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Fathers and Sons
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
Exclusively from Audible
After graduating from the University of Petersburg, Arkady Kirsanov and his friend and fellow graduate, Bazarov, travel to Kirsanov's family home, eager to embark on their next adventure. Delighted at the prospect of seeing his son, Arkady's father welcomes them both to the Marino estate. Encouraging dramatic conflict between the opposing generations, Ivan Turgenev wreaks havoc in Marino, ensuring Bazarov's nihilistic and progressive political views clash spectacularly with that of the traditional Russian patriarch's.
Set in a time of conflict and social uprising, the people fought for the abolishment of serfdom and despaired at the daily inequality faced by the lower classes. Turgenev offered astute psychological insight into the conflicting parties, from the portrayal of his two young protagonists to that of their older parents and the various women that they try to court.
Ivan Turgenev lived in imperial Russia. Abroad, he was a highly respected and sought-after author and Fathers and Sons was released to great success around Europe. Whilst it undoubtedly ruffled some feathers back home, the public found Ivan's novel to be a fascinating take on the socio-political change that had started to sweep across Russia. Turgenev died in 1883 so he didn't live to see the revolution come to fruition. Regardless, his text would go on to be read by millions, outliving the Tsars themselves.
Narrator Biography
Having studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, David Horovitch has had a television career spanning over 40 years. One of his most notable roles was in 1984 as Detective Inspector Slack in the first BBC Miss Marple adaptation of The Body in the Library. Due to the success of his character, he returned for four Christmas specials.
He has had roles in other shows such as Just William (1994), Foyle's War (2002) and Wire in the Blood (2005) as well as film appearances in The Young Victoria (2009), 102 Dalmatians (2000), The Infiltrator (2016) and Mike Leigh's Mr Turner (2014).
A longtime star of the stage, in 2015 he played the role of George Frideric Handel in All the Angels by Nick Drake at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. As well as narrating numerous audiobooks, David Horovitch also appeared in Audible's multicast drama, The Oedipus Plays.
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Travelling in Europe with her family, Daisy Miller, an exquisitely beautiful young American woman, presents her fellow countryman Winterbourne with a dilemma he cannot resolve. Is she deliberately flouting social convention in the outspoken way she talks and acts, or is she simply ignorant of those conventions? When she strikes up an intimate friendship with an urbane young Italian, her flat refusal to observe the codes of respectable behaviour leave her perilously exposed.
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loved the story
- By Dominick Garcez on 02-18-23
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The Idiot
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
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In The Idiot, Prince Myshkin possesses a childlike innocence and trusting nature that leave him vulnerable to abuse by those around him. Returning to St. Petersburg to collect an inheritance, Myshkin realizes he is a stranger in a society obsessed with wealth, manipulation and power.
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Avoid Constance Garnett
- By Anthony on 04-09-17
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Anna of the Five Towns
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Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.
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Le Pere Goriot
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Honoré de Balzac uses his classic style of detail to describe a most controversial setting in his novel Le Pere Goriot. The story takes place in Paris just after the fall of Napoleon in 1819. The story focuses on three characters, Rastignac, a student who wants to try and make it big in the capital, Vautrin, an interesting and funny character who is also quite mysterious, and the main character, Goriot, that carries a heavy burden that only a loving parent would endure.
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A minor masterpiece
- By Indi Rock on 03-04-18
By: Honoré de Balzac
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Jude The Obscure
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Story
This is the story of a young country workman obsessed by his ambition to become an Oxford student, interwoven with his fraught relationships with two women.
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Staggering
- By Tad Davis on 02-16-10
By: Thomas Hardy
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Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
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Overall
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First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
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Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
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The Custom of the Country
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One of Edith Wharton's most acclaimed works, The Custom of the Country is a blistering indictment of materialism, power, and misplaced values. Its heroine, Undine Spragg, is one of the most ruthless characters in all of literature, as selfishly unscrupulous as she is fiercely beautiful. As she climbs the class ladder through a series of marriages and affairs, she shows little concern for who she has to step on.
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Narrator kills the book
- By Mississippi Malka on 05-24-10
By: Edith Wharton
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Ethan Frome
- By: Edith Wharton
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Overall
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Performance
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Ethan Frome, a poor, downtrodden New England farmer, is trapped in a loveless marriage to his invalid wife, Zeena.When Zeena's young cousin Mattie arrives to help care for her, Ethan is immediately taken by Mattie's warm, vivacious personality. They fall desperately in love as he realizes how much is missing from his life and marriage.
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Slow is smooth and smooth is Fast until it isn't
- By Darwin8u on 05-29-13
By: Edith Wharton
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Father Goriot
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Overall
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Performance
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Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too....
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Astounding performance
- By Laurence Grey on 04-05-21
By: Honoré de Balzac
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One of the most controversial Russian novels ever written, Fathers and Sons dramatizes the volcanic social conflicts that divided Russia just before the revolution, pitting peasants against masters, traditionalists against intellectuals, and fathers against sons. It is also a timeless depiction of the ongoing clash between generations.
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What listeners say about Fathers and Sons
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Laurel A. Lussen
- 10-08-21
New to Turgenev
This tender picture of what moves men beneath the face they present is both poetic and merciless. These specimens of Russia’s pre-revolutionary society are a mixture of mismatched aristocrats as they conceive and lose friendships, romance, and life itself.
A reader is treated to a dozen distinct characters, well-delivered by the narrator. Their lives weave upon the warp of Russia’s elegant and aging golden age. I finished listening hoping those depths of humanity continue to move our hearts.
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- J B Tipton
- 06-14-22
Narration
The narration seemed very effective, at least the part I could hear. The many passages the narrator whispered to himself we inaudible. Still, I think I got the gist of the book. In my opinion, readers should speak if not to be heard in the last row of the auditorium, at least to be heard in the first.
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- Anonymous
- 07-22-22
Book and Narrator Amazing
Turgenev is a literary master. The book is fabulous. But I have to applaud David Horovitch. One of the best narrators to which I’ve listened! He really made this audio book come alive!
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- Anonymous User
- 04-02-24
The story
Simple and beautiful story about 2 generations… brilliant example of Russian literature. Makes me nostalgic for a time that never was….
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- wjp
- 03-26-20
Enjoyed and was touched by this story
This title was off the beaten track for me, but my father recommended and I am glad that he did. Laugh out loud funny in places, and very nicely written and performed.
The narration was perfect for me.
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- chetyarbrough.blog
- 07-13-21
NIHILISM'S DEATH
Understanding the culture of other countries is aided by reading histories and literary classics. Like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Ivan Turgenev paints a picture of Russian culture in the mid-1800s. In “Fathers and Sons” it is the age of Alexander II, the Russian Tsar who began his reign in 1855. He presided over emancipation of serfs in 1861.
The Tsar’s intention is to liberate serfs from aristocratic servitude. In respect for the Tsar, some Russian farmers offer their farmland to serfs in return for rent or a percentage of profits from the sale of produce. It is eventually quelled by Alexander III (1881-1894) who represses and reverses Alexander II’s political and social liberalization. Turgenev dies soon after Alexander III’s ascension. In “Fathers and Sons” one can see the seeds for Alexander III’s reaction to Alexander II’s liberalization.
The principal character in “Fathers and Sons” is Yevgeny Vassillievitch Bazarov. He is a young doctor who sees the world through science. Bazarov does not believe in God and sees morality as a fiction induced by society. He is a nihilist. He purports to believe life is meaningless.
Turgenev introduces a doppelganger of Basarov in a wealthy young widow named Anna Odinsova. Odinsova is attracted to Bazarov’s views based on her life experience. She sees life as equally meaningless. The irony is that Basarov falls in love with Odinsova. Loving someone contradicts meaninglessness in life. Odinsova does not love Basarov but admires his intellect. Basarov's professed love betrays his nihilist beliefs.
Basarov dies from Typhoid, never to realize the wasted life he has led. His death leaves his mother and father to grieve over Basarov's great potential and lost opportunity. Turgenev’s warning to humanity is that God, morality, and love makes life worth living, while ignominious death is left to nihilists.
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- Mark G. Garcia
- 09-11-21
Quick read despite lack of action
I wasn’t sure what to think but this came well regarded, so I gave it a try. The dialogue is great and the themes are both easy to follow and become interested in. All the characters are well fleshed out, showing their good and bad sides and how they fit into Russian society at that time. Glad I read it. Horowitz does a fantastic job with the reading, giving separate and distinct life to each character.
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- David
- 03-03-22
very good.
Perhaps the finest novel I have read. poignant drama of family life, love and death.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-19-23
An exceptional listening experience
An unforgettable novel. David Horovitch’s dramatic narration is magnificent. Definitely a five-star listening experience.
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- Andrei
- 07-07-22
Read
Oh, read this amazing and intriguing novel if you want to know more about Russian culture/literature/ etc. etc. Don't reduce Russian literature to Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. If you read Dostoevsky, do not assume that all Russian are psychos. Turgenev, Gogol, Goncharov, Nabokov, Pushkin, Bulgakov, Gorky, Pasternak, Bely- these are some of the giants of Russian literature that are worthy of your time and describe Russian from totally different angles. This is a very well-written novel with an amazingly simple plot and tons of subtext about understanding what was going on not only in Russian but European (never mind that Russia is a part of Europe) history. And it is also the novel about passionate love. A.
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