Work record
Fathers and Sons
1862 · 19th Century · Novel · Russian
Summary
Fathers and Sons is set in the Russian countryside in the spring and summer of 1859, two years before the emancipation of the serfs. Arkady Kirsanov, a newly graduated student, returns to his father's modest, poorly run estate, Maryino, bringing his friend and mentor Yevgeny Bazarov, a brusque, brilliant medical student of humble origins who calls himself a nihilist: he accepts no principle on authority and values only what is useful, especially natural science. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich, a gentle, romantic widower who loves Pushkin and plays the cello, has a baby son with a young peasant woman, Fenichka. His brother Pavel Petrovich, a fastidious former guardsman and Anglophile living in the past after a doomed love affair, takes an immediate dislike to Bazarov, and the two clash over aristocracy, art and reform. Arkady and Bazarov visit the provincial town, where they meet a pair of comically 'progressive' hangers-on and the wealthy, cool, intelligent widow Anna Sergeyevna Odintsova. Bazarov, who scorns romance, falls passionately in love with her; she is intrigued but values her tranquillity and refuses him. Arkady, meanwhile, comes to love her shy younger sister Katya. Bazarov visits his own parents, a retired army surgeon, Vassily Ivanovich, who practises country medicine and venerates his son, and his pious, superstitious mother Arina Vlasyevna. He soon grows bored and leaves, hurting them. Back at Maryino, Bazarov kisses Fenichka, and Pavel, who has his own feelings for her, challenges him to a duel. Bazarov wounds Pavel slightly in the leg and dresses the wound himself. He returns home and helps his father with the peasants' illnesses. While carrying out a post-mortem on a peasant who died of typhus, he cuts his finger and, without proper disinfectant at hand, is infected. Knowing he is dying, he sends for Odintsova, who comes with a German doctor; he speaks to her tenderly and dies. Arkady marries Katya and becomes a capable landowner, Nikolai marries Fenichka, and Pavel leaves for Dresden. The novel ends at Bazarov's grave, where his old parents come to pray, and with the narrator's reflection that the flowers on the grave speak of reconciliation and life without end.
Plot or Argument
- Arrival at Maryino (Ch. 1–11)
Arkady brings Bazarov home; Nikolai's household, Fenichka, and the first quarrels between Bazarov and Pavel over nihilism and aristocracy.
- Town and Odintsova (Ch. 12–19)
The friends meet provincial radicals and Anna Odintsova; Bazarov falls in love and is rejected.
- Bazarov's parents (Ch. 20–21)
A visit to Bazarov's devoted parents and his restless departure.
- The duel (Ch. 22–25)
Bazarov kisses Fenichka; Pavel challenges him; the farcical duel and its consequences; Arkady and Katya come together.
- Infection and death (Ch. 26–28)
Bazarov assists his father's practice, is infected during an autopsy, and dies with Odintsova present; epilogue of marriages and the grave.
Characters
- Yevgeny Vassilyevich Bazarov, protagonist
Nihilist medical student who rejects authority, art and romantic love, until he falls in love himself.
- Arkady Nikolayevich Kirsanov, Bazarov's friend
Gentle young graduate whose borrowed nihilism gives way to domestic happiness.
- Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov, Arkady's father
Kindly, romantic landowner struggling to modernise his estate.
- Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, Arkady's uncle
Elegant aristocrat who defends principle and tradition against Bazarov.
- Anna Sergeyevna Odintsova, widow
Beautiful, composed woman who attracts and refuses Bazarov.
- Katya Lokteva, Odintsova's sister
Quiet girl who marries Arkady.
- Fenichka, Nikolai's partner
Young woman of humble birth and mother of Nikolai's son.
- Vassily Ivanovich Bazarov, Bazarov's father
Retired army surgeon and country doctor devoted to his son.
- Arina Vlasyevna, Bazarov's mother
Devout, affectionate, superstitious woman.
Lessons
Ideas meet life
Bazarov's nihilism is tested by love, family and death, which his theories cannot master. Turgenev shows the limits of ideology without simply dismissing it.
- Does Bazarov's love for Odintsova refute his nihilism?
- Is Bazarov admirable?
- What does Turgenev think of Pavel's principles?
Generations misunderstand each other
Fathers and sons love one another across a gulf of values. The novel treats the conflict of generations with sympathy for both sides.
- Which father-son pair understands each other best?
- How does Bazarov treat his parents, and why?
Death as the great leveller
Bazarov dies from a small cut during routine work, his genius unused. His death, faced with courage and tenderness, gives the novel its moral weight.
- Why does Turgenev kill Bazarov in this way?
- How does Bazarov's attitude change as he dies?
Context
The novel is set on the eve of the emancipation of the serfs (1861), when young raznochintsy (educated men of non-noble origin) were challenging the liberal gentry of the 1840s. Bazarov's materialism reflects the influence of German scientific materialists such as Büchner, whose 'Kraft und Stoff' Bazarov recommends, and the critic Dobrolyubov.
Composition
Turgenev wrote the novel in 1860–1861, partly on the Isle of Wight and in Paris, and published it in The Russian Herald in 1862. He popularised the term 'nihilist', which entered political vocabulary.
Reception
The novel angered both radicals, who saw Bazarov as a caricature, and conservatives, who thought Turgenev admired him. The controversy hurt Turgenev deeply and contributed to his living abroad. It is now regarded as one of the great Russian novels.
Comparisons
- a-burnt-out-case
Bazarov and Dr Colin are unbelieving physicians who treat the poor; Colin's humane persistence contrasts with Bazarov's contempt and early death.
- the-death-of-ivan-ilyich
Tolstoy and Turgenev both describe a man facing an unexpected death; Bazarov's courage is stoic, Ivan's acceptance spiritual.
- east-of-eden
Both explore the love and misunderstanding between fathers and sons and the inheritance of values.
- white-nights
Dostoyevsky's Dreamer and Turgenev's Bazarov represent opposite types of the Russian 'superfluous' or new man: one dreams, the other dissects.
- we
Zamyatin's rational state realises Bazarov's dream of a life governed by science, and finds the irrational stubbornly alive.
Quotes
Frequently cited
“A nihilist is a man who does not bow down before any authority, who does not take any principle on faith, whatever reverence that principle may be enshrined in.”
Frequently cited
“Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man's the workman in it.”
“A decent chemist is twenty times as useful as any poet.”
“they tell us not of eternal peace alone, of that great peace of 'indifferent' nature; they tell us, too, of eternal reconciliation and of life without end.”
For Students
A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.
Reading Guide
Watch for
- The first evenings at Maryino, when Arkady explains to his father and uncle that Bazarov is a nihilist. Watch Pavel Petrovich's reaction and how quickly the word becomes a battle line.
- The great argument between Pavel and Bazarov about principles, aristocracy, art and reform in the Maryino chapters (around Ch. 10), and Bazarov's advice that Arkady give his father Büchner to read in place of Pushkin.
- Bazarov's visits to Odintsova's estate and the evening he confesses his love to her (around Ch. 17-18). Ask what happens to his theory that love is mere physiology.
- The short stay with Bazarov's parents (Ch. 20-21): his father's eager talk of medicine, his mother's prayers and fears, and the son's sudden departure.
- Bazarov's fatal cut during the post-mortem, his last conversation with Odintsova, and the final paragraph at the grave, where his parents pray and the narrator speaks of reconciliation and life without end.
Key terms and names
- Nihilist
- From the Latin nihil, nothing. In the novel, a person who bows to no authority and accepts no principle on faith, valuing only what science and usefulness can justify. Turgenev's book made the word famous.
- Maryino
- The Kirsanovs' modest, poorly run estate, where Nikolai Petrovich tries to reform his farming on the eve of emancipation. Most of the conflicts between the generations happen here.
- Emancipation of the serfs
- Alexander II's decree of 1861 freeing Russia's serfs. The novel is set in 1859, when landowners like Nikolai were already struggling with hired labour and uncertain change.
- Raznochinets
- An educated Russian of non-noble origin, such as a priest's or doctor's son. Bazarov, the son of a retired army surgeon, belongs to this new class that challenged the liberal gentry of the 1840s.
- Kraft und Stoff
- Force and Matter, a popular book of scientific materialism by Ludwig Büchner. Bazarov recommends it as more useful reading than poetry.
- The duel
- Pavel Petrovich's challenge to Bazarov after Bazarov kisses Fenichka. Bazarov thinks duelling absurd, yet he accepts and goes through with it, and Bazarov ends up dressing the wound he has inflicted.
Seminar Questions
- Comprehension How does Arkady define a nihilist for his father and uncle, and how does each of them respond?
- Comprehension What leads to the duel between Pavel Petrovich and Bazarov, and how does it end?
- Comprehension How does Bazarov become infected, and what does he do once he realises he will die?
- Interpretation Bazarov scorns romantic love as nonsense and then falls passionately in love with Odintsova. Does this refute his nihilism, or only show that he cannot live by it?
- Interpretation Compare the two fathers, Nikolai Kirsanov and Vassily Bazarov. How does each love his son, and which son understands his father better?
- Interpretation Bazarov dissects frogs to learn how life works and dies of a cut received while dissecting a corpse. What is Turgenev suggesting by this irony?
- Big Question The novel ends with Bazarov's parents praying at his grave and the narrator speaking of eternal reconciliation. Can a philosophy that rejects every authority and principle sustain a human life, or does it always need something it denies?
Faith Connections
- Luke 15:11-32 (Scripture)
The father of the prodigal son waits, runs to meet his returning son and rejoices. Vassily Ivanovich and Arina Vlasyevna wait for Bazarov with the same longing, but their son leaves again within days, and their love outlasts his life at the grave.
- Exodus 20:12 (Scripture)
The commandment to honour father and mother stands behind the novel's title. Turgenev shows sons who love their fathers yet cannot honour their ideas, and asks what honour between generations requires when beliefs divide them.
- 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (Scripture)
Paul proclaims that death is swallowed up in victory. The narrator's last sentence, setting eternal reconciliation and endless life against indifferent nature, reaches toward this hope over the grave of a man who denied it.
- Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (Great Conversation)
Dostoevsky's novel of 1866 follows a poor student who reasons his way past conventional morality to murder, and is commonly read as a reply to the radical young generation Turgenev portrayed. Where Bazarov's theories are tested by love and death, Raskolnikov's are tested by guilt and redeemed through Sonya's faith.
Logic and Rhetoric
Central argument: Bazarov holds that nothing should be accepted on authority and that only what natural science can justify is worth anything, so love, art, principle and religion are illusions. Yet the novel places him in situations where he cannot live by this creed: he falls in love, keeps a code of honour in the duel, cares for patients and, dying, asks for the woman he loves. Therefore Turgenev's dramatic thesis is that a creed of pure negation cannot account for the whole of human life, though the courage and honesty of the man who holds it may still command respect.
Rhetorical device: foil. Arkady, who adopts Bazarov's opinions without his temperament and drifts back into family life, love and estate management, is set beside Bazarov throughout the novel, so that each turn in Arkady's gentler path shows by contrast how much Bazarov's nihilism costs him.
Debate: Resolved: Bazarov's death refutes his nihilism.
Writing Prompts
Essay: Turgenev was attacked by radicals for caricaturing Bazarov and by conservatives for admiring him. Using the argument with Pavel, the love for Odintsova and the death scene, argue whether Fathers and Sons finally honours or rejects Bazarov.
Comparison with Crime and Punishment: Bazarov and Raskolnikov are both proud, poor students who reject the moral inheritance of their elders. Compare how Turgenev and Dostoevsky test their young men's theories against love, suffering and death, and argue which novel gives the more convincing answer to the nihilism of the 1860s.
Medical Lens
Bazarov is one of literature's most famous medical students, dissecting frogs to understand life and dismissing art for science. His father is a retired army surgeon running an old-fashioned country practice, and the contrast between generations of medicine runs through their scenes. The fatal episode, in which Bazarov cuts himself during an autopsy on a typhus victim and has no caustic to cauterise the wound, reflects the real danger of dissection wounds in the pre-antiseptic era (Lister's work began in the mid-1860s), and his clinical self-observation as the infection spreads is a remarkable portrait of a physician recognising his own death. Bazarov also dresses Pavel's gunshot wound after the duel. The father's grief and the mother's piety at the grave close the book.
- Ch. 3–5
Bazarov collects and dissects frogs at Maryino to study physiology.
- Ch. 20–21
Vassily Ivanovich's old-fashioned country practice and his pride in his son's modern medical training.
- Ch. 24
After the duel, Bazarov examines and bandages Pavel's leg wound.
- Ch. 27
Bazarov cuts himself during a post-mortem on a typhus victim; he describes his symptoms clinically, accepts his death and sends for Odintsova.
- Ch. 28
Bazarov's old parents visit his grave.
Creative Prompts
- Essay
Compare Bazarov and his father as two generations of medicine. What does each represent?
- Fiction
Write Bazarov's case notes on his own final illness.
- Classroom
Debate: is Bazarov's nihilism a philosophy or a pose?
Further Reading
- A Sportsman's Sketches, Ivan Turgenev
- Russian Thinkers, Isaiah Berlin
Includes Berlin's essay 'Fathers and Children' on Turgenev.
- What Is to Be Done?, Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Radical reply to Turgenev's portrayal of the young generation.
- Turgenev: His Life and Times, Leonard Schapiro
Verification notes
Plot, chapter structure and historical context are well established. Quotes follow Garnett's 1895 translation from memory; the 'nihilist', 'chemist' and 'workshop' lines are widely quoted in this form. The final sentence is quoted partially (from a long sentence) and should be checked.
- Garnett wording and chapter numbers for all quotes.
- Whether Bazarov's infection is from a typhus corpse and whether the lack of 'lunar caustic' (silver nitrate) is specified.
- Bazarov's dying words about breathing on the lamp (omitted).
- Whether Turgenev began the novel on the Isle of Wight in 1860.