First Love and Other Stories, Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich

In this volume of First Love and Other Stories six of Turgenevs shorter works are collected together. Firstly in The Diary of a Superfluous Man we find the story of a dying man who recounts the incidents of his life. Secondly this collection contains the short story Mumu, which relates what follows when Gerasim, a deaf and mute man, rescues a drowning dog. Thirdly, in Acia, there is the story of an unnamed narrator who recounts, in a remorseful recollection, his love for the illegitimate daughter of a Russian landowner. Fourthly there is the title story of the volume First Love the unfortunate tale of a young mans love for who he ultimately discovers is his fathers mistress. Next in this collection is A Lear of the Steppes, a reworking of Shakespeares King Lear set in the Russian countryside. Lastly there is The Song of Triumphant Love, a story of the friendship between two young men, Fabio and Muzzio, and the woman that they both love. In the numerous critical essays that American author Henry James wrote of Ivan Turgenevs work he claimed his merit of form is of the first order. While somewhat overshadowed by his contemporaries, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, and Anton Chekhov, Turgenev rightly deserves a place amongst the great Russian writers of the 19th century. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.