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The Great Political Fictions: Fathers and Sons
Season 2 · Episode 42

The Great Political Fictions: Fathers and Sons

<p>This week’s Great Political Fiction is Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons (1862), the definitive novel about the politics – and emotions – of intergenerational conflict. How did Turgenev manage to write a wistful novel about nihilism? What made Russian politics in the early 1860s so chock-full of frustration? Why did Turgenev’s book infuriate his contemporaries – including Dostoyevsky?</p><br><p>More from the LRB:</p><p><a href="https://bit.ly/4bGkPcN" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pankaj Mishra on the disillusionment of Alexander Herzen</a> </p><p>'"Emancipation", he concluded, "has finally proved to be as insolvent as redemption".'</p><p><a href="https://bit.ly/3uEmcbs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Julian Barnes on Turgenev and Flaubert</a> </p><p>‘When the two of them meet, they are already presenting themselves as elderly men in their early forties (Turgenev asserts that after 40 the basis of life is renunciation).’</p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

Past Present Future · David Runciman

February 22, 202456m 24s

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Show Notes

This week’s Great Political Fiction is Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons (1862), the definitive novel about the politics – and emotions – of intergenerational conflict. How did Turgenev manage to write a wistful novel about nihilism? What made Russian politics in the early 1860s so chock-full of frustration? Why did Turgenev’s book infuriate his contemporaries – including Dostoyevsky?


More from the LRB:

Pankaj Mishra on the disillusionment of Alexander Herzen 

'"Emancipation", he concluded, "has finally proved to be as insolvent as redemption".'

Julian Barnes on Turgenev and Flaubert 

‘When the two of them meet, they are already presenting themselves as elderly men in their early forties (Turgenev asserts that after 40 the basis of life is renunciation).’


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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