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Title: Rudin
Series: (The
Russians)
Author: Ivan Turgenev
Rating: 4
of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages:
183
Words: 49K
From Wikipedia
Rudin’s
Arrival
The
novel begins with the introduction of three of the characters –
Aleksandra, Lezhnev, and Pandalevskii. Pandalevskii relates to
Aleksandra Dar’ya Mikhailovna's invitation to come and meet a Baron
Muffel’. Instead of the Baron, Rudin arrives and captivates
everyone immediately with his intelligent and witty speeches during
the argument with Pigasov. Rudin's arrival is delayed until Chapter
Three. After his success at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's, he stays the
night and the next morning meets Lezhnev who arrives to discuss some
business affairs with Dar’ya Mikhailovna. This is the first time
the reader finds out that Rudin and Lezhnev are acquainted, and
studied together at university. During the day that follows Rudin has
his first conversation with Natasha; as she speaks of him highly and
says he “ought to work”, he replies with a lengthy speech. What
follows is a description quite typical of Turgenev, where the
character of Rudin is shown not through his own words, but through
the text which underlines Rudin's contradictory statements:
“Yes,
I must act. I must not bury my talent, if I have any; I must not
squander my powers on talk alone — empty, profitless talk — on
mere words,’ and his words flowed in a stream. He spoke nobly,
ardently, convincingly, of the sin of cowardice and indolence, of the
necessity of action.”[5]
On
the same day, Sergei leaves Dar’ya Mikhailovna's early and arrives
to see that Lezhnev is visiting. Lezhnev then gives his first
description of Rudin.
Rudin
and Natasha
In
two months, we are told, Rudin is still staying at Dar’ya
Mikhailovna's, living off borrowed money. He spends a lot of time
with Natasha; in a conversation with her he speaks of how an old love
can only be replaced by a new one. At the same time, Lezhnev gives
the account of his youth and his friendship with Rudin, making for
the first time the point that Rudin is “too cold” and inactive.
On the next day, Natasha quizzes Rudin over his words about old and
new love. Neither she, nor he confess their love for each other but
in the evening, Rudin and Natasha meet again, and this time Rudin
confesses his love for her; Natasha replies that she, too, loves him.
Unfortunately, their conversation is overheard by Pandalevskii, who
reports it to Dar’ya Mikhailovna, and she strongly disapproves of
this romance, making her feelings known to Natasha. The next time
Natasha and Rudin meet, she tells him that Dar’ya Mikhailovna knows
of their love and disapproves of it. Natasha wants to know what plan
of action is Rudin going to propose, but he does not fulfil her
expectations when he says that one must “submit to destiny”. She
leaves him, disappointed and sad:
“I
am sad because I have been deceived in you… What! I come to you for
counsel, and at such a moment! — and your first word is, submit!
submit! So this is how you translate your talk of independence, of
sacrifice, which …”
Rudin
then leaves Dar’ya Mikhailovna's estate. Before his departure he
writes two letters: one to Natasha and one to Sergei. The letter to
Natasha is particularly notable in its confession of the vices of
inactivity, inability to act and to take responsibility for one's
actions – all the traits of a Hamlet which Turgenev later detailed
in his 1860 speech. Lezhnev, meanwhile, asks Aleksandra to marry him
and is accepted in a particularly fine scene.
The
Aftermath
Chapter
Twelve and the Epilogue detail events of over two years past Rudin's
arrival at Dar’ya Mikhailovna's estate. Lezhnev is happily married
to Aleksandra. He arrives to give her news of Sergei's engagement to
Natasha, who is said to “seem contented”. Pigasov lives with
Lezhnevs, and amuses Aleksandra as he used to amuse Dar’ya
Mikhailovna. A conversation which follows happens to touch on Rudin,
and as Pigasov begins to make fun of him, Lezhnev stops him. He then
defends Rudin's “genius” while saying that his problem is that he
had no “character” in him. This, again, refers to the superfluous
man's inability to act. He then toasts Rudin. The chapter ends with
the description of Rudin travelling aimlessly around Russia. In the
Epilogue, Lezhnev happens by chance to meet Rudin at a hotel in a
provincial town. Lezhnev invites Rudin to dine with him, and over the
dinner Rudin relates to Lezhnev his attempts to “act” – to
improve an estate belonging to his friend, to make a river navigable,
to become a teacher. In all three of this attempts Rudin demonstrated
inability to adapt to the circumstances of Nicholas I's Russia, and
subsequently failed, and was in the end banished to his estate.
Lezhnev then appears to change his opinion of Rudin as inherently
inactive, and says that Rudin failed exactly because he could never
stop striving for truth. The Epilogue ends with Rudin's death at the
barricades during the French Revolution of 1848; even at death he is
mistaken by two fleeing revolutionaries for a Pole.
After Anna
Karenina and it's almost 1300 pages, every other Russian
novel that's under 500 pages suddenly makes me feel like somehow I'm
cheating and having an easy time of it. Russian literature is bleak
and grim and depressing and your very soul is supposed to suffer
while reading it. And here I am, breezing along like I'm on a circus
ride or something.
It's just not right. Or maybe I'm just not right. OR (prepare for
Conspiracy Theory Numero Uno).....
….. The WP4 have brainwashed me into somehow liking Russian
Literature. I can totally see Dix trying to brainwash me, so I'm
going with the Conspiracy Theory option.
Thankfully the titular character is not the main character. He's an
arrogant jackass who won't stick to anything unless it is done
exactly his way. Since he pretty much sponges off of other people,
well, you can see the friction there. What got to me was near the end
of the novel, Lezhnev (I'd call him a main character) meets Rudin
(who is now practically homeless and barely surviving) and is very
charitable to him. That was fine and showed what a good man Lezhnez
was. What I really disliked was how Lezhnev starts praising Rudin for
everything that I abominated in him. His inability to get along with
others. His laziness. His excuses for not finishing things. His
playing with people's lives as if they exist for his use alone. I was
actually waiting for him to starve to death all alone but I think how
Turgenev portrayed him dying, getting shot at the barricades during
the French Revolution of 1848 (I had to go look on wikipedia, but
this Revolution was just another one by the Frenchies, not the one
portrayed in Dickens' Tale
of Two Cities). It was very fitting for Rudin to die
while sticking his nose into a completely different country's
business.
I have to admit, I am not skilled enough to be able to tell the
differences in writing style of Turgenev from either Tolstoy or
Dostoyevsky. Part of that might be that a good bit of Russian
literature was translated by Constance Garnett and if she wasn't
careful, her own style would overpower theirs. While no translator is
listed for this book, the public domain version is translated by
Garnett so I'm going to assume this is her translation.
And yet, with everything, I still enjoyed this quite a bit. Turgenev
sees people and does an excellent job of putting that down in words.
I get all the benefit of a varied circle of acquaintences without
actually having to deal with people. That is a Win-Win situation as
far as I'm concerned!
The only other Turgenev that I've read is Fathers
and Sons. I definitely preferred that to Rudin.
However, I do look forward to more Turgenev as I continue this
Russian journey.
★★★★☆
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