Hunting Sketches - Ivan Turgenev

Weitere Informationen von "Hunting Sketches":

An intriguing confession of doctor's romantic involvement with a beautiful 20 year old patient. Followed by Turgenev's exquisite, often meditative descriptions of Russian countryside and mysterious herbalist Kassyan infatuated with Gamayane, a prophetic bird of Russian folklore, a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. Read in English (unabridged).

In The District Doctor, a traveller falls ill and is treated by the local physician, who unexpectedly shares a story with the stranger. Once the doctor was asked to make a house call by a woman who believed her daughter might be dying. On his arrival, the physician finds a beautiful 20 year old woman who is feverish and initially unconscious. Although fully aware how ill she is, he nonetheless promises everyone that she will survive. He is immediately infatuated with the woman and spends days and nights at her bed side caring for this single patient. As Alexandra's condition worsens and she becomes convinced her death is imminent, she professes love for the doctor. It's hard to die at twenty without having known love; this was what was torturing her this was why, in despair, she caught at me, asserts the doctor during his confession. Just before her death, the doctor lies about their relationship to Alexandra's mother. Later the doctor marries another woman. Did he marry for love, convenience, or money? In Kassyan Of Fair Springs we get an opportunity to marvel at Turgenev's divine descriptions of nature.
They become so beautiful that one can easily fall into a state of deep meditation. We also learn about very strange and mysterious character Kassyan, nicknamed the Flea who seem to be able to speak to birds and astonishes Turgenev with his deeply spiritual views of the world and nature. We learn about Kassyan's deep love for nature and his fascination with Gamayunne, a prophetic bird of Russian folklore, a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. Queer things happen in the world: you may live a long while with some people, and be on friendly terms with them, and never once speak openly with them from your soul; with others you have scarcely time to get acquainted, and all at once you are pouring out to him - or he to you - all your secrets, as though you were at confession.

Über den Autor:

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev 1818-1883, a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His short story collection entitled The Hunting Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction. Turgenev studied literature, philosophy and philology at the Universities of Moscow, St Petersburg and Berlin and in 1879 received honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. Turgenev's artistic purity made him a favourite of like-minded novelists of the next generation, such as Henry James and Joseph Conrad.