Customer Reviews

Virgin Soil

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although this book definitely stands on its own, perhaps not as good as Fathers and Sons however, I enjoyed it much more immensely having lived in Russia for a time. Knowing a bit about the Russian people, way of thinking adds immeasurably to the pleasure and understanding of the novel (as it does for all Russian novels). In other words, I can vouch that Turgenev is right on! He truly captures the Russian character, the essentials of which have not changed much since this novel was written over a hundred years ago. Virgin Soil is concerned, among other things, with problems encountered by young revolutionaries when they go out and try to spread the word among the "people." Well, surprise, surprise, this is the same thing I saw when I lived in Russia in the early 90's - why a swift wholesale transition to capitalism did not happen smoothly. You can change economic, political etc. systems but you CANNOT change a people's mindset just like that! So ... read Virgin Soil for Turgenev's wonderful descriptions of nature and his individual characters, but read also with this in mind - that you are getting a glimpse into the Russian character. It all rings true, from the long conversations to the vodka to how world view is influenced by social class.

Encompassing social commentary, a (albeit fairly simplistic) love story, and a homage to Russia's beauty, this work does not fail the lover of Turgenev. Certainly this might not necessarily be the best work with which to begin one's odyssey through Turgenev, but this very effectively pulls together all the familiar elements of his writing. Turgenev is not known for his plot development, and this is again the case here: very little actually occurs. The absence of plot and of action, however, is not to say that this dry, boring drivel. Rather, Turgenev's material, this work in particular, becomes a pleasant marriage of the classic novel with the novel of ideas.

His commentary, both political and human, is both trapped in the amber of history and universally relevant (a lovely dichotomy) to the human condition. "Virgin Soil" is a very fine story, and the translation is flowing and literate (having no Russian, I cannot speak to how accurately this might reflect the original).

Having read all of Turgenev's major works, this would be the best one to close one's odyseesy of Turgenev works as it provides his finally achieved view of the desparate situation of then Russia and the skepticism toward the revolutionary movements aiming at social re-engineering. Story is very simple, and no significant action was involved, but a minimum knowlwedge of Russian literature, changing revolutionary movements and intelligentsia situation is required to grasp the width of the topics and issues covered.

While I'm unable to compare Turgenev's Russian with Constance Garnett's English translation--lucky those who know both languages--I would agree that Garnett's version is at times banal and lackluster. Perhaps the problem is that while the characters's dilemmas have become familiar (because of 20th-century Soviet history), the characters's turbulent inner dramas, the emotions, seldom catch fire on the page. And I don't know if the characters's lives are more exciting in Turgenev's original; however, I would not expect a novel published in 1877 to have the same appeal in 2008, when the heat of the era is long past. What's very familiar, and why this novel is essential reading for an understanding of the literature of the past 140 years, is that Turgenev illustrates the conflicts of men and women in their nation-building struggle. (This plot design, and the cast of characters, is probably what interested Constance Garnett's readers of her 1890 translation up to at least the 1930s.)

(Please read on, but my apologies to all: I don't yet know how to write a short review.)

We have met Turgenev's women and men before: the jingo-patriot imperialist, Tsarist landowner; the politically liberal but socially conservative landowner and his pampered, gossipy, social-climbing wife; the impulsive, hot-headed rebel; the artist-poet who would like to be a revolutionist but is more suited to writing lyrically by candlelight; and the even-tempered rational, physically attractive female rebel who, as a sign of her dedication to the cause, rejects the bourgeois marriage pact; then, not least, the ignorant, retrograde peasants, the silent factory workers, and the hard-pressed, abused man of "anonymous Russia" who must blend into the urban jungle.

But Virgin Soil is literature. Turgenev did not write with a template of socialist realism; this is not a "how to" novel on creating democracy in a system that knows only Tsarist imperialism. But, the central dilemma which Turgenev created has not changed: what should the well-meaning, educated person do when she or he is caught between two extremes? The author set up the plot of the novel by identifying himself with--and perhaps many readers will, too--the central consciousness of the novel: Alexey Dmitrievitch Nezhdanov, "the Hamlet of Russia," the educated, peace-loving poet, born out of wedlock to a Russian aristocrat.

Highly recommended: Henry James's novel, same theme but set in London, The Princess Casamassima, published in 1886. James had met Turgenev in Paris and knew the plot of Virgin Soil, and perhaps James read a French translation. But Henry James makes his characters come alive on the page: they are part and parcel of their personal and political predicaments. There's a paradox here: According to Constance Garnett and her circle, Henry James was old stuff, an old fuddy-duddy; but James was able to make the reader feel the bite of poverty, the pain of ignorance, and the tragedy of betrayal. Henry James focused on the people he created--the characters's differing levels of awareness--and, as a result, he achieved a more dynamic blending of plot and character. Certainly, The Princess Casamassima is a more cunning and cutting picture of plot and counter-plot, a behind-the-scenes look at the role of the individual in nation building. Also read Edmund Wilson's narrative non-fiction masterpiece on the rise of socialism in Europe, To the Finland Station (1940).

"Virgin Soil" (1877) was Turgenev's last, longest, but far from greatest novel. A recurring theme through all his fiction is the contrast between the romantic Russian liberalism of the 1840s, which Turgenev regarded as ineffectual, and the hard-headed populism of the 1860s and 70s. After the 1861 emancipation of the serfs (some 80% of Russia at the time), University students wanted to "go to the people" and enlighten them. When they got there, they found an unbridgeable chasm between the middle class and rural workers, who suspiciously had agitators arrested. Many of these spent years in solitary confinement, and the bitterness of their thwarted hopes for reform poisoned Russian politics and made violent revolution more likely. "Virgin Soil" begins with one such cell of radicals in St. Petersburg in 1868, and follows them to the countryside where they interact with both liberal and reactionary gentry, as well as with clear-headed Bolsheviks of the future. Little happens, and the thin, drawn-out plot lacks the economy, texture, and pungency of "Fathers and Sons." This is a decidedly second-drawer effort. To make matters worse, New York Review Books has reissued it in the incompetent, hackwork translation of Constance Garnett (1862-1946), presumably because it was in the public domain. I cannot judge her handling of Russian (though Nabokov did: "dried dung," he called her work) but her English is not even professional: NYRB could have spent some of the money they saved on a free translation by hiring a line editor to correct her egregious errors in syntax, grammar, and punctuation. It might have been better having no edition of "Virgin Soil" on the market at all.

This is the third of Ivan Turgenev's novels that I have read. He is such a wonderful novelist that the things I dislike about some of his female characters (he must have had SUCH a tough time of it!) tends to get obscured. Surely there can't be women in the world that manipulative and self-obsessed! But I'll avoid the risk of confusing things - yes, the title of my review is a quote - and just mention that there are nice women in each of the novels that I have read, as well as the less attractive, but ever so alluring ones.

Common to all three Turgenev novels that I have read is rejection - rejection of women by men. But the rejection has nothing to do with the men thinking the women are inadequate. It is the men who see themselves as unworthy and, for me with my Western eyes, their 'reasons' are SO tenuous. And yet, for all that I do see the 'sense' in it - I have seen the world in the same way myself.

The outcome for me of this novel was unsatisfactory for another reason that I will not attempt to explain. But it is understandable for me why this outcome was plotted by the author - unlike that of DH Lawrence in another book I reviewed recently.

Perhaps Joseph Conrad is correct in 'Under Western Eyes' and those of us with Western eyes will never really understand the Russian - I have certainly tried both personally and in literature. And I have to say I am floundering a bit. Nevertheless, for the sheer joy of reading a brilliantly crafted novel I unreservedly recommend 'Virgin Soil'.

Other recommendations:
'Memoirs of a Revolutionist' by Peter Kropotkin
'Fathers and Sons' by Ivan Turgenev
'Spring Torrents' by Ivan Turgenev
'Under Western Eyes' by Joseph Conrad

"To turn over virgin soil it is necessary to use a deep plough going well into the earth, not a surface plough gliding lightly over the top."-From a Farmer's Notebook.

Virgin Soil, by Ivan Sergevich Tugenev, is another Russian revolutionist novel. The dubious main character, Nejdanov, is a young poet who tries to help spread the socialistic propaganda to the poor peasants. They must dig deep into the mother earth of Russia to plant the seeds of communism. Nejdanov is accused of being a traitor and gives useless speeches, while his lover, Mariana tries desperately to get him to accept her. Markelov, an older member of the cause, goes to the extreme to arm the peasants and start a revolution and is locked up. Solomin (the real hero), is a cool minded, patient revolutionist who thinks of the peasants as barn animals. He is Turgenev's ideal insurgent. While the main character, Nejdanov is described as, "...the idealist of realism". The book ends with death and imprisonment and an overall unhappy feeling.

Not the most exciting read, just another Russian novel full of depressing nihilist and revolutionist. Tugenev's other great work, Fathers and Sons, is a far more interesting novel, and I highly recommend it.