My Neighbour Radilov and Other Stories, Volume 1: My Neighbour Radilov and Other Stories

By Ivan Turgenev

"My Neighbour Radilov and Other Stories" is a collection of short stories by Ivan Turgenev, a renowned Russian writer of the 19th century. The stories in this collection are diverse in subject matter but are united in their focus on the complexities of human relationships, the struggles of Russian society, and the search for meaning in life. In the titular story "My Neighbor Radilov," Turgenev explores the theme of social status and the difficulties of cross-class relationships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Interactive Media
• Release date: Jan 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781907832062

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.

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Ivan Turgenev

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Ivan Turgenev

My Neighbour Radilov and Other Stories

New Edition

Published by Sovereign Classic

This Edition

First published in 2011

Copyright © 2011 Sovereign

All Rights Reserved.

Contents

MY NEIGHBOUR RADILOV

THE PEASANT PROPRIETOR OVSYANIKOV

MY NEIGHBOUR RADILOV

For the autumn, woodcocks often take refuge in old gardens of lime- trees. There are a good many such gardens among us, in the province of Orel. Our forefathers, when they selected a place for habitation, invariably marked out two acres of good ground for a fruit-garden, with avenues of lime-trees. Within the last fifty, or seventy years at most, these mansions – ‘noblemen’s nests,’ as they call them – have gradually disappeared off the face of the earth; the houses are falling to pieces, or have been sold for the building materials; the stone outhouses have become piles of rubbish; the apple-trees are dead and turned into firewood, the hedges and fences are pulled up. Only the lime-trees grow in all their glory as before, and with ploughed fields all round them, tell a tale to this light-hearted generation of ‘our fathers and brothers who have lived before us.’

A magnificent tree is such an old lime-tree.... Even the merciless axe of the Russian peasant spares it. Its leaves are small, its powerful limbs spread wide in all directions; there is perpetual shade under them.

Once, as I was wandering about the fields after partridges with Yermolaï, I saw some way off a deserted garden, and turned into it. I had hardly crossed its borders when a snipe rose up out of a bush with a clatter. I fired my gun, and at the same instant, a few paces from me, I heard a shriek; the frightened face of a young girl peeped out for a second from behind the trees, and instantly disappeared. Yermolaï ran up to me: ‘Why are you shooting here? there is a landowner living here.’

Before I had time to answer him, before my dog had had time to bring me, with dignified importance, the bird I had shot, swift footsteps were heard, and a tall man with moustaches came out of the thicket and stopped, with an air of displeasure, before me. I made my apologies as best I could, gave him my name, and offered him the bird that had been killed on his domains.

‘Very well,’ he said to me with a smile; ‘I will take your game, but only on one condition: that you will stay and dine with us.’

I must confess I was not greatly delighted at his proposition, but it was impossible to refuse.

‘I am a landowner here, and your neighbour, Radilov; perhaps you have heard of me?’ continued my new acquaintance; ‘to-day is Sunday, and we shall be sure to have a decent dinner, otherwise I would not have invited you.’

I made such a reply as one does make in such circumstances, and turned to follow him. A little path that had lately been cleared

Reviews for My Neighbour Radilov and Other Stories, Volume 1

[thewasp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These short stories relate the interactions between a Russian land owner and his neighbours. I enjoyed them.These stories were read via an audio book, and while the Russian accent gave the stories a more authentic feel, and I am most grateful that someone else was pronouncing those Russian names, I did find that unless I paid close attention I easily lost the flow of the stories. There were also times where I felt the narrator was reading without understanding as I noticed several errors, (eg: .....I made him a preposition....... , ... he attended versity.....)Maybe in the car was not the right place to listen to them.

[generuyle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What Turgenev’s Early Writing Led Him To (A review of The Hunting Sketches)A work from a distant country in a foreign language written over a century-and-a-half ago had better be able to speak for itself. Fortunately, as an audio book, it now can.When a book first comes out, as this one did, it attracts or repels readers largely on the basis of three things: its author, its topic, and its type or genre. While a swing and a miss on any of these is a strike against you, a hit on just one of them may save the day and keep the game alive. When Turgenev published The Hunting Sketches in 1852, he wasn’t well known (Strike One!). What’s more, though his material had a definite place to it (the estate he had just inherited from his domineering mother) and a gaggle of colorful people, it really had no theme or topic (Strike Two!!). When it came to the sole remaining chance, what Turgenev did actually doubled his difficulty ratio, because what he chose wasn’t the familiar and more popular story form, but that of the sketch (When was the last time you read, and thoroughly enjoyed, a sketch – on anything?). And here is exactly where Turgenev’s fortunes pivoted and turned around. Not only did he get his hit, but he knocked the ball into the stands, and – to stick with the sports metaphor – he even made it into the hall of fame.The response was instantaneous. It wasn’t a matter of beginners luck, but emerged out of what he chose to focus his sketches on: character. Not as a mere literary device or technique employed to make a written piece more effective (though many regard it in this very way, and their work shows it), and few writers succeed, despite their many labored attempts, in learning to wield it in the engaging and life-like way Turgenev did. That is what shows so clearly in The Hunting Sketches, where again and again he seizes his people with both hands, determined not to let them go until they all “gave,” handing over the revealing riches character always holds within. He wrote of this exclusively, relentlessly, and unswervingly in every single sketch. What Turgenev found in character gave the people he wrote about -- the peasants and nobles of the provincial Russia of his day -- real things to talk about, think of, feel, say, and do. And that is found in his distinctly vivid characters.Surely this boundless depth and dimensionality came as something of a surprise even to him. For what had he published up to that time but a long poem and a short story? But in 1847 at 29, he begins to write in the fine fashion found in The Hunting Sketches. It changed both the way he saw things and the way he would write from then on. It even had a hand in changing the world around him (several credit his writing with hastening the official end of serfdom as well). That Turgenev could actually see the reality of character is evidence of his artistic creativity, but that he also chose to follow where it led is a sure sign of his own. If the quality of narration matched that of the writing, I would have given this audio book a four star rating. As it presently stands, though, I rate it at three-and-a-half. * * * (General comments on the recording and on two mispronunciations:)I strongly suggest re-recording the entire first track in order to correct the mispronunciation of two words in the first track (see notes at bottom), and to use this as an opportunity to bring the narrator’s level of animation and vocal energy up to the level achieved in the third track and those following. As the opening track, it is simply not up to standard! – and, it is likely to turn-off listeners otherwise interested in hearing Turgenev’s work. (This commonly happens in readying professional recordings, and when it does, as indeed it has, there is no need to delay in quickly getting it corrected. After all, Turgenev handled his part very well, and now the current producers must do the same!)To an American listener, the accent sounds “British,” which needn’t be a drawback, yet it seems “odd” and a little puzzling. This is likely due to the speaker’s having learned English from people whose natural accent was an English one, as is commonly found among Europeans who learn English in that way. The narrator’s strength lies in the accurate pronunciation of the many Russian names. He speaks distinctly and enunciates well, warming to his task as he got further into it, so that his pace picked up, his tone grew less deliberate and became more natural, reflecting the accompanying feelings treated in the dialog. Beyond that, there is the slightly dated language of another historical era (which, of course, is there in Garnett’s translation); but a case can well be made for the language being closer in its style to that used in Turgenev’s day. Some will find it “quaint” by modern standards, but it can nevertheless serve the purpose of opening to the modern listener the world and times treated in the book. Without doubt, a greater formality was observed back then, particularly between people of different social classes, and was simply a fact and feature of how these people lived and related.)Mistake #1 – (3:43 into Track 1), in the phrase . . . “a dog blinking and twitching in every limb was gnawing a bone” . . . (the word was mispronounced as ‘knowing a bone’).Mistake #2 – ( 6:21 into Track 1), in the phrase . . . “took the bow” . . . (the word was mispronounced ‘bow’, as in the posture of respect, but here is meant to be ‘bow’ as that with which one plays a fiddle).

[steve38 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

'The Hunting Sketches' as this Max Bollinger audio disc titles them is Turgenev's earliest and probably best know and appreciated work. The collection of short stories comes under various titles from different translations. Other options include 'Sketches from a Hunter's Album' or 'Sportsman's Sketches'. Different publications have included different selections from the collection that Turgenev produced in the early 1850's. Here we get just two , 'My neighbour Radilov' divided into two sections and 'Propietor Osyanikov' divided into four sections. The disc has an overall running time of 65 minutes.Turgenev was born into a wealthy Ukrainian family. Much of his education was in Western Europe. He lived in Berlin and Paris and became a zapadnik or Westernist. Russian culture and politics since the times of Peter the Great have drifted between the influences of those who look West and see Russia as part of greater Europe and those who focus internally and see Russia as a distinct culture and country different in many respects from Europe. In recent times Gorbachev and Yeltsin looked West, Putin prefers to emphasise Russia's uniqueness.At the time Turgenev was writing his Sketches the beginnings of revolutionary thinking were affecting imperialist Russia. Intellectuals took an interest in the lives of serfs, the peasant workers, owned by their landlords. There was a tendency to romanticise the lives of the serfs. They were seen as honest and simple in their way of life with a respect for nature and for each other. It was thought that the peasant way of life in some way represented the best of Russia with deep roots in Russian culture. It was an antidote to the formalised and mannered way of life at court in the great cities of St Petersburg and Moscow. Turgenev in his writing reflects this nostalgic view of life in the Russian countryside perhaps influenced not just by the intellectual debates of the day but also by the time he spent away from Russia in the West. In addition to writing about a rural way of life The Hunting Sketches remain one of the great descriptive pieces in Russian literature of the forests and the countryside. There is no doubt that the woods and forests of Russia's vast land mass are an important part of Russian culture. Even today most city dwellers will own or have access to a country dacha to which they will disappear every weekend in the summer. They will grow their own fruit and vegetables and relax away from the noise and stress of the city. They will see old friends and be visited by family and relations. The nostalgia continues.Max Bollinger was born in Russia and spent his childhood in Ukraine. It's no surprise then that he has produced an audio disc of Turgenev's writings. He came to England in 1993 graduated in economics and worked in banks. He trained in drama to improve his presentation skills and has acted in various TV programmes. Despite this theatrical background Mr Bollinger's delivery is rather flat and characterless. He no doubt has an authentic Russian accent but here it sounds more all-purpose Eastern European. He keeps to a steady pace but does not really succeed in bringing the Sketches to life.The translation used is by Constance Garnett and is over 100 years old. In some respects it has stood the test of time and is still published. On the other some, including Nabokov, think her outdated.

[yarb_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

These are classic stories: lapidary vignettes of Russian country life, penetrating and humane. And Garnet's translation has worn rather well in my opinion.But the quality of an audiobook is directly dependent on the narrator, and unfortunately Max Bollinger's delivery is a major let-down. I like the idea of a Russian-accented reading, but Bollinger's toneless, one-paced drone seems to miss not only the nuances, but the main rhythms of the text, and is completely at odds with the conviviality of Turgenev's prose. It sounds like it's being read from autocue - like an early reader focusing on each word individually and missing the context of the sentence - or, it has to be said, like a text-to-speech program. For me, this made it impossible to enjoy. Not recommended.

[polaris4_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was my first experience of Turgenev. I've been wanting to read 'A Sportsman's Notebook', so I was pleased to get this audiobook copy in the LT Early Reviewers' programme. 'The Hunting Sketches' are taken from 'A Sportsman's Notebook' - this is Book 1 of an intended audiobook series. I have mixed feelings as I could sense that Turgenev's writing is particularly good - 'My Neighbour Radilov' and the chapter 'A French Affair' from 'Proprietor Ovsyanikov' I liked the best. But, and it's a very big but, as others have already said, the experience was totally affected (as it is in any audiobook) by the voice of the narrator/reader. Max Bollinger's delivery is off-putting to say the least! His accent is not the issue at all - rather the monotone and lifeless delivery. It was so distracting that I found myself noticing the bad mispronounciations more than the actual content - "...A dog was knowing a bone..." is one that springs to mind - and this was way too distracting. So much so that even after repeat listening I found it very difficult to concentrate on the flow of 'Proprietor Ovsyanikov' altogether.All in all, most disappointing. I won't though be put off from reading 'A Sportsman's Notebook' in due course as it was the delivery here that was the problem - not the writing. 3 stars owing to Turgenev's creation.

[morwen04 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to love this audio book. I love Turgenev, even if at times I find his writing to be a bit purple. At times I found Max Bollinger's, the narrator, accent to be troublesome; sometimes it felt like a Russian man attempting to do a British man attempting a Russian accent. However, that would have been overlooked if the cadence of speech wasn't so awkward. Again the cadence fell somewhere between Russian and British. All in all it took away from the work. Also, some find Constance Garnett's translations to be dated, I do not find this to be the case. I rather like her as a translator, particularly of shorter works. In this case, I have read translations of Turgenev by George Reavey, David Margarshack, and Richard Freeborn. My translation of The Hunting Sketches is by Olga Shartse. After reading the complaints that Garnett's translation was dated I pulled out my print copy and reread the particular stories. I found them to be almost identical.