Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons - Turgenev's Education
100 Days of Charming Rotten Scoundrels tutorial - Goethe, Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev
100 Days of Charming Rotten Scoundrels tutorial - Goethe, Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev
February 20 - May 31, 2024
Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons
Sunday, May 5
Turgenev's education
Next reading assignment:
Monday, May 6, Chapters 1 and 2
As a child Turgenev travelled extensively in Europe which shaped his world views in consequential ways. From an early age he was introduced, along with the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol, to the masterpieces of European literature. After studying at home, Turgenev entered the Moscow University history and philology department - where his fellow students were Vissarion Belinsky - to whom he dedicated Fathers and Sons - and Alexander Herzen - whose novel “Who is to Blame?” (1845) created the foundation of socially engaged Russian literary fiction - developed further by Turgenev, Chernyshevsky, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy.
After Turgenev’s brother enrolled in an elite military school in Saint Petersburg in 1834, Turgenev transferred to the Saint Petersburg university where he finished his undergraduate studies in 1836. His graduate work commenced in 1838 at the Berlin University where he studied the philosophy of Hegel, German idealism, and Greek and Latin literature. Turgenev received the best formal education of all the Russian writers of the 19th century.
Turgenev - in glasses - and no beard yet!!! By Eugene Louis Lami, painted in 1843.
18th and 19th century images of Saint Petersburg University and Moscow University - and Berlin University today!!!
