I'm just talking about First Love here, I haven't read the other. I'm a big fan of romantic and violent Russian literature with sado-masochistic undertones. I've often fantasized about writing a screenplay for this but I think it would lose all of its magic if you could actually see the characters.

Both of these stories are tales of unrequited love. Full of darkly comic and cringe worthy scenes, it was a quick and wonderful read. First Love being the better of the two tales.

I only read First Love, and it took a mere day. Now I'm going back to read the introduction. The story paints an accurate picture of what a first teenage love is often like. Something unspoken, merely alluded to, is going on with the object of the main characters affection.

Recommended by Emma! Fascinating character depictions, with strong undertones of Russian socio-political tensions. Tremendous translation- and the prose are beautifully concise.

Turgenev's "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" is a clssic of emotional and psychological distress, and despite being a century and a half old, feels like it was written last week. Timeless, beautiful and tragic. And being Turgenev, it has an awesome duel!

من بداية الرواية وشعور كان دمجت رواية دوستوفيسكي في قبوي مع المعطف لنيكولاي غوغول والخلاصة هذه المذكرات التي تجد طريقها الى روح الإنسان وبسهولة تستطيع إسقاطها على حياتنا اليوم رغم أنها من القرن التاسع عشر

Welll i just wanna say that It's a good read BUTTT

The text are too compacted and long in one page , so in some parts of reading this books you'll get bored and just don't seem to read no more it's like reading a manuscript or Analyzing an deposition and widrawal record of a bank account, Anywayss The story was Quite longgg i guess? The point was very long to be said.

But i give it a 3 star kinda grow on me and some parts of it can be really relatable even if it's dated back to18th century

Just beautiful. Both stories are eminently teachable. So well made, and psychologically rich.

I used to work at Target and this sweet older gentleman would come in once a week or so and we would talk about the greats. He found out that I love the Russian writers of the 19th century and one day he brought me this tiny book of Turgenev's. The stories are insightful and a good recommendation for someone just starting down the Russian genre path. Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" was my very first Russian author and he introduced me to a world of frank conversation and passionate action, something that my beloved Victorian novels lack.

"O nature! nature! I love thee so, but I came forth from they womb good for nothing -- not fit even for life."

"And tearful invocations to nature are mortally absurd."

"there is pleasure and pain in irritating the sores of old wounds, why not indulge oneself?"

Just recently I went to a lecture on Turgenev in which the lecturer discussed nihilism in his work. She also mentioned that he coined the term 'superfluous man'.

These two short stories are in some ways quite similar and what I find I like best about Turgenev is his insight into human nature and the characters he creates--I think this is what makes his work so fresh even more than a hundred years after its publication. I found myself underlining bits that felt so true to me--thinking, 'I know someone like that!' or 'I've felt the same way!' Isn't this what we look for in literature--that moment of recognition?

I also like to read about love when it's been written many years ago as opposed to contemporary love stories. Not sure why.

I really only read the [Diary of a Superfluous Man:] on dailylit.com.

This is a moving novella. The premise is that the diarist is on his deathbed and resolves to write about his life to prove that he is superfluous. He doesn't make it far before he gets to the issue that really bothers him--a love affair from earlier in his life. As he recounts the story over a series of diary entries, his present condition casts a pall over the tale, and he comes off as maudlin rather than tragic.

This is my first work by Turgenev, and I found it to be an interesting psychological study. The novella plays on the concept of the deathbed confession or the "unfinished business" that many people who are dying need to resolve. It's a quick read, and it lends itself well to the dailylit format.