"You can't understand me, we belong to two different generations."
This is a novel you can read over a weekend, but think about for years.
We try to speak to each other, to communicate with each other, but we can't. It's not that we don't talk: we do, constantly, piling up words at each other. But the words conceal or exaggerate, they distract or cause others to react, or they are simply lies we tell others and ourselves.
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Likewise, the characters in Fathers and Sons talk, a lot, but they cannot communicate across the chasm of a single generation. Imagine how much better off Bazarov would be if his father could help him see, ahead of time, the journey from arrogant, nihilist youth to humbled middle age. There's so much wisdom and insight lost when generations can't hear one another. It's staggering. The Boomer booms but no one can stand to listen. The old think they have all the wisdom and experience they need and thus rarely learn from the young. The generations could teach each other so much, but we can't seem to hear each other at all. The chasm is too wide, too deep, somehow all context is lost.
I can't help but realize I was on the wrong side of the same chasm when I first read Fathers and Sons as an overconfident university undergrad. I was 19, maybe 20, and most of it was way over my head; I had too much Bazarov and too little life experience in me to understand what Turgenev wrote. Yet another perfect example of a failure to communicate.
[Dear readers: as always, what follows are notes, quotes and reactions to the text. They are meant to organize my thinking and help me remember and they are not worth reading. Don't even bother to skim the bold parts! Life is short.]
Notes:
Chapter I
5ff We are introduced to Nikolay Petrovich Kirsanov and his servant Pyotr, they are waiting, nervously, for someone to arrive at an inn; we learn the backstory of Nikolay's mother and father as well as Nikolay's brother Pavel; Nikolay himself was a bit of a softy: as a young man, he coincidentally broke his leg when commissioned to join the army, and for the rest of his life had a "bad leg." To his parents' chagrin he falls in love with the daughter of a minor civil servant who has been his landlord, "a pretty young lady, and a 'cultured' one too: meaning that she read the serious articles in the 'Science' section of the reviews."
7ff They have a son, Arkady, they are happy for some ten years, but then his wife dies; he can hardly bear it. Nikolay then goes with his son to Petersburg where Arkady was to go to University, "trying to get to know Arkady's young classmates." Nikolay now hears wagon wheels; it's his son arriving, he greets him happily.
Chapter II
8 "Nikolay Petrovich seemed much more nervous than his son. He seemed confused and awkward."
8ff Arkady arrives to the inn with his friend Bazarov, and the three of them continue on to Nikolay and Arkady's home.
Chapter III
10ff On problems with peasants not paying their quit-rent; Nikolay also furtively confesses to his son that he is living with the girl Fenechka; Arkady seems to anticipate this and even teases him for being a square for being embarrassed about it. Also Nikolay explains to Arkady had to sell some of his wooded lands because he needed the money; Arkady is discouraged by all poverty all around, the condition of the peasants in the region; he reflects on how to improve things; at the same time, however, when his father intimates that Arkady could help him on the farm, Arkady dodges the question.
Chapter IV
15 "No crowd of house serfs spilled out on to the steps to greet the gentlemen: a single twelve-year-old girl appeared." In other words, this is a humble and poorly-run homestead and the serfs are not into helping keep the ship going. We meet Nikolay's brother Pavel, he is more elegant and refined than Nikolay. Bazarov, talking to Arkady later, considers Pavel to be a fop--all of his "refinement" is totally out of place: "Such exquisite clothes out here in the sticks, imagine!" [The author is setting the stage for the increasing conflict between Bazarov and Pavel later in the novel]. He also comments condescendingly about how Arkady's father is a decent man but lousy at quoting poetry, not very good at running an estate, etc.; the reader sees here that Bazarov fancies himself is an urbane guy, superior to these rural hicks; the chapter closes with Arkady and Bazarov falling quickly to sleep, while Nikolay lays awake in bed lost in thought, while Pavel sits up with an issue of a magazine, but yet he's not reading it: "God knows where his thoughts wandered but they weren't only in the past. His expression was set and grim, not like that of a man just thinking of his memories." Also the reader sees Fenechka in a small back room keeping an eye on a sleeping baby.
Chapter V
19ff Bazarov is the first to wake up, he wanders all over the grounds, quickly make friends with two farm boys and goes frog hunting with them; in the meantime Nikolay and Arkady are up, Fenechka doesn't come to serve or have tea with them, and Arkady understands why: he tells his father that he wouldn't judge his father or think ill of him for this: "If you've let her live with you under one roof, she must deserve it. Anyway, a son doesn't sit in judgment on his father, particularly a father like you who was never constrained by freedom in any way." Nikolay is embarrassed, muddled, he's unsure of how to handle himself in front of his own son; Arkady returns, having learned about Fenechka's baby with Nikolay: "Why didn't you tell me I have a brother?" Arkady is clearly happy to learn the news, and he and his father embrace again. They speak about Bazarov: "He's a nihilist." "What?" Nikolay says and then tries to figure out what exactly a nihilist actually means; meanwhile Fenechka herself comes out onto the terrace bringing a cup of cocoa for Nikolay; she's overcome with confusion and leaves embarrassed; Pavel frowns sternly, Nikolay is embarrassed, there's some sheepishness between the two of them about Fenechka. And then Bazarov arrives with a bag of live frogs. "'He's going to dissect them,' commented Pavel Petrovich. 'He doesn't believe in principles but he does believe in frogs.'"
Chapter VI
25ff Pavel strikes up a conversation with Bazarov, he's irritated by Bazarov's confidence and relaxed demeanor, he starts needling him; Bazarov asks Arkady later, "Is he always like that? ...Why should I indulge these provincial aristocrats?"
Chapter VII
28ff Arkady than explains the backstory about his uncle Pavel; essentially he was much more social than his brother, the ladies loved him, and he fell for a crazy girl, seducing but never truly conquering her, and when the relationship fell apart he nearly went mad. "Foreseeing the inevitable parting, he wanted at least to remain friends with her, as if a friendship with such a woman was possible." Pavel threw away his career for this woman, and then (ironically) became as nihilistic as Bazarov who he mocks now.
32ff Pavel came to live with Nikolay after Nikolay had lost his wife, Arkady's mother. Pavel "was a lonely bachelor and was coming to that troubled twilight time, a time of regrets that resemble hopes, of hopes that resemble regrets, when youth is past but old age has not yet come." As Arkady explains all this backstory, Bazarov is unimpressed, he sees Pavel as a decadent loser, letting himself be defeated by life and by a woman. [The irony is very rich here as the reader will eventually learn: first of all, this is the kind of priceless wisdom that a man of Pavel's age could share with someone at Bazarov's life stage: "don't do what I did!" Except it can't even be said in any way that Bazarov would understand--even if Pavel had the humility to say it. Worse, Bazarov has all the answers and all the arrogance of youth: he would never be able to comprehend such a warning. Even more ironically, Bazarov will likewise soon be defeated and driven mad by a woman. He'll have to go through it himself, he cannot be warned.]
Chapter VIII
34ff On Pavel frequently helping his brother Nikolay with money; on the poor condition of their estate; Pavel goes to Fenechka's room and there is an uncomfortable vibe between them as Nikolay enters her room too; then the reader learns the backstory on how Nikolay and Fenechka came to know each other: she was the daughter of a woman he hired to keep his house; after the mother died suddenly, leaving the daughter alone, "Where was Fenechka to go?... she was so young, so alone... Nikolay Petrovish himself was so kind and gentle... There is no need to finish the story." [Interesting fourth wall breaking here by the author with that last sentence.]
Chapter IX
40ff Bazarov diagnoses more problems with the estate; he meets Fenechka and Mitya, the baby, who takes to him instantly; Bazarov is happy with Arkady's father for shacking up with Fenechka; [Again, Bazarov has all the answers; he has all the arrogance of youth.]
Chapter X
44ff Nikolay overhears Bazarov talking condescendingly about him to Arkady, "Your father's a good fellow, but he's a pensioner from another age, he's had his day." Later that evening Pavel and Bazarov have a long argument, basically about nothing; afterwards Nikolay tells Pavel about an argument he had with their own mother, telling her "'You can't understand me, we belong to two different generations.' She was terribly offended, but I thought to myself, 'What's one to do? The pill is bitter but it has to be swallowed.' Now our turn has come, and our heirs can say to us, 'You don't belong to our generation. Swallow the pill.'"
Chapter XI
55ff Nikolay is saddened, he feels like it was a waste to spend time in Petersburg with his son, that it was pointless trying to understand him and his university friends, their rejection of everything made little sense to him, he feels gloomy at how he and his son have grown so far apart. He gets emotional thinking about his wife Mariya, at his advancing age, etc. Meanwhile, Bazarov comes up with the idea of visiting the Nikolay's nearby wealthy relatives who had invited the family to visit, even though Nikolay and Pavel didn't want to make the trip. When Bazarov and Nikolay left to visit them, "the old gentlemen breathed more easily."
Chapter XII
59ff On Matvey Ilyich Kolyazin, the wealthy relative, an important official in his town, "He was an adroit courtier, a great schemer--and nothing else. He knew nothing about business, he wasn't intelligent, but he did know how to look after his own interests." Arkady and Bazarov visit the regional governor's house, he invites them to a party, and then while walking they run into Bazarov's friend, Sitnikov, who invites them to the house of an "emancipated" woman nearby who he knows, telling them they'll get served free champagne.
Chapter XIII
63ff At Yevdoksiya Kukshina's house: she is "affected and artificial," a pseudo-intellectual who constantly namedrops philosophers, writers, scientists. After a few bottles of champagne, Arkady can't take it anymore and he and Bazarov leave without even saying goodbye. [Perhaps this tells readers that Sitnikov is basically a "Gamma" or a "low Delta" in the sociosexual hierarchy.]
Chapter XIV
69ff At the governor's ball; the young men meet the graceful Anna Odintsova, a young liberated widow; Sitnikov acts more familiar with her than he should, she also catches Bazarov's eye.
73 Arkady asks Bazarov, "'Why won't you admit of freedom of opinion in women?' he said in a low voice. 'Because, my friend, I've observed that the women who think freely are hideous."
Chapter XV
74ff Arkady and Bazarov go to see Anna Odintsova in her rooms in town; Arkady is secretly pleased to see that Bazarov appears rather awkward around her. [Suddenly Bazarov isn't quite the nihilist he claims to be!] We learn Anna Odintsova's background: Anna is the older daughter of a man who lost all of his money at the tables and had to go to the country to live more cheaply, leaving a tiny inheritance to his two daughters; "Anna's situation after her father's death was very hard." "She happened to catch the eye of one Odintsov," a fat depressive, hypochondriac, wealthy and eccentric man of 46 or so; he died six years later, leaving her his fortune. All the townspeople gossiped about her, "She wasn't liked in the province."
76 [I suspect the translator did a bit of a mistranslation here, missing a perfectly good chance at a subtle and harsh pun] "It was said of her, 'She's been through fire and water'; and a famous wit in the province would usually add, 'And through copper piping too.'" [Another translation that I referred to translated this latter part as "through brass instruments too" which gives the reader an implied reference to surgical instruments that might be, uh, used to terminate a pregnancy.]
77 Bazarov is quite taken by Anna; surprisingly, she invites them to visit her at her country home and they decide to go visit her just two days later.
Chapter XVI
78ff They arrive at Anna Sergeyevna Odintsova's estate, she and Bazarov begin debating things right away, Bazarov lets fly with his intellectually superior bravado: "'I tell you it's a waste of effort studying separate individuals. All human beings are like one another, in their souls as much as their bodies. Each of us has an identically constructed brain, spleen, heart, lungs. And the so-called moral qualities are the same in us all; small variations have no significance. A single human specimen is enough to judge them all. People are like trees in a forest. No botanist is going to study each individual birch tree.'" "'Trees in a forest,' she repeated. 'So, in your opinion, there is no difference between a stupid man and an intelligent one, between a good man and a bad one?'"
82 We meet Anna's aunt: arrogant, puny, and she ignores everyone. [Also a footnote here on how she considered taking tea with sugar to be sinful, referring to the fact that oxblood was used to clarify the impurities out of sugar; it's amazing the rabbit holes you can stumble down sometimes.]
83ff The group has tea, they go for a walk, they play cards, they listen to the daughter play music, and then they retire to bed; the author puts the reader into Anna Sergeyevna's head here: "Like all women who haven't managed to know love she wanted to know something without herself knowing exactly what. ...she experienced a secret revulsion for all men, whom she thought of as nothing more than messy, heavy, flabby, limp and tiresome creatures... 'What a strange man that doctor is!'" as she thinks of Bazarov. The next morning she and Bazarov go off to look at plants, they return at dinner time, both acting distracted.
Chapter XVII
87ff They end up staying there for a fortnight (!); Arkady decides he's in love with Anna and yet he also becomes affectionate and friendly with Katya, Anna's younger sister; also the relationship between Arkady and Bazarov becomes stiff and uncomfortable [the two young men have forgotten the cardinal rule: bros before ho's!]; Anna has inspired feelings in Bazarov "which tormented and maddened him and which he would have denied with a scornful laugh and a cynical curse if anyone had even remotely hinted at the possibility of what had happened to him." [Essentially the most appalling thing that could have possibly happened to a nihilist: he finds he's turned into a romantic.]
91ff Bazarov has to leave to go visit his parents, his parents' servants came by to indicate that he was expected home; Anna is quite upset at this, more upset than she expected to be; she tries to persuade him to remain. There's quite a lot of "piling up of words" here [as Krishnamurti would say] as Bazarov and Anna run a conversation about nothing on top of various subcommunication and emotions that neither of them fully understand, as well as various internal verbalizations about what the other person is thinking. As Bazarov returns to his and Arkady's room to sleep, Arkady is near tears, although the reader doesn't know why exactly... one suspects it is Arkady's jealousy, his bitter realization that Bazarov has a shot at Anna and he doesn't, and he can't do anything about it.
Chapter XVIII
98ff More tense discussion between Anna and Bazarov, ultimately he confesses his love to her. She thinks to herself, later, "No. God knows where that might have led, one mustn't play about with this, after all, peace of mind is the best thing in the world."
Chapter XIX
103ff Bazarov apologizes to Anna for his impertinence, he also says that he knows Anna doesn't love him back. Sitnikov, the gamma male, arrives unexpectedly. Bazarov is to leave for his parents' the next day and Arkady unexpectedly leaves along with him; in the carriage together Bazarov keeps speaking indirectly: "But I've noticed in the clinic that the patient who gets angry with his pain always manages to overcome it." And also: "...it's better to break stones on the road than for a woman to get control of even the tip of your finger." In both cases he's talking about his own mortified embarrassment at falling so stupidly in love with Anna, for expressing his feelings to her, for showing vulnerability to her: he's embarrassed, sheepish and angry at himself. He asks the peasant driving their carriage if he's married and if he beats his wife--or if his wife ever beats him; the peasant becomes visibly offended and Bazarov says, "Do you hear that, Arkady Nilolayevich? Both you and I were beaten... that's what it means to be educated."
Chapter XX
110ff They arrive to Bazarov's parents' home; his mother falls on her son's neck and cries, while her father yells, "Stop it stop it!" at her, while "it was obvious he wanted to control himself and to appear almost unmoved." Bazarov's father talks a lot and Bazarov seems uncomfortable. [This scene is a good example of how well-written (and sad) this book is: the young man, the nihilist, who is too sophisticated for silly romanticism and silly displays of affection, can't simply accept and be grateful for the obvious love his parents have for him. As a result no one can communicate their feelings: their parents' love can't be heard, nor can Bazarov reciprocate.]
118-9 See also here a beautiful two paragraphs here describing Bazarov's mother: a true Russian gentlewoman of the olden times, a throwback; on all the things that she was suspicious of, superstitious about, how she understood her place in the world, etc.
Chapter XXI
119ff Bazarov's father mistakenly thinks Arkady is aristocratic. Arkady and Bazarov's father talk about Bazarov: "'What do you think of my Yevgeny?' 'Your son is one of the most remarkable men I have ever met,' Arkady answered animatedly."
124 Bazarov: "I am thinking what a good life my parents have on this Earth. My father at sixty fusses about, talks of 'palliatives,' treats his patients, is all magnanimous with his peasants--in short he has a ball. And my mother too has a good time, her day is so crammed with all kinds of things to do, with ohs and ahs, that she has no time to think. While I...'
'While you?'
'While I think that I am here lying under a haystack... The tiny area I occupy is so minute by comparison with the rest of space, where I don't exist, which doesn't bother with me. And the span of time I'll be able to live out is so insignificant before the eternity where I haven't been and where I will not be... Yet in this atom, in this mathematical dot blood is circulating, a brain is functioning and wanting something too... What a monster state of affairs! What nonsense!'" [Bazarov grapples angrily with his insignificance, he stares into the abyss; and because of his young solipsism and narcissism, he can't see that his parents have gone through exactly what he is going through; they already know they aren't "significant" and are untroubled by it, they've gotten over it like most older people do; and most importantly, they are living in the present; happy in the moment; Bazarov can't see it, he can't get it, he can't see how to do such a thing; he's into himself, consumed with rage, and he's in a state of deep denial about the various griefs of life.]
124ff Over the next few pages this conversation between Arkady and Bazarov devolves to the point where they almost fight; but then Bazarov's father wanders by, complimenting them on lying on the earth and looking at the heavens; Bazarov replies snarkily, "I look at the heavens only when I want to sneeze."
132ff Bazarov leaves his parents' home early, they are crushed by this.
Chapter XXII
135ff They decide to go back to Anna Odintsova's house. [Note here that when the opportunity comes to go to Anna's home Bazarov kind of puts the idea and its consequences onto Arkady, just like he put his excuse to leave his parents onto Arkady as well. Bazarov plays the tough guy but he's kind of a pussy, despite his nihilistic facade.] The visit to Anna's house is uncomfortable from the get-go; they were clearly not expected; they only stay a few hours, and then leave to continue on to Arkady's parents' home.
137ff Discussion here of Arkady's father struggling to run his farm well, having problems with his newly emancipated serfs not performing their jobs; various other problems that, according to the footnotes to this edition, parallel the problems Turgenev was having with his own estate. "Peasants who had been put on quit rent [i.e., emancipated] didn't pay on time and stole wood... To crown everything the peasants were beginning to quarrel among themselves... There weren't enough hands for the harvest... Nikolay Petrovich's own women were asking absurd rates and meanwhile the corn went to seed."
140 The chapter ends with Arkady going back to Anna's estate and seeing Katya; Anna unexpectedly greets him warmly.
Chapter XXIII
141ff [The narrative starts to accelerate here in the next couple of chapters] After Arkady leaves for Anna's estate, Bazarov remains at Arkady's father's home; the brother Pavel is cool to Bazarov and is not arguing with him nearly as much; then the narrative switches to Fenechka and her openness and relaxed behavior around Bazarov; she is even more comfortable with him than with Arkady's father himself.
143ff A seen here where Bazarov takes advantage of Fenechka's relaxedness around him; he flirts with her; there's clear chemistry between them and Bazarov pushes the envelope and he contrives to kiss her; at the same time Pavel was nearby, he sees it all, and they see that he sees.
Chapter XXIV
147ff Pavel challenges Bazarov to a duel; they agree to terms and during the duel itself Pavel aims at Bazarov's face but misses; Bazarov shoots at Pavel's thigh and wounds him, and then he binds up Pavel's wound; they talk about how to explain the dual to Arkady's father. [For the reader here it's interesting to see the arrogance and confidence in Bazarov's mind the day before and the morning of the duel: he behaves rather courageously and nobly, much moreso than the reader would expect! A flatter character would have shown cowardice, would have backed out of the duel, would have been pissy about it somehow. Turgenev surprises the reader here and yet the unexpected behavior is still congruent with Bazarov's character somehow.] They bring Pavel back to the house, Bazarov immediately leaves; over the next week or so Pavel recovers; there's a tense scene where Fenechka, who has been waiting on Pavel as he recovers, has a talk with Pavel in her room, Nikolay enters unexpectedly and Fenechka leaves; and then Pavel convinces Nikolay to marry Fenechka. The chapter ends with a cryptic comment from the author about Pavel: "Lit by the bright light of the day, his handsome, wasted head lay on the white pillow like the head of a deal man... And he was indeed a dead man." [The translation here might be a bit too literal perhaps. But the essence here is although Pavel survives the duel and eventually recovers, nothing can change the fact that he's no longer a young man, his best years are behind him, his life is sort of a waste, he goes around with pretensions of aristocratic behavior, etc.]
Chapter XXIV
163ff This chapter opens with Arkady and Katya sitting together under a tree with a much greater level of intimacy and closeness. Katya describes Bazarov to Arkady in a strikingly blunt way: "He is a predator and you and I are domestic animals." [This girl can see; she has her head on straight.] Arkady directly confesses his feelings for Katya.
168 [Another striking instance here where the author violates the readers' expectations regarding a character, as Katya makes a harsh comment about Arkady, but then quickly corrects herself] "'Pretty feet you say... Well, he'll be at those feet.' But she immediately felt ashamed of herself and quickly ran upstairs." [Again, she sees: she knows the score, she knows that she'll have a good measure of control over Arkady, even if she feels guilty about acknowledging so.]
168ff Bazarov arrives and asks to be taken directly to Arkady; he tells him about the duel with Pavel. Bazarov goes to see Anna and he takes his leave of her, "I'm going away for a long time..."
171 "Those were on Anna Sergeyevna's words and those were Bazarov's; both thought they spoke the truth. Did their words hold the truth, the whole truth? They didn't know it themselves, much less does the author. But their conversation went as if they completely believed one another." [We sure do lie to ourselves, while we think we're telling the truth to ourselves and others: it's rationalization, justification and epistemic arrogance all the way down.] Bazarov then tells her that Arkady is in love with her; Anna initially is surprised but then says that it isn't true, that he's wrong about this.
172 The chapter closes with all of them looking for Arkady: he's sitting in the garden: "...his face was quietly radiant; he seemed to be wondering at something and to be happy and to be making some decision."
Chapter XXIV
174ff Arkady appears to be about to confess his love to Katya, he wants to make a big profound peroration to her, but he totally stumbles over his words; then Anna and Bazarov are walking by, unseen and not knowing that Katya and Arkady are there--Katya and Arkady can hear every word they say. Bazarov is jealous of Arkady and thinks he's attracted to Anna, and neither of them realize anything of Arkady's attraction to Katya. They move on out of earshot and Arkady instantly just confesses his love to Katya. [A peroration will never do, sometimes to say something you just have to say it.]
177 On Bazarov's malice when Anna shows him a letter Arkady wrote her asking for Katya's hand: "Bazarov quickly skimmed the letter and made an effort not to reveal the feeling of malice which suddenly surged in his breast." [Narcissistic rage right here: the narcissist is never happy in the happiness of others.]
179 Bazarov takes his leave of Arkady and gives him a whole condescending paragraph-long speech: "you aristocratic lot..."
Chapter XVII
180ff Bazarov surprises his parents by returning home to stay for quite a while and work, although he quickly becomes anxious and irritable there. There's also a funny scene here where he speaks sarcastically with a peasant, and later when another peasant asks the first peasant what Bazarov was talking about, he says, "He was just blathering something or other, he was itching to talk. Of course, he's a master, what can he understand?" "'Nothing!' replied the other muzhik." [The author here mocks Bazarov: Bazarov sees himself as above class, able to transcend class and even bragging elsewhere in the narrative about how easy it was for him to talk to peasants, yet "...that self-confident Bazarov didn't even suspect that in their eyes he remained some kind of buffoon..."]
183ff Bazarov begins helping his father with his medical practice, both mocking his old-style methods but also counseling him too; his father is happy about it and the mocking condescension doesn't bother him at all: he's just happy that his son is no longer depressed: "He really worked me over today. Wonderful!"
184ff Unfortunately we now learn that Basarov cut himself while participating in an autopsy of a peasant with typhus; Bazarov contracts the disease and knows that he's a dead man. "'Dad,' Bazarov began in a slow, hoarse voice, 'my case is no good. I'm infected, and in a few days' time you'll be burying me.'"
190 Bazarov deteriorates quickly, his father and his mother are beside themselves, his father wants him to take Christian rights: "It's for eternity, Yevgeny..."
190ff Anna arrives with a German doctor; while he speaks to Anna, Bazarov comes face to face, painfully, with his past arrogance: "Look at this hideous site: a worm that's half crushed but still wriggling. And I also used to think I'll achieve a great deal, I won't die, not me! I have a task ahead and I'm a giant!" Anna leaves; Bazarov goes to sleep and never wakes again. He dies the next day.
Chapter XVIII
195ff Six months later: Arkady and Katya are married as well as Nikolay and Fenechka in a joint wedding with almost no witnesses.
197 [The author breaks the fourth wall again] "This surely would seem to be the end. But perhaps some of our readers would like to know what each of the characters I have portrayed is doing now, at this moment. I am ready to satisfy their curiosity."
199 The final scene, well-written, takes place at Bazarov's grave: "Two old people often come to it from a little village nearby--a husband and wife, now infirm. Supporting each other and with heavy steps, they go up to the railings, fall down on their knees and weep long and bitterly, and long and fixedly they look at the mute stone, under which their son lies. They exchange a few words, they wipe the dust from the stone and adjust a fir branch, and they say another prayer, unable to leave this place, where they feel nearer to their son and their memories of him... Are their prayers and tears really in vain? Has love, holy, devoted love, really lost its power over all? No, no! The grave may hold a passionate, sinful, rebellious heart, but the flowers growing on it gaze serenely at us with their innocent eyes. They do not only speak to us of everlasting peace, of that great peace of 'indifferent' nature. They also speak of eternal reconciliation and of life without end..."
To Read:
Ivan Turgenev: Spring Torrents
Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho