On the Eve: A Novel
1859
Elena Nikolaevna is not like other young women in 1850s Moscow. She reads, she thinks, she refuses to accept that marriage to a decent man is the sum of a woman's ambitions. When she meets the passionate Bulgarian revolutionary Insarov, she finds something that neither the thoughtful Bersenyev nor the charming Shubin can offer her: a cause worth dying for. Turgenev's 1859 masterpiece captures a Russia on the knife-edge of transformation, where the old ways are dying but nothing certain has yet risen to replace them. Elena must choose between safety and meaning, between a comfortable life and one that matters. The result is a novel of startling psychological depth and quiet devastation, where the things left unsaid echo louder than declarations of love. It is, at its heart, about what it costs to truly live, and whether contentment is a gift or a trap.
Editions
X-Ray
“Death is like a fisherman who has caught a fish in his net and leaves it for a time in the water: the fish still swims about, but the net surrounds it, and the fisherman will take it when he wishes.””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
“How sad that youth, with all its power,Was given us in vain, to burn;That we betrayed it every hour,And were deceived by it in turn;””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
“What strikes me most forcibly in the ants and beetles and other worthy insects is their astounding seriousness. They run to and fro with such a solemn air, as though their life were something of such importance! A man the lord of creation the highest being, stares at them, if you please, and they pay no attention to him. Why, a gnat will even settle on the lord of creation's nose, and make use of him for food. It's most offensive. And, on the other hand, how is their life inferior to ours? And why shouldn't they take themselves seriously, if we are to be allowed to take ourselves seriously?””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
“that's all the stars do, look at lovers – that's why they're so beautiful””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
“The spleen is what the English call it,We call it simply Russian soul.””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
“Run along, my friend, Andrei Petrovitch, put a hat on your learned head, and let us go where our eyes lead us. Our eyes are young--they may lead us far.””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
“Every man's happiness is built on the unhappiness of another.””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
“The _spleen_ is what the English call it,We call it simply _Russian soul_.””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
“Я хотел только объяснить, почему природа, по-твоему, так на нас действует. Потому, что она будит в нас потребность любви и не в силах удовлетворить ее. Она нас тихо гонит в другие, живые объятия, а мы ее не понимаем и чего-то ждем от нее самой.””
— Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
