Fathers and Children
by Ivan Turgenev | 
Home of the Gentry
by Ivan Turgenev | 
Faust
by Ivan Turgenev | 
Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol | 
Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev | 
Cancer Ward
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | 
Pnin
by Vladimir Nabokov | 
A Hero of Our Time
by Mikhail Lermontov | 
The First Circle
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | 
Oblomov
by Ivan Goncharov | 
Laughter in the Dark
by Vladimir Nabokov | 
Despair
by Vladimir Nabokov | 
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
by Vladimir Nabokov | 
Mirgorod
by Nikolai Gogol | 
The Gift
by Vladimir Nabokov | 
King, Queen, Knave
by Vladimir Nabokov | 
Transparent Things
by Vladimir Nabokov | 
Mary
by Vladimir Nabokov | 
A Gentle Creature and Other Stories
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky | 
Glory
by Vladimir Nabokov |
RUDIN (1856) by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883) tells the story of a character typical to Turgenev -- a "superfluous" man, weak of will, brimming with indecisive frustration -- and yet tormented by ideals. Rudin is made impotent by the dissonance of honoring the older generations while at the same time embracing the new bold epoch of pre-revolutionary Russia. The theme of melancholic powerless men coupled with vital idealistic women is prevalent in Turgenev's work, and it would be hard to find a clearer study of the type than RUDIN.