Rudin

Ivan Turgenev · 1818–1883 · Russia

Originally Rudin (Russian)

Why it matters

A brilliant talker charms a country household with idealistic speeches, then proves incapable of acting on a single one of them when love finally calls his bluff. Turgenev's first novel invented the 'superfluous man': all rhetoric, no follow-through.

At a glance

A compact, single-household plot told in clear, conversational realism.