Turgenev first love summary5/20/2023 ![]() The three guests, all men "not old but no longer young", are taking turns recounting the stories of their first loves. ![]() The story starts with the protagonist, Vladimir Petrovich, at a party. Plot summaryįirst Love is an example of a frame story. But it had its many admirers, including the French novelist Gustave Flaubert, who gushed in a letter to Turgenev, "What an exciting girl that Zinochka is!" The Countess Lambert, a close acquaintance of Turgenev, told the author that the Russian emperor himself had read the novella to the empress and been delighted by it. Others condemned the impropriety of that subject matter, namely a father and son in love with the same woman and a young woman who was the mistress of a married man. Some criticized its light subject matter that did not touch upon any of the pressing social and political issues of the day. Here Turgenev is retelling an incident from his own life, his infatuation with a young neighbor in the country, Catherine Shakovskoy (the Zinaida of the novella), an infatuation that lasted until his discovery that Catherine was in fact his own father's mistress.Ĭritics were divided. Indeed, the author claimed it was the most autobiographical of all his works. ![]() Like many of Turgenev's works, this one is highly autobiographical. First Love was published in March 1860 in the Reader's Library. ![]()
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