First Love (The Art of the Novella) Paperback – September 1, 2004

The Diary of a Superfluous Man is a diary of a fictional 30 year old man written during the last two weeks of his life. The dying man, Tchulkaturin, is exceptionally introspective and obssessed with his sense of failure and inferiority. His heated sensibilities stifle his will. He was a particular type in Russian literature, especially hated by the reformers of the day. In their eyes, he made no social contribution--hence, the term "superfluous".The Diary is not just a negative romp of a self-pitying aesthete. True, there's much complaints, hysteria, and sentimentality, but it's relieved by Tchulkaturin's amusing self-awareness. Likening himself to a useless fifth horse on a carriage, dragged along by life, he says, "But, thank goodness, the station is not far off." It was said that his birth was the "forfeit" his mother paid in the card game of life. Turgenev's ironic humor and relentless yet light-hearted social criticism add sharp levity.Tchulkaturin supports his self-assessment as superfluous with the "folly" of his life, a failed three week love affair which he claims was his only happiness. Through this vehicle Turgenev explores the themes of love, passion, illusion and will versus weakness, which is also the focus of the companion story, First Love.Tchulkaturin remembers bliss and humiliation, but he did take action. We see that no one wants to be rescued from passion, not even Tchulkaturin. Does it matter whether he reached his goal? The townspeople eventually esteemed him--perhaps he did make a social contribution and wasn't, afterall, a superfluous man. Irony upon irony and no answers.In his small room, confronting death, Tchulkaturin realizes that none of the pathetic facts of his life matter. Yet he laments he has "gained sense" too late. He sees what things have had meaning for him. No matter how small, he wants to hold onto them--he wants to live. The tragedy is that Tchulkaturin is universal, not superfluous. He, like most of us, come to realize that it is part of the human condition to feel that happiness and life seem to have hardly begun when nearly over.At the end of the diary, after Tchulkaturin has died, Turgenev adds another ironic touch that doubles as a social comment and as a device to force the infinitely unvarnished and necessary view that life goes on however it will, regardless of how we may think we have lived.First Love is the story of an adolescent who falls in love with the same woman as his father. It sensitively portrays the transformation of a child to a young man, precipated by his first passion. The unusual triangle intensifies the suspence as we wonder how the son will find out who his rival is--he knows there is one. His inevitable realization deepens his emotional life and his understanding of the complexities of human life.The story has an episodic structure from which the poetry and drama effortessly unfold, showing the son's growing love and helpless flip-flopping from child to man.The parlor games portentuously hint at the untold subplot. No character is wasted. Each has a distinct purpose for plot development and highlighting the boy's predicament.Turgenev's incomparable nature depictions have such a clarity of vision that vivid and penetrating images automatically arise in the mind's eye whether he uses them to symbolically presage events or to reflect a character's emotional state. Or, Turgenev can use his visions of the expansive beauty of nature in opposition to the character's emotional condition to distance us from it to show human insignifcance in the face of the vastness of existence.The pairing of The Diary with First Love is good. Each is a meditation on life, love and death. The juxtaposition of the two love stories, the neurotic dying man, the intelligent, passionate young son, and the powerful, archetypal father stimulate profound thought: How should life be lived--passionately or safely? Why to we cling to life so, no matter how we perceive it? Who decides whose life is superfluous and whose is meaningful? What are the criteria? Is any life meaningful? Does it matter how we have lived if we can discard our regrets and wonder at the paradoxical smallness and greatness of life? Is any significance we attach to life a mere crutch to face life or a crutch to face death? Each rereading of the stories reveals more perspectives and more layers of meaning.

i really like this russian literature. it’s extremely short but lovely. as I said , it comes slightly damaged but isn’t a big problem for me.

Very beautiful book. I love Turgenev style, how he describes senses when you are deeply loved someone. So beautiful writings. Maybe I read more Ivan Turgenev, and you should read this.

This short book is a life lesson. The description has been used before but this book is a gem, in size of the paperback, length, and of course as precious stone. For anyone who has risen into the arms of love and fallen from them as well, which would include most of humanity, this book is a wonderful look back. And why not, it is a look forward too.

In a brief,fast paced emotional narrative,Turgenev captures the intense feelings of youthful passion, betrayal and disillusion. The reader is left to fathom the complicated nature of the relationship between father and son.

Read in just two settings. Very lyrical dialog. He is a good writer and story teller.

A memorable story from one of Russia's most brilliant 19th century writers.

excellent product & service

. ❤️. Really an amazing book. Flashes old memories. Reminds me of my first love. The smile, the throb, the gleam. Nostalgia.

Very short read but lovely

This is a really brilliant read, shorter than the last one I read (The Enchanted Wanderer) but also I found it more engaging and read it more rapidly. It really is one of those books that I wish I'd read when I was much younger, although I'm pretty sure my less mature self would not have been interested in Russian writers or reading about the topic of love so much as experiencing directly.The book begins with an assembled group who are telling stories one to the other, which is a great opener for a story such as this one and the Enchanted Wanderer begins in a similar fashion, however, I also think this is great in itself, evoking memories or associations with any good time that's been had doing the same sort of thing,sitting with others and listening or having them listen to you in turn, confident of the friendship or, at the very least, mutual regard for the speaker. Great books do this. Really good books do it with an economy of words and establish a good pace and style while they are doing it, drawing the reader in and stimulating a new appreciation for the ordinary or everyday.Turgenev is definitely one of those authors who is a kind of close observer and chronicler of human experience, when the circle of friends all exchange all too brief sentiments about their first loves and then one of them says they must first commit it all to paper in order to read it back you know that something good and worth reading (and even rereading to be honest) is on its way. As I have said I wish that I'd have read this much, much earlier in my life, and been able to properly appreciate as I am now, because there is so much in this which strongly resonates with my experience but I think also would resonate with anyone and everyone, although it is love as experienced by the male, enamoured with an older female, who is perhaps more self-aware or aware of what the attentions of men mean. That isnt to say that female readership wouldnt appreciate it, not for an instant, I believe anyone would appreciate it.The closely chronicled account of feeling and sentiments, almost every state and stage I associate with love (both at its best and worst I would suggest) is here and there is something about books like this which hark to a time of closer reflection and perhaps self-understanding which I in particular like. While there are myriad attempts to commercialise experience, appropriate it, co-opt it and sell it back to people who didnt realise they could experience it all for free in the first place, essentially experiencing and reflecting on how you feel, feeling deeply, but not giving over to some sort of disturbed, overwhelmed mindset is to be truly and more completely alive. Books giving and account like this one, a "storied" life, kind of an autobiographical tale, operate in some senses as a guide (or a vicarious adventure maybe) allowing readers an expanded, more appreciative, understanding of what everyone goes through in life.Recommended. Heartily so.

こういう本は洋書取扱い店の書棚で見付けても、多くの客の手に触れることで表装がかなり傷んでいることも多いです。今回送付頂いたのは本当に「新品」レベルのものでとても満足しています。

Personally i like the stories but i feel they fail to really drag me emotionally into them, the character’s behavior are to alien to me to connect.