First Love

Part of The Art of the Novella

One of Russian literature’s most renowned love stories—a vivid and sensitive account of adolescent love, wherein the sixteen year old protagonist falls in love with a beautiful but older woman living next door, thereby plunging into a whirlwind of changing emotions that are heightened by her capriciousness, and leading to a truly heart-rending revelation.

IVAN TURGENEV was born October 28, 1818, the son of a chronically philandering cavalry officer and an unhappy, abusive heiress. As a child, one of the family serfs read him verses from the Rossiad of Kheraskov, and Turgenev’s early attempts at literature and poetry gave indications of genius. Turgenev made a name for himself, beginning in 1852, with the short-story collection A Sportsman’s Sketches. He followed with the novels Rudin in 1854,A Nest of the Gentry in 1858, and On The Eve in 1859. He died at Bougival, near Paris, on 4 September 1883.

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