First Love by Ivan Turgenev - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

By Ivan Turgenev

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘First Love by Ivan Turgenev - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Collected Works of Ivan Turgenev’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Turgenev includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘First Love by Ivan Turgenev - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Turgenev’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781788770392

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev was a Russian writer whose work is exemplary of Russian Realism. A student of Hegel, Turgenev’s political views and writing were heavily influenced by the Age of Enlightenment. Among his most recognized works are the classic Fathers and Sons, A Sportsman’s Sketches, and A Month in the Country. Turgenev is today recognized for his artistic purity, which influenced writers such as Henry James and Joseph Conrad. Turgenev died in 1883, and is credited with returning Leo Tolstoy to writing as the result of his death-bed plea.

Book preview

The Collected Works of

IVAN TURGENEV

VOLUME 11 OF 53

First Love

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2015

Version 2

COPYRIGHT

‘First Love’

Ivan Turgenev: Parts Edition (in 53 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78877 039 2

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

Ivan Turgenev: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 11 of the Delphi Classics edition of Ivan Turgenev in 53 Parts. It features the unabridged text of First Love from the bestselling edition of the author’s Collected Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Ivan Turgenev, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Ivan Turgenev or the Collected Works of Ivan Turgenev in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

IVAN TURGENEV

IN 53 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, Rudin

2, A House of Gentlefolk

3, On the Eve

4, Fathers and Sons

5, Smoke

6, Virgin Soil

The Novellas

7, The Diary of a Superfluous Man

8, Yakov Pasinkov

9, Faust

10, Acia

11, First Love

12, A Lear of the Steppes

13, Torrents of Spring

14, The Song of Triumphant Love

15, Clara Militch

16, Phantoms

17, The Dream

The Short Stories

18, A Sportsman’s Sketches

19, A Tour in the Forest

20, Andrei Kolosov

21, A Correspondence

22, The District Doctor

23, Mumu

24, The Jew

25, An Unhappy Girl

26, The Duellist

27, Three Portraits

28, Enough

29, A Desperate Character

30, A Strange Story

31, Punin and Baburin

32, Old Portraits

33, The Brigadier

34, Pyetushkov

35, Knock, Knock, Knock

36, The Inn

37, Lieutenant Yergunov’s Story

38, The Dog

39, The Watch

40, The Rendezvous

41, A Reckless Character

42, Father Alexyéi’s Story

43, Poems in Prose

The Plays

44, A Month in the Country

45, A Provincial Lady

46, A Poor Gentleman

47, Careless

48, Broke

49, Where It Is Thin, There It Breaks

50, The Family Charge

51, The Bachelor

The Criticism

52, The Criticism

The Biography

53, Turgenev: A Study by Edward Garnett

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First Love

Translated by Constance Garnett, 1897

This famous novella was first published in 1860.  First Love employs a frame story structure, recounting the memory of the protagonist’s first love.

Turgenev at the time of publication

CONTENTS

FIRST LOVE

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

XXII

FIRST LOVE

The party had long ago broken up. The clock struck half - past twelve.

There was left in the room only the master of the house and Sergei

Nikolaevitch and Vladimir Petrovitch.

The master of the house rang and ordered the remains of the supper to be cleared away. ‘And so it’s settled,’ he observed, sitting back farther in his easy - chair and lighting a cigar; ‘each of us is to tell the story of his first love. It’s your turn, Sergei Nikolaevitch.’

Sergei Nikolaevitch, a round little man with a plump, light - complexioned face, gazed first at the master of the house, then raised his eyes to the ceiling. ‘I had no first love,’ he said at last; ‘I began with the second.’

‘How was that?’

‘It’s very simple. I was eighteen when I had my first flirtation with a charming young lady, but I courted her just as though it were nothing new to me; just as I courted others later on. To speak accurately, the first and last time I was in love was with my nurse when I was six years old; but that’s in the remote past. The details of our relations have slipped out of my memory, and even if I remembered them, whom could they interest?’

‘Then how’s it to be?’ began the master of the house. ‘There was nothing much of interest about my first love either; I never fell in love with any one till I met Anna Nikolaevna, now my wife, — and everything went as smoothly as possible with us; our parents arranged the match, we were very soon in love with each other, and got married without loss of time. My story can be told in a couple of words. I must confess, gentlemen, in bringing up the subject of first love, I reckoned upon you, I won’t say old, but no longer young, bachelors. Can’t you enliven us with something, Vladimir Petrovitch?’

‘My first love, certainly, was not quite an ordinary one,’ responded, with some reluctance, Vladimir Petrovitch, a man of forty, with black hair turning grey.

‘Ah!’ said the master of the house and Sergei Nikolaevitch with one voice: ‘So much the better…. Tell us about it.’

‘If you wish it … or no; I won’t tell the story; I’m no hand at telling a story; I make it dry and brief, or spun out and affected. If you’ll allow me, I’ll write out all I remember and read it you.’

His friends at first would not agree, but Vladimir Petrovitch insisted on his own way. A fortnight later they were together again, and Vladimir Petrovitch kept his word.

His manuscript contained the following story: —

I

I was sixteen then. It happened in the summer of 1833.

I lived in Moscow with my parents. They had taken a country house for the summer near the Kalouga gate, facing the Neskutchny gardens. I was preparing for the university, but did not work much and was in no hurry.

No one interfered with my freedom. I did what I liked, especially after parting with my last tutor, a Frenchman who had never been able to get used to the idea that he had fallen ‘like a bomb’ (comme une bombe) into Russia, and would lie sluggishly in bed with an expression of exasperation on his face for days together. My father treated me with careless kindness; my mother scarcely noticed me, though she had no children except me; other cares completely absorbed her. My father, a man still young and very handsome, had married her from mercenary considerations; she was ten years older than he. My mother led a melancholy life; she was for ever agitated, jealous and angry, but not in my father’s presence; she was very much afraid of him, and he was severe, cold, and distant in his behaviour…. I have never seen a man more elaborately serene, self - confident, and commanding.

I shall never forget the first weeks I spent at the country house. The weather was magnificent; we left town on the 9th of May, on St. Nicholas’s day. I used to walk about in our garden, in