First Love

By: Ivan Turgenev

Narrated by: David Troughton

Length: 2 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

At the end of a dinner party, the remaining guests drink wine and tell stories of their first love. For one of them, it will be a dark journey into his past, reawakening unbearable memories of his obsession with the beautiful Zinaida.

©2008 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

A Story of First Love

A story of a man’s first love in the childhood of his teenage years at a summerhouse. Turgenev masterfully brings to light youthful love, with all its longings, grief, confusions, and resilience. Tragedy marks almost every page, but redemption follows.

Beautiful

Stirring up old memories of love and innocence. Superbly written. Worth listening to time and time again.

5 Star Reading of this Poignant Classic

The ecstasies and sorrows of the youthful first love is a well trodden theme in literature, but this is the finest treatment of the theme I’ve come across. The narration is pitch perfect too. Highly recommended.

Stunning

A young man’s first love looking back years later, grieving the loss of deeply disturbing emotions he felt while exploring the deeply flawed woman he loved.

pretty good

yeah i digged it bruh gj cool story good narration keep up the good work

Fantastic

A beautiful book full of surprises. The narration was fantastic. It made me want to read it again.

For lovers of great Russian lit

Deftly performed story of a young man’s first love in the beautiful words of Ivan Turgenev. This was a perfect shortish listen on one of those sleepless nights, and now I’m looking for more Turgenev on Audible.

A man tells a sad true story to his friends.

This story is not very long and contains few surprises, maybe none if you're especially quick to pick up on hints, but it's wistful and tragic and very romantic and if you're in the mood for that kind of thing then it's just right.

Turgenev's Famous Novel...

Fathers And Sons is one of my favorite Russian novels, and this lesser known work, First Love, now becomes another of my top-ranking volumes of east European literature. Like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, Turgenev is the literary precursor of the psychologist, teasing out the inner thoughts and motivations of his characters, painting them in umber scenes, often melancholy and reflecting on the past. First Love is about remembrance, hope, regret, and the full oeuvre of human emotion, a moving and compelling work of art.

Passion is stronger than logic

Any additional comments?

The final image of the novel, of the old lady in rags and dying on a hard floor with a sack under her head as she fights to stay alive despite a lifetime of misery gives the novel a greater perspective than just a young man sadly in love with a woman he won't have. The novel speaks to a greater need for people to live, at all costs and at any price, no matter the amount of pain it inflicts.

I have to admit to not feeling as close to Vladimir as I would have liked. Not because I didn't share any of his experiences - what young man hasn't - but there was a strange formality in him that seemed at odds with his age. I understand he was well bred and that his manners contrast beautifully with the situation of his love, but even when he was most mad, in the garden at midnight, I never really felt like I was with him. Had this been a slightly more modern novel - say written in the 1910's or 20's - there might have been a needed sexual undercurrent that is sorely missing here. I can't blame Turgenev since we have to consider when the novel was written, but still it's an element of human nature that is important.

Zinaida, however, though we never get the novel from her point of view, I felt much closer to. Her character is the real strength of the novel because we learn so much about her through her actions and the actions of everyone around her. She is a flirt, she is manipulative, she is poor (having once been wealthy), but she is not a bad person. In fact I felt more empathy to her than I did towards Tolstoy's Anna - they were similar women, but Zinaida felt more ... within reach. She wanted to be in love, not just be loved. And who doesn't want that? All her suitors were dolts, except for the one man who did have her.

I liked the image of his father's horse, the near wild Electric. This mirrored the father quite poetically and gave substance to his feelings in a way we could understand.

All-in-all this is a very sad novel, but it does speak to how we struggle in life to live and how imperfect we are. Yes we may know the right things to do, but passion is almost always stronger than logic.