Fathers and sons
by Carolyn McSparren · first published 1999
58% recommend42% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Turgenev's novel is praised for its beauty, its portrait of youth, and its contemporary critical view of the nihilistic and utopian ideas shaping 1860s Russian thought. Suits readers of 19th-century Russian fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Her client is her ex-husband's son. When Kate Mulholland divorced David Canfield twenty years ago for an act of betrayal that resulted in the birth of a baby boy, she never expected to see David or his son again. She certainly never expected David to keep track of her successful career as an Atlanta lawyer. But that's exactly what he did. And now he's asking for her help. His son, Jason, has been charged with the murder of his high-school sweetheart, and David needs the best lawyer he can find. Kate knows she can handle the case. What she doesn't know is whether she--and David--can ha
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I was referring to conservatism in the sense of being reactionary (which is indeed as old as at least technology, one of my favorite books is Fathers and Sons). Many if not most democrats certainly fit the bill. I certainly agree with the need for solidarity!
on “Depression, anxiety rising among U.S. college students” ↗…translations), like The Defense, for example. If you want to go whole hog into postmodernism then try Pynchon or Gaddis. The 19th century Russians from Gogol to Chekhov are pretty much can't-lose. Turgenev's Fathers and Sons is beautiful and captures the spirit of youth. Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier is a short masterpiece. The Great Gatsby is as good as its reputation says. Read Dickens if you want the essence of the…
on “Ask HN: What are some good books?” ↗Probably a fair rule to go by overall But if I'd followed her rule I might not have read 'Fathers and Sons' through. The first fair chunk of the book I found extremely boring but at some point I became engrossed and to this day remember it as one of the books I've enjoyed the most.
on “Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50 for dropping a bad book” ↗…Karamazov was my favorite. I liked ''War and Peace too', and can somewhat understand why they call 'Anna Karenina' one of the best books ever written. Just recently, I finished 'Doctor Zhivago', and 'Fathers and Sons', and 'The Master and Margarita'. I thought they were all brilliant. Since the year is coming to and end, I hope to reread VS Naipaul's 'A House for Mr Biswas'. It's my favorite novel and I keep coming…
on “Ask HN: Books You Read in 2020?” ↗I like to recommend Ivan Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" as it gives a contemporary critical view of the nihilistic and utopian ideologies that shaped Russian intellectual discourse of the 1860s.
on “What Is To Be Done? The book that helped spark the Russian Revolution” ↗Ah, classic nihilism. I first encountered it in high-school literature class reading Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons". Good times. (Of course now you'd probably get a quick TikTok explanation and that's all.) I probably mix in a bit of that, a bit of "apatheism", some epicureanism (the original version), and a dash…
on “An Efilist Just Bombed a Fertility Clinic. Was This Bound to Happen?” ↗…years". Reading "Crime and Punishment" was definitely the latter but used a study guide to assist (read guide after reading the book chapter). Then the "Brothers..." followed by other authors Turgenev "Fathers and Sons" and Tolstoy's "The Resurrection". Many lessons to learn by these brilliant writers.
on “Dostoyevsky Isn't Difficult” ↗…run with a depressive whose obsessive psychosis ended in a prison sentence (Crime and Punishment), a much-too-long friendship with a man whose preoccupations with his father were borderline incestuous (Fathers and Sons), and, after I finished War and Peace, years stuck in sprawling disillusionment that, unlike many characters in the novel, I have yet to overcome.”
on “America’s Dead Souls” ↗…field day with this.) Rand's desire to take her idea as far as it can possibly go, in classic can't-make-an-omelette-without-breaking-eggs style, is as Russian as vodka. Think Bazarov the nihilist in "Fathers and Sons". Or better, Chernyshevsky's "What is to be Done?" which is famous for two things: having inspired generations of Russian revolutionaries and being a bit of a literary embarrassment. Here's an example.…
on “How to hack the beliefs that are holding you back” ↗Can't speak for Soviet era, but in Tsarist Russia, French was the status language of the upper classes. The allusions to French influence are everywhere in "Fathers and Sons". The novel itself is a meditation on Russian society at the time, specially the two leading intellectual camps, the established landed gentry and the young nihilists who rejected the status quo. Turgenev…
on “Google co-created video of an entire ride of the Trans-Siberian Railway” ↗…While I vehemently disagree with you (without much emotional connection though. Don't mind losing this one), this is STRAIGHT out of 19th century Russian novels. In particular, I'm thinking Turgenev's 'Fathers And Sons'[1]. In it, the university-educated, 'modern' characters, the nihilistic scientific men present very similar views. 'Science can explain away everything, that is what reality is', they proclaim, dismissing…
on “When Philosophy Lost Its Way” ↗"These restless youths found another mirror of their attitudes in Bazarov, the young hero of Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons (1862). Turgenev (a 'man of the forties') had intended him as a monstrous caricature of the nihilists, whom he regarded as narrowly materialist, morally slippery and artistically philistine, although…
on “Ivan Turgenev Was Distrusted by the Left and the Right” ↗Funny to read this today. Last night I got sick of TV, sick of all the interwebs' distractions, and just sat there with eyes closed, letting my mind wander. Finally I remembered I wanted to read Fathers and Sons (Turgenev). Here's a great question: why am I here and not reading that? BRB.
on “Social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of profound boredom” ↗