Why read Fathers and Sons?

Book cover of Fathers and Sons

Book description

Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons explores the ageless conflict between generations through a period in Russian history when a new generation of revolutionary intellectuals threatened the state. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the Russian by Peter Carson, with an introduction by Rosamund Bartlett and an afterword by Tatyana…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Fathers and Sons as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Susan Ostrov

Author

Turgenev is an author we all should read. This is his great novel, chosen by my book group. His characters are memorable and the view of nineteenth century Russia is fascinating. But most of all I love Turgenev's style of writing. He can make you smile and break your heart in the same paragraph. There's no one quite like him.

From Susan's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Roland Merullo

Author

I speak Russian and spent several years working in the former USSR on cultural exchange exhibitions. I majored in Russian Language and Literature at Brown and have a Master’s in those subjects, also from Brown, and I love Turgenev even more than I love his great contemporaries, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

In this short novel, Turgenev speaks to political differences across generations, something pertinent to the American political scene now and to the tension between activism and domestic life.

As a novelist, I’m also blown away by his ability to put so much into a very short piece of fiction. It’s…

From Roland's list on thoughtful works of fiction and non-fiction.