When a young graduate returns home he is accompanied, much to his father and uncle’s discomfort, by a strange friend ‘who doesn’t acknowledge any authorities, who doesn’t accept a single principle on faith.’ Turgenev’s masterpiece of generational conflict shocked Russian society when it was published in 1862 and continues today to seem as fresh and outspoken as it did to those who first encountered its nihilistic hero.
‘Well, Piotr, not in sight yet?’ was the question asked on May the 20th, 1859, by a gentleman of a little over forty, in a dusty coat and checked trousers, who came out without his hat on to the low steps of the posting station at S—-. He was addressing his servant, a chubby young fellow, with whitish down on his chin, and little, lack-lustre eyes. The servant, in whom everything–the turquoise ring in his ear, the streaky hair plastered with grease, and the civility of his movements–indicated a man of the new, improved generation, glanced with an air of indulgence along the road, and made answer: ‘No, sir; not in sight.’ ‘Not in sight?’ repeated his master. ‘No, sir,’ responded the man a second time. His master sighed, and sat down on a little bench. We will introduce him to the reader while he sits, his feet tucked under him, gazing thoughtfully round.
