FATHERS AND SONS

When Arkady Petrovich comes home from college, his father finds his eager, naive
son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen
under the powerful influence of the friend he has brought with him. A self-proc
laimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father by criticizing
the landowning way of life and by his outspoken determination to sweep away trad
itional values of contemporary Russian society. Turgenev's depiction of the conf
lict between generations and their ideals stunned readers when Fathers and Sons
was first published in 1862. But many could also sympathize with Arkady's fascin
ation with its nihilist hero whose story vividly captures the hopes and regrets
of a changing Russia.