Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev. Specifically it will discuss what the reader can learn about Russia's past by reading this novel. This novel has consistently divided critics, who cannot agree in their analysis of this epic Russian work by novelist Ivan Turgenev. Some find it in the ilk of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, while others found his novel fanciful -- not a decisive look into Russian history at all. However, as time passes, more critics agree, Fathers and Sons is a fascinating glimpse into an unsettling and cataclysmic time in Russia's past. It is an accurate look at families of the 1860s in Russia and the turmoil the country faced on the brink of social and radical change. While the novel may be fanciful at times, it is an excellent look into a country on the brink of revolution, and the people who agreed, disagreed, and so passionately believed in...
[ View Full Essay]