A review by david_rhee
On the Eve by Ivan Turgenev

4.0

I was a little worried my partiality for Dostoevsky would dampen my ability to appreciate Turgenev, but those worries were dashed right at the opening of the book, On the Eve. Two friends, Berzenyev and Shubin, engage in a conversation on aesthetics in finely polished prose...I was hooked. To my slight disappointment there was much less philosophical dialogue as the novel progressed into a romance. The romance itself is a veil over a passionate summons for the Russian people, an urgent plea for the nation to come into being. Dostoevsky channeled similar entreaties through his narratives as well. It seems like the two rivals had more in common than they would have liked to admit. They achieved their aims by different avenues: Dostoevsky, by incessantly pressing forward with intensity, and Turgenev, by making inroads into his reader by taking the aesthetic route with his skillful crafting of form and rhythm. It becomes quickly evident that it is pointless to compare the two to find who is better; there is all the more reason to celebrate both styles.