Fathers and sons

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Fathers and Sons ( Russian Отцы и дети / transcription Otzy i deti ) is the most famous novel by Ivan Turgenew . It was written in 1861; In the same year, the Russian had Czar Alexander II. the serfdom abolished. In this novel Turgenev already presented the new relationships and views of the younger generation, those of the "sons" (correctly translated the novel is actually called "fathers and children"). The novel deals with the social conflicts between the liberal Slavophiles and the western-oriented nihilists and, after publication in Tsarist Russia, led to literary controversies that prompted Turgenev to leave his country.

Generational novel

The older generation of "fathers" is represented in the novel by the landowner Nikolai Kirsanow, his brother Pavel Kirsanow and the military doctor Vasily Basarow and his wife. Their "sons" are the nihilists Arkady Kirsanov and Evgeny Basarow, who met while studying at St. Petersburg University .

Novel plot

Yevgeny Basarow, a budding physician a year before his doctorate, describes himself as a nihilist who rejects everything except scientific knowledge and does not recognize anything, especially no customs or authorities . He has a particular aversion to any form of romance. The younger Arkady Kirsanov, who comes from the same area in southern Russia, follows the ideas of his mentor Yevgeny. After years in the capital, they travel back to their homeland together. Arkadi invites Bazarov to visit Mariano, his father's and uncle's estate. The revolutionary ideas of the two young people are against the nobility, even if they are liberal, as with Nikolai, Arkadi's father, or with Arkadi's uncle Pawel, who begins to quarrel particularly violently with Bazarov.

From the Kirsanov estate, the two young men set off for the provincial capital, where they initially hang out with some very superficial personalities, but then get to know the young, widowed and wealthy landowner Anna Odintsova. Both men fall in love with her, and when she invites them to visit her estate, they follow her there. But the experienced Odintsova remains cool. While she values ​​Bazarov as a conversation partner, she thinks Arkadi is too young and immature, so that he has to spend most of the time with Anna's younger, quiet sister Katja. Basarow, who otherwise attaches great importance to his distant and unimpressed manner, finally confesses his love to Anna, but she politely rejects him.

Yevgeny and Arkady travel on to the bazaarov's estate. After just a few days, Yevgeny's superstitious religiosity of his parents and their idolatrous love for him become unbearable and he decides to return to the Kirsanov estate with Arkady. A short visit to Odintsova takes place in a cool atmosphere, but Arkadi realizes his affection for Katja. Arriving at the Kirsanovs, Arkady decides after a few days, under a pretext, to leave alone to the Odintsovs' estate. Yevgeni seduces the house maid Fenitschka, who has a young son with Nikolai Kirsanow, to a kiss and is challenged by Pavel to a duel . Pavel is slightly wounded.

Yevgeny Bazarov now travels to Arkady, because he suspects him to woo Anna Odintsova's love. After his arrival, Basarow considers Arkadi's affection for Katja to be a pretense, especially since he is stuck with Anna himself. Katja's engagement to Arkadi soon became apparent, who no longer pays homage to nihilistic ideas and accepts everyday aristocratic country life for himself. Bazarov bitterly announces his friendship with Arkady and goes to his parents so that he can work undisturbed. He dies here of typhoid , which he contracted willfully or at least in an extremely negligent manner during the autopsy of a person who died of the disease. Anna Odintsova visits him on his deathbed.

In an epilogue, Turgenev tells the reader that Anna Odintsova married a skilled lawyer for practical reasons. Nikolai Kirsanov becomes a passionate advocate of land reform and marries his maid Fenitschka after brother Pawel put aside the arrogance of class. Katerina and Arkadi get married and have a son. Pawel Kirsanow leaves the estate the day after the double wedding and travels to Germany. Finally, the author takes us to the village cemetery to the Yevgenis burial site, where his broken parents linger in silent devotion.

main characters

  • Yevgeny Basarow, prototype of a nihilist, studied medicine and natural scientist, mentor of his younger friend Arkady, admirer of Anna Odintsova, intellectual and self-confident.
  • Arkady Kirsanov, a graduate of the University of Saint Petersburg, follower and friend of the nihilist Basarow, lives on the Mariano estate, shy and good-natured by nature.
  • Nikolai Kirsanov, a good-natured, widowed landlord with liberal views, Arkadi's father and an illegitimate child of his maid. He is an advocate of tsarist land reform and tries to mediate in conflicts.
  • Pawel Kirsanow, Nikolai's brother, proud aristocrat and former womanizer, vacillates between striving for and hating everything Western, between cosmopolitanism and defense of Russian tradition and honor.
  • Vasily Basarow, father of Yevgeny, retired army surgeon with land ownership, loyal representative of patriotic and Christian Orthodox traditions
  • Arina Basarowa, Yevgeni's mother, a good-natured, pious, devout woman who idolizes her son
  • Anna Odintsova, from financially insecure circumstances, wealthy widow of a large estate owner, beautiful and intelligent
  • Katja Odinzowa, Anna's younger sister, similar in character to Arkadi, shy and shy.
  • Fenitschka, Nikolai's maid, who fathered an illegitimate child with her and who is loyal to him.

Quotes from the novel

  • Pavel Kirsanov: “I don't want to mention the Germans in Russia, you know what kind of birds they are. But I don't like the German Germans either. The earlier ones still worked: at that time they still had, well, let's say a Schiller or a Götte. ... Now, on the other hand, there is nothing there but chemists and materialists. ”“ A decent chemist is twenty times more valuable than any poet, ”interrupted Bazarov.
  • "A nihilist is a person who does not bow to any authority, does not recognize any principle, and should be so widespread."
  • "One should arrange life in such a way that every moment is meaningful."
  • "No god knows where the matter would have led, you shouldn't be fooled with such things."
  • “We know more or less what causes physical ailments, but more moral suffering is caused by poor upbringing, by all the nonsense that is crammed into people's minds from childhood, in short, by the disordered state of society. Reform society and there will be no suffering. "
  • "In my opinion, it is better to knock stones on the pavement than to allow a woman to use even the tip of your finger."

Text output

Ivan Turgenev: Fathers and Sons.

  • The work was first translated into German in 1869.
  • From the Russ. trans. by Angelo Pankow (1866–1934). Revised (authorized by Turgenev) and with a literary-historical introduction by Angelo Pankow. Foreword by Turgenev. Hesse and Becker, Leipzig 1917. Again Naumann & Göbel, 2006 ISBN 9783625209812
  • From the Russ. trans. by Annelore Nitschke . With a post by Peter Thiergen. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2008
  • From the Russ. by Manfred von der Ropp. With a follow-up, note and a time table. by Jurij Murašov, Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag , dtv, Munich 2008
  • Authorized transfer, rev. by Marianne Bühnert. Insel, Leipzig 2007
  • From the Russ. by Harry Burck. Structure, Berlin 1986.
  • From the Russ. by Fega Frisch. Afterword by Boris Saitzew, Manesse Verlag , Zurich 1949, 5th A. ibid. 1984.
  • From the Russ. by Frida Rubiner . Publishing house for foreign language literature, Moscow 1946
  • German by Werner Bergengruen . With an afterword by Bruno Frank . With 8 lithographs by Karl Rössing , German Book Association, Berlin 1933
  • From the Russ. by Ganna-Maria Braungardt. Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag (dtv), Munich 2017.

reception

Fathers and Sons was added to the ZEIT library of 100 books .

The Irish playwright Brian Friel adapted the novel for the theater in 1987. This adaptation was staged in German in 2016 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin under the direction of Daniela Löffner .

filming

radio play

literature

  • Otto Krätz: Iwan Turgenjew and the Russian chemists in Heidelberg , Chemistry in Our Time, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, June 1987.
  • Vladimir Nabokov : Masterpieces of Russian Literature: Nikolai Gogol - Ivan Turgenev - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Leo Tolstoy - Anton Chekhov - Maxim Gorky (in the series The Art of Reading ). S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-10-051503-X ; on fathers and sons p. 115 ff.

proof

  1. ↑ chap. XXIV
  2. ↑ From chap. VI, Zurich edition 1949 p. 41
  3. ↑ ZDF TV recording of a performance at the Berlin Theatertreffen

Web links