A Sportsman's Sketches

Sketches from a Hunter is the title of a collection of stories by the Russian writer Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. The collection was published in 1852 in book form and helped the author to first celebrity.

Genesis

1847 appeared in the journal Sovremennik ( The Contemporary ) Turgenev's narrative choir and Kalinytsch. After this first success Turgenev wrote another twenty sketches and stories, which were also published in Sovremennik and 1852 appeared under the title Sketches from a Hunter in book form. 1854 appeared the work in German and French translation. In the 1870s, the cycle was extended to 25 stories (including The living relic, 1874).

Content

The title character is a round grazing on the hunt aristocratic landowner. From the perspective of this fictional narrator describes Turgenev the Russian land and provincial life. It thereby combines lyrical descriptions of nature with the realistic representation of the Russian landed gentry and the serfs. Although written from the standpoint of a neutral observer, the narratives are an indictment against serfdom, against the oppression of the peasants and the exploitation by landlords and self-serving managers.

Background

Ivan Turgenev was throughout his life a passionate hunter. He also knew the brutal reality of everyday agrarian life from childhood from a personal view, because he came from noble family, and parental Good Spasskoye with thousands of serfs was managed by his mother with great severity. Turgenev recalled: "I was born and grew up in an atmosphere where punching, kicking, beating, slapping and the like were commonplace. I, too, was beaten for every little thing every day. "

The appearance of the records of a hunter was probably possible only through an oversight by the censors. The success of the book and of such grievances directed attention prompted the tsarist authorities to take action against the author. Turgenev was due to his obituary on the death of Gogol, who had appeared without the consent of censorship, arrested and exiled for a year and half to his estate even in 1852.

1861 serfdom was abolished in Russia under Tsar Alexander II.

Importance

"... The world and posterity reported to have what bondage is .. " Julian Schmidt

" ... Poetic indictment against serfdom ... " Alexander Herzen

" ... Cross-section through the suffering patience of the Russian peasantry; exploited in everything, even in love ... " Hermann Pongs

Stories

The records of a hunter specifically contain the following sketches and stories:

  • Choir and Kalinytsch
  • Jermolaj and the miller
  • The raspberry source
  • The District Medical Officer
  • My neighbor Radilov
  • The farm owner Owsjanikow
  • Ljgow
  • The Beschinwiese
  • Kasjan by the Fine views
  • The Mayor
  • The office
  • Birjuk
  • Two landlords
  • Lebedyan
  • Tatjana Borisovna and her nephew
  • Death
  • The singers
  • Pyotr Petrovich Karatayev
  • The tryst
  • The Hamlet of the circle Schtschigry
  • Tschertopchanow and Nedopjuskin
  • Tschertopchanows end
  • The living relic
  • It rattles!
  • Forest and steppe

Expenditure

  • Ivan S. Turgenev: Sketches from a Hunter. 1st edition. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig, 2001.
  • Ivan Turgenev: Sketches from a Hunter. From the Russ. by Peter Urban. With an afterword by Peter Urban, Manesseplatz Verlag, Zurich, 2004.
  • Ivan Turgenev: Sketches from a Hunter. 1st edition. Antigonus Verlag, Paderborn, 2012. ISBN 978-3-95472-088-0
Nobility Heinrich Julian Schmidt Peter Urban (translator)
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