Fathers and Children

A revolutionary novel that invented a word for an entire generation. When the young, sharp-tongued nihilist Yevgeny Bazarov arrives at the country estate of his friend Arkady Kirsanov, he brings with him an explosive rejection of all authority, tradition, and sentiment. But Turgenev's genius lies in refusing to make this conflict simple. The fathers are not merely fossils; the children are not merely right. As Bazarov's caustic intelligence cuts through the pretensions of both aristocracy and romanticism, he ignites a chain of conflicts, intellectual, romantic, and ultimately tragic, that will leave no relationship untouched. This is the novel that defined the Russian 1860s and predicted the revolution to come. It also contains one of literature's most devastating endings. For readers who crave psychological depth, historical sweep, and characters who feel terrifyingly alive.