Love and Youth

From the most romantic of the Russian greats, an enthralling selection of short stories and novellas

Ivan Turgenev was able to contain the narrative sweep of a novel in a single short story. His tales evoke the joy and painful tubulence of first love, the grandiose flights of youthful imagination, and the wistful reflections of maturity. Tugenev brought his characters vividly to life, rendering their complex interior lives, whether nobleman or serf, in writing charged with a profound social conscience.

This collection, in a lyrical new translation by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater, places Turgenev's great novella First Love alongside a selection of his classic stories. From the evocative rural scenes of 'Bezhin Meadown' and 'The Rattling!' to the pathos and profundity of 'The District Doctor' and 'Biryuk', these are miniature epics brimming with humanity.

Ivan Turgenev was born to an aristocratic family in 1818. He wrote plays, poetry, short stories and novels. A liberal who found himself frequently at odds with tsarist rule, he lived for much of his life in Western Europe, where he became friends with writers such as Gustave Flaubert and Henry James. His most famous novel Fathers and Sons was poorly received by many Russian critics. It is now regarded as one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.