Reviews - First Love | The StoryGraph

695 reviews for:

A novella so quietly wonderful it feels like a whispered confession.
First Love is not just about youthful longing-it’s about the haunting, irreversible shift from innocence to insight.
Turgenev writes with such restraint, such grace, that entire emotional universes bloom in a single glance or fall apart in one unspoken moment.

What makes this story unforgettable isn’t just the ache of unrequited love-though that ache is beautifully rendered-it’s the way nature itself becomes a mirror for emotion, a kind of silent chorus echoing the heart’s turbulence.
And the silences?
They’re not just pauses.
They’re characters.
What isn’t said in this story is often more potent than what is.

Turgenev’s brilliance lies in his accessibility.
His prose is clear and lyrical without being ornamental.
He doesn’t demand that you wrestle with him-he invites you to feel with him.
If you’ve ever been blindsided by love, (haven’t we all had a run-in?) idealized someone beyond recognition, or had to grow up in a single devastating moment-this story will find you.

If Dostoevsky is a philosophical firestorm-interrogating the soul with fevered intensity-then Turgenev is a melancholy breeze through the garden: precise, aching, unforgettable.
I love them both, but they live on different frequencies.
One thrashes & demands; the other mourns.

Read this slowly.
Let the spaces between the words work on you. There’s so much said in the not-saying.

mariamag001's review against another edition

5.0

emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lauriemeansgolden's review against another edition

3.0

reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

starhlights's review against another edition

2.5

emotional reflective medium-paced

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Content Warnings

thedaydreamerdiary's review against another edition

3.0

emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

georgia59's review against another edition

2.75

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Didn't care for any of the characters but their unappealing behaviour clearly played an important part in the story's trajectory. I felt little sympathy for the young protagonist's yearning, but appreciated his character arc from the novel's start to its end.

It's been a useful reading experience in my neglected education in Russian literature.