The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Novellas: New Translation: Newly Translated and Annotated Also includes Asya and First Love

(Paperback)

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Driven to his deathbed by an incurable disease, the thirty-year-old impoverished gentleman Chulkaturin decides to write a diary looking back on his short life. After describing his youthful disillusionment and his familys fall from grace and loss of status, the narrative focuses on his love for Lisa, the daughter of a senior civil servant, his rivalry with the dashing Prince N and his ensuing humiliation. These pages helped establish the archetype of the superfluous man, a recurring figure in nineteenth-century Russian literature. First published in 1860, The Diary of a Superfluous Man was initially censored by the authorities as some of its passages were deemed too critical of Russian society. This volume also includes two other masterly novellas from the same period, also touching on the theme of disappointed love: Asya and First Love.

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Turgenev to me is the greatest writer there ever was. -- Ernest Hemingway

Author Bio

Ivan Turgenev (181883) was a novelist, poet and dramatist, and now ranks as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. His masterpiece, Fathers and Children, is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.