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| Ivan Turgenev in the 1850s |
This will be the first of four digital bibliographies dedicated to Russian authors. We’ll begin with Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) who was the first Russian author to achieve international rock star status.
Below is a list of links where you can find and read the works of Ivan Turgenev for free. All of these titles were translated by Constance Garnett except where indicated. In fact, I think these links represent the entirety of her English translations of Turgenev’s prose (her 1934 translations of his plays are not in the public domain and thus not listed here). For reference, I used D. S. Mirsky’s classic History of Russian Literature from its Beginnings to 1900 (1958) to date some of the stories. Avrhahm Yarmolinsky’s Turgenev: The Man, His Art and His Age (1959) was also very helpful.
Where to start? A Sportsman’s Sketches is a masterpiece of realist prose in easily digestible short stories about the plight of Russia’s serfs as seen through the eyes of a landowner sportsman on the hunt. Fathers and Children is Turgenev’s most famous and critically lauded novel about the generational and ideological divides in a Russian family on the eve of the abolition of serfdom. A House of Gentlefolk is a straight up, classic romance full of longing and nostalgia for the vanishing gilded age of the landed gentry. Anything you see marked as a key work is worth exploring.
Novels are listed in the chronological order of first Russian publication. The short story collections are ordered by the year in which the English translations first appeared with the date of original Russian publication indicated for each story except A Sportsman’s Sketches, which consists of stories written and published from 1847 to 1851 and first appeared in book form in Russia in 1852. The novels and novellas are italicized, short stories appear in quotes. (*) denotes key works.
Where to start? A Sportsman’s Sketches is a masterpiece of realist prose in easily digestible short stories about the plight of Russia’s serfs as seen through the eyes of a landowner sportsman on the hunt. Fathers and Children is Turgenev’s most famous and critically lauded novel about the generational and ideological divides in a Russian family on the eve of the abolition of serfdom. A House of Gentlefolk is a straight up, classic romance full of longing and nostalgia for the vanishing gilded age of the landed gentry. Anything you see marked as a key work is worth exploring.
Novels are listed in the chronological order of first Russian publication. The short story collections are ordered by the year in which the English translations first appeared with the date of original Russian publication indicated for each story except A Sportsman’s Sketches, which consists of stories written and published from 1847 to 1851 and first appeared in book form in Russia in 1852. The novels and novellas are italicized, short stories appear in quotes. (*) denotes key works.
Novels
Rudin (1856)*
A House of Gentlefolk (1859)*
On the Eve (1860)
Fathers and Children (1862)*
Smoke (1867)
Virgin Soil (1877) tr. by R. S. Townsend
Short Fiction
A Sportsman’s Sketches Volume 1 (1852)*
“Hor and Kalinitch”
“Yermolai and the Miller’s Wife”
“Raspberry Spring”
“The District Doctor”
“My Neighbour Radilov"
“The Peasant Proprietor Ovsyanikov”
“Lgov”
“Byezhin Prairie”
“Kassyan of Fair Springs”
“The Agent”
“The Counting House”
“Biryuk”
“Two Country Gentlemen”
“Lebedyan”
A Sportsman’s Sketches Volume 2 (1852)*
“Tatyana Borissovna and Her Nephew”
“Death”
“The Singers”
“Piotr Petrovich Karataev”
“The Tryst”
“The Hamlet of the Shtchigri District”
“Tchertop-Hanov and Nedopyushkin”
“The End of Tchertop-Hanov”
“A Living Relic”
“The Rattling of Wheels”
“Epilogue: The Forest and the Steppe”
The stories in both volumes first appeared between 1847-1851. You can read my post about A Sportsman's Sketches here.
The Torrents of Spring (1897)
The Torrents of Spring (1872)*
First Love (1860)*
“Mumu” (1854)*
Dream Tales & Prose Poems (1897)
“Clara Militch” (1882)
“Phantoms” (1865)
“The Song of Triumphant Love [MDXLII]” (1881)*
“The Dream” (1876)*
Poems in Prose (1878) (a series of short sketches)
A Lear of the Steppes (1898)
A Lear of the Steppes (1870)*
"Faust" (1856)*
"Acia" (1858)
“The Diary of a Superfluous Man” (1850)*
“A Tour in the Forest” (1857)
"Yakov Pasinkov ' (1855)
“Andrei Kolosov” (1846)
"A Correspondence" (1856)
“A Desperate Character” (1881)
“A Strange Story” (1869)
“Punin and Baburin” (1874)
“Old Portraits” (1881)
“The Brigadier” (1867)
“Pyetushkov” (1847)
The Jew & Other Stories (1900)
“The Jew” (1847)
“An Unhappy Girl” (1869)
“The Duellist” (1847)
“Three Portraits” (1846)
“Enough” (1865)
“Knock, Knock, Knock” (1871)
“The Inn” (1852)*
“Lieutenant Yergunov’s Story” (1868)
“The Dog” (1866)
“The Watch” (1874)
"The Two Friends" (1853)
“Father Alexey's Story" (1877)
”Three Meetings” (1851)
"A Quiet Backwater" (1854)
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If you read and enjoy ebooks prepared by Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, please make a donation today. Their efforts ensure that there are plenty of free ebooks in the world to read.
