienation - 1850's Russian style. For those of us raised on existential alienation, this book is an excellent reminder that alienation is a far more universal literary theme - a theme well executed in this book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Turgenev's novella about a dying 'superfluous' man . In a way, it's an update of Lermantov's "A Hero of Our Time" (without the tricky narrative structure) or Goethe's "Werther." Turgenev's story is notable for its more humane perspective; he truly was the "greatest French novelist writing in Russian."
The only downside to this volume is its length: "Superfluous Man" is more of a long story or novella than a book in and of itself. Look instead for a collection.
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THE DOCTOR has just left me. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
superfluous man Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Kirilla Matveich, Mme Ozhogin, Lizaveta Kirillovna, Sergei Sergeich New!
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
THE DOCTOR has just left me. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
superfluous man Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Kirilla Matveich, Mme Ozhogin, Lizaveta Kirillovna, Sergei Sergeich New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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This book cites 17
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45
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- Diary of a Superfluous Man by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Front Matter (3)
- Eugene Onegin (Penguin Classics) by Alexander Pushkin in Front Matter
- Dead Souls (Dodo Press) by Nikolai Gogol in Front Matter
- The Sufferings of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe in Front Matter
- First Love and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) by Ivan Turgenev in Front Matter
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- Diary as Fiction: Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and Turgenev's "Diary of a Superfluous Man" by Jessica M. Natale on 8 pages
- Character In The Short Prose Of Ivan Sergeevic Turgenev.(Studies in Slavic Literature and Poetics 25) by Sander Brouwer on 5 pages
- James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism) by Mark A. Wollaeger on page 189, page 190, and page 204
- James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism) by Mark A. Wollaeger on page 189, and page 204
- The Routledge Companion to Russian Literature (Routledge Companions) by Neil Cornwell on page 111, and page 116
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