A review by wolfdan9
On the Eve by Ivan Turgenev

3.5

 "Not for nothing did my father used to say 'You and I, my boy, are... not favorites of Fortune or Nature... We're workers, double-dyed workers. Put on your leather apron, worker, and stand by your bench in your dark workshop! Let the sun shine on other people! Even in our humdrum lives there is pride and happiness.'"

On the Eve is my 4th Turgenev novel, so I have grown somewhat accustomed to his style and themes. He leans heavily into realism, a style that I enjoy, yet this story has been criticized for being narrated dispassionately and without much weigh-in from Turgenev despite its heavy themes of love and war. Nonetheless, there is some reflection at the end of the novel, and Turgenev makes a poignant analogy between Death and a fisherman who catches a person in his net, allowing it to swim around until he decides --whenever he decides -- to pull it out. I think, without exception, each of Turgenev's stories that I've read has been about young love, and On the Eve continues that trend. What might be interesting to look at when studying these stories is everything happening in the world while the love affair occurs. Certainly, that is the point of On the Eve, whose title even refers to the impending Crimean War. And yet, I found Bersenev's character most compelling. The story begins with him, and rather quickly (or so it felt in this sub-200 page novel), he transitions out of the lead role in favor of Yelena. I found the rapid pace of the story, which is largely centered around Yelena's feelings for the immigrant Insarov and their blossoming (and doomed) relationship, to be suitable for Turgenev's commentary on young love. As mentioned, he describes the events of their relationship in an entirely matter-of-fact way, and yet he felt somehow critical, in a chuckling, amused and interested sort of way of how emotionally young adults think about love. Yelena is convinced she loves Bersenev, but very quickly changes heart after wanting to fall in love with Insarov and finally doing so after one occasion where she sees a different side of him. After she finds out from him that the love is reciprocated, she immediately chooses to upend her comfortable life in Russia to emigrate to war-torn Bulgaria with him. She stays with him even after he nearly dies of illness and becomes permanently impaired. She even stays with him after his death and lives in Bulgaria, perhaps as a nurse, or dies herself on the way there (it is never made clear). Turgenev suggests that she is obstinate to follow him to her doom, but is she naive? Or is the power of true love such that it is greater than all challenges, worthy of all sacrifices? Is her dogged commitment to be admired or scoffed at? I personally felt the latter, but it did raise this interesting question. Lastly, back to Bersenev, I found that he was a smartly designed character to contrast Yelena. He is a dispassionate (or so he presents himself) academic who badly wants to be loved by Yelena, but does not even attempt to gain her love. He gives up almost immediately and attempts to hook her up with Insarov, essentially challenging her to not fall for him. It's fascinating because this behavior is on the other side of the "true love" coin. It can easily be argued that Bersenev feels true love toward Yelena because he wants to be genuinely loved by her, no matter who else enters the picture as his competition. She fails his test, and he dispassionately carries on with his life. The quote I used above is excellently included in the story by Turgenev to reinforce this characteristic of how he sees himself: not as someone "special" who deserves whimsical love, but as a hard-working, reliable person. A good friend. Someone who will ultimately find happiness in his work.

I would be remiss not to mention Shubin, who is one of the funniest and most well-written characters I have read in recent memory. He is incredibly realistic as the "lovably annoying" best friend trope and has many laugh out loud moments. Something random I will also take away from this story is the scene where the group of friends has an outing at the lake on a beautiful day. It was a nice moment in the story; it didn't have to be there, but seeing the friends' dynamics in an otherwise lean and precise narrative was a nice surprise.