FATHERS AND SONS Author:Ivan Turgenev In spite of Bazarov's rather clean-cut likes and dislikes, he remains somewhat of an enigma to many people. It may be some consolation to these persons that Turgenev himself confessed that he could not really explain how he had come to create Bazarov. He had no picture in his mind before he started to write, and the character of Bazarov that e... more »merged simply flowed from his pen. He is undoubtedly the most real of all the characters, mor international than Russian, and capable of being liked for what he is in spite of his imperfections. In fact, Turgenev himself could not understand why anyone would be offended by being compared to Bazarov. And yet Bazarov was precisely the person upon whom the critics centered their attacks. It took them at least fifteen years to get around to a more laudatory approach.
It is in Faters and Sons that we can easily detect some of the earliest rumblings of the great revolution that was to shake Russia the following century. But Turgenev is too great an author to confine himself to one level of social conflict. There are many questions posed in this book, and a careful reading of it makes one realize how prophetic the story is. An importatn by-product of this reading is an increased admiration of the author.« less