Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    First Love
    First Love
    First Love
    Audiobook3 hours

    First Love

    Written by Ivan Turgenev

    Narrated by LibriVox Community

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook


    The title of the novella is almost an adequate summary in itself. The "boy-meets-girl-then-loses-her" story is universal but not, I think, banal - despite a surprise ending which notoriously turns out to be very little of a surprise. First Love is given its originality and poignancy by Turgenev's mastery of the piercing turning-point (akin to Joyce's "epiphanies") that transforms the character's whole being, making a tragic outcome inevitable. Even the nature symbolism is rescued from triteness by lovely poetic similes - e.g. "but at that point my attention was arrested by the appearance of a speckled woodpecker who busily climbed up the slender stem of a birch-tree and peeped out uneasily from behind it, first to the right, then to the left, like a musician behind the bass-viol." (Summary by Martin Geeson)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLibriVox
    Release dateAug 25, 2014
    Author

    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.

    More audiobooks from Ivan Turgenev

    Related to First Love

    Related audiobooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      With Forever Presence

      Dec 28, 2018

      With Forever Presence
      9 min read

    • Article

      Wit And Sorrow

      Aug 28, 2022

      An old cliché says that inside every clown there is a tragedian. This could well apply to Tim Upperton’s new collection. He’s often funny in a deadpan style. Take his longish poem “The Truth About Palmerston North”, in which he appears to be trashing

      2 min read

    • Article

      Shocking Pink

      Oct 31, 2021

      Shocking Pink
      2 min read

    • Article

      It’ll End In Tears…

      Oct 28, 2021

      It’ll End In Tears…
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Twist In The Tail

      Feb 1, 2024

      A Twist In The Tail
      4 min read

    • Article

      Curriculum A List of Favorite Anythings

      Sep 5, 2017

      Athens, Georgia (girl on hood of car) exhibits the masterful simplicity and perfect formal balance of Mark Steinmetz’s work. Evoking a tone of quiet longing and loneliness, the image presents a pale teenage girl reclining against the windshield of a

      3 min read

    • Article

      Lost Chord

      Mar 4, 2021

      Lost Chord
      4 min read

    • Article

      What We Loved This Week

      Jul 13, 2018

      What We Loved This Week
      4 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: August 2017

      Aug 7, 2017

      This is a book to share, a poetic window into someone “standing in line / behind you / the girl you’re pretending not to notice.” The post Must-Read Poetry: August 2017 appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Poem Of The Week: Der Kleiber … By Sujata Bhatt

      May 15, 2023

      Der Kleiber: Eurasian Nuthatch(Sitta europaea) … What’s the littlest thingYou can spin a poem out of … ?Michael Schmidt* Over here there are enough treesto make us feel sheltered. We hear it first, a loud song:the clear notes so sharp it makes us sto

      2 min read

    • Article

      Echo

      Jan 26, 2022

      Echo
      1 min read

    • Article

      Imagined Histories

      Sep 2, 2021

      Imagined Histories
      4 min read

    • Article

      Back To Nature

      Aug 6, 2023

      In her debut collection, Megan Kitching draws on her knowledge of both botany and traditional poetry to tell us about the parts of nature that we often forget: the undervalued plants that do so much to sustain our environment. This is emphasised in t

      2 min read

    • Article

      Madeleine L’Engle’s Early Short Stories Presage ‘A Wrinkle In Time’

      Apr 17, 2020

      A reviewer reflects on reading “The Moment of Tenderness,” a collection of short stories, and then returning to the 1963 novel she loved growing up.

      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘Mothers’ Without Mothers: On Chris Power’s Collection

      Jan 24, 2019

      Power is careful not to over-sentimentalize. Not once does he break the delicate combination of breezy and desperate that constitutes much of his work. The post ‘Mothers’ Without Mothers: On Chris Power’s Collection appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Nov 4, 2022

      Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore In this timely novella about a Russian military conscript defecting from the army, 20-year-old Aliocha is on the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Vladivostok. When he gets there, he pl

      2 min read

    • Article

      Holiday Reads By The Recently Departed

      Jul 27, 2023

      FOR THIS YEAR’S HOLIDAY READING special — where The Critic suggests some older fiction that might more profitably fill your beach-y or gîte-y afternoons than the latest screamers from the bestseller lists — the theme is, well, death in summer. We off

      6 min read

    • Article

      Breathing And Interested

      Jul 1, 2019

      I want to tell you a story about my daughter Jane Bell. Not long ago, she was nearly five at the time, we were walking to get the mail. Our driveway is long—about two-fifths of a mile from the house to the mailbox—so it is a substantial hike for some

      15 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for First Love

    4/5

    9 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words