First Love and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

~ Ivan Turgenev (Author), Richard Freeborn (Translator)
Key Phrases: triumphant love, linen maid, Martin Petrovich, Anna Martinovna, Frau Louise (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Turgenev's superbly ironic story, The Diary Of A Superfluous Man, in which a dying man reflects on the futility of his life, is among the six collected in this volume, in Oxford University Press's valuable series of classic texts.' Guardian

Product Description

Bringing together six of Turgenev's best known stories in volume, this collection includes "First Love," "Asya," "Mumu," "The Diary of a Superfluous Man," "Song of Triumphant Love," and "King Lear of the Steppes."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199540403
• ISBN-13: 978-0199540402
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #125,064 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Turgenev's true-to-life writing won me over., September 1, 1998

By	Kokoro ([e-mail]) (Charlottesville, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Love and Other Stories (World's Classics) (Paperback)

If reading in translation has proved difficult for you in the past, Freeborn's translation of Turgenev's short stories will suprise you in a wonderful way. There were times when I forgot that I was in the process of reading, but rather felt that these very scenes were being lived out before me, a bodiless and voiceless viewer.

Turgenev's understanding of and ability to capture the complete emotional processes of people in love in this collection touched me in its sincerity and genuine clarity. All the insane, skipping-over-themselves thoughts and quick jealousies that people experience are completely captured in stories like "First Love" and "Diary of a Superfluous Man."

Turgenev is a great introduction to Russian fiction. I'm sorry that I didn't discover him earlier.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Example of a Russian Romantic, November 10, 2000

By	Jack L. Keller "Avid Reader" (Federal Way, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: First Love and Other Stories (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) (Hardcover)

This book contains three short works that provide a wonderful example of the Russian approach to romantic literature. The form is wonderful, the characters perfectly created and the plot shores up the authors ideas with an most resonant clarity.

First love shows the blend of comedy and tragedy that is so prevalent in Russian works of the period. The events portrayed are those that could occur in daily life even to today. The emotions that are evoked are real and timeless. It surely adds proof to the argument that Russian works of this period age so much better than do those authors from other countries whose works have survived.

Spring Torrents is the longest of the works and still provides a feel that the length is exactly perfect for the tale. If the prologue does not pull you into the story you have an absences of a great concern that plagues many of us. How many of us fear reaching that point (or have reached that point)in life where we recognize all of the great loss of opportunity which has occurred in our life. From this prologue the story races along explaining how one of us has reached the position when the concern has become a reality. Wonderful feelings are evoked on the path.

This book is highly recommended for all and is a must read for the Tolstoy, Chekov, Gogol and Dostoevsky fans.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely for a first Turgenev, April 21, 2004

By	marty mcfly "sparklethewonderhorse" (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Love and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

I am an avid reader of American and European fiction from the late 19th century onwards and have never delved into the Russians, so, instead of going in headlong to a War and Peace or Brothers Karamazov, i picked up the novella First Love by Turgenev. The writing is simple, the story instantly engaging and the sentiment easy enough to relate to.

Three men sit around following supper and discuss their respective first loves, neither of the first two has an interesting tale to tell, but the third has an intriguing story which he writes down and proceeds to tell us.

Aged 16 our young hero spends the summer in a cottage in the country with his rather detached parents when an aged and impoverished princess and her daughter move in next door. The daughter is beautiful, our narrator becomes infatuated and he suffers all the agony of a first love, a first realisation that such things do not always turn out as we might have hoped, and all the while struggling to understand his own life and his own relationship to his parents.

The twist in the tale is a little obvious and the extra cast of characters perhaps a little under-developed, but the central narrator is a journey through the emotions and his journey is extremely engaging. A very successful first Russian for me and i shall now move on and report back with the findings!!