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abookishtype's review against another edition
4.0
A Sportsman’s Notebook (also called A Sportsman’s Sketches) contains short vignettes and stories by Ivan Turgenev, written in the 1850s and 1860s. Unlike many of the Russian classics we’re familiar with in English, this collection is not packed with Sturm und Drang. Rather, Turgenev’s narrator takes along on his travels around the Russian countryside, from forests to marshes to meadows, inviting us into his conversations with the strange people he meets while hunting...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
chaotic_wholesome's review
3.0
This is not my usual bag at all, and it can be a bit hit-and-miss, but as a portrait of rural Russia, it's a beautiful piece of work. Turgenev's descriptive powers are masterful, and he paints the Russian countryside as a place that is both bleak and rich -- almost romanticised. The characters the narrator meets are at once plagued by dire situations and not defined by them; they are fully realised in each of the short stories. A Sportsman's Notebook's political significance in its time is apparent, and raises the question of whether such vital-feeling fiction would have the same impact now. These tales and the work as a whole are well worth discovering for their transportative powers alone.
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