A masterpiece of poetic realism, Fathers and Sons received an unusually stormy reception upon its publication in 1861. Radicals perceived the novel as a crude caricature of progressivism, while the right saw it as a distasteful, even dangerous glorification of nihilism. For in Bazarov, the novel's protagonist, Turgenev creates one of the finest, in a long literary line of angry young men. The interaction of Bazarov with his parents, his friends and the woman he loves is fast, furious and fascinating for the psychological truths it unveils.
