Turguenev tenia un intimo conocimiento de los campesinos y una honda comprension de su drama. El fascinante fondo historico, el movimiento populista, la imagen de la vida diaria en la Rusia de los anos 70 del siglo XIX y la austeridad del retrato psicologico de los personajes, hacen que Suelo virgen tenga la capacidad de mantener, pasadas las pasiones politicas de su tiempo, liempo, el interes del lector.

Beware a book declared a failure by its own foreword. ( )

I was expecting an upper-class-activists-go-to-live-with-the-peasants sort of book.

This is not that at all.

The upper class activists are here. Are they wealthy? Not seemingly, but they also seem to have money. They are not peasants. This book is more of a satire of these sort of people--from Petersburg, they want to improve the lives of peasants. And they run around passing out pamphlets and generally being ignored by the peasants they are "helping". Or they are being turned in by those peasants. The peasants can't read, and they are busy working or drinking. There is even a noble landowner doing the same thing--who is arrested.

Who is sympathetic to this cause but actually doing something? The factory manager. He has succeeded in starting a school at the factory, and has had some adults taught to read. He believes in small steps that are doable.

So this books is a satire, but it is also a romance. And not a great romance--not that I am a fan of romance. It is here that this book is sad and depressing--the missed and nearly missed pairi9ngs are depressing.

So--it's a fine book with a touch too much romance. Just not what I was expecting and hoping for. I'd prefer less nobles and more peasants. ( )

‘Virgin Soil’ was Turgenev’s last novel and not his best work by any means, but it’s interesting because it presages the Russian Revolution, shows the dynamics of the class groups involved, and satirizes (or holds a mirror up to) the Russian people of the 1870’s. It was condemned when it was published, and Turgenev was deemed prophetic after 52 real-life revolutionaries were arrested shortly afterwards.

Probably the biggest source of discomfort to those in power was the depiction of noblemen with outdated ideas, and their clinging to power and silly customs. They’d endured the emancipation of the serfs, but now exploited them in other ways, such as loaning them money and charging exorbitant interests, thereby keeping them under their thumbs. In one telling scene, the noblemen have no real understanding of the factory they own, but in the words of one character, “for getting concessions for railroads, founding banks, begging some tax-exemption for themselves, or anything of the sort, none are a match for the gentry.”

The would-be revolutionaries have the right intentions, but have difficulty truly connecting to the peasants they seek to uplift, and the peasants in turn don’t seem to have the intellectual capacity to understand them. In one scene the peasants simply get one of them drunk, as he (somewhat symbolically) has no taste for their alcohol, and no ability to hold it.

So you have the outmoded masters of Russia almost inevitably doomed, the peasants as an ignorant mass, and those who would seek change a bunch of disorganized intellectuals. It’s not a very sanguine picture, though Turgenev offers a ray of hope in the character of Solomin, who is not only smart at running a factory, but who is also steady and stable in his march towards progress, without undue revolutionary rhetoric.

There is a love story, but it’s somewhat simple and uninspiring. The more interesting character is Valentina Mihalovna, a beauty who takes enjoyment out of conquering men with her feminine charms, without the intention of loving them in return. Turgenev demonstrates his understanding of psychology in this and other characters, and does give us some nice imagery at times:

“They walked together to the house, pensive, blissful; the young grass caressed their feet, the young leaves stirred about them; patches of light and shade flittered swiftly over their garments; and they both smiled at the restless frolic of the light, and the merry bluster of the wind, and the fresh glitter of the leaves, and at their own youth and one another.”

I wish there had been more of that sort of thing, which you see in earlier works by Turgenev.

Just one other quote:
“It is a well-known fact, though by no means easy to understand, that Russians are the greatest liars on the face of the earth, and yet there is nothing they respect like truth – nothing attracts them so much.” ( )

Virin Soil is both a love story and social commentary about Russia in the 1800s. Protagonist Nejdanov is a young man trapped between two worlds. He is the illegitimate son of an aristocrat and member of Populism movement. Nejdanov’s struggles parallel the struggles of his county. He is inducted into the movement as a result of his background but he struggles with this identity throughout the book.

I enjoyed this book. I felt great empathy toward Nejdanov and thought that Turgenev was able to present a compassionate picture of a man struggling with his identity and purpose. Turgenev’s frustration with the socio-political climate in Russia at the time is evident throughout the book. He criticizes both the naiveté of the young revolutionaries and the greed and corruption of the aristocrats. The descriptions of both the people and the countryside are rich and beautiful. Overall a very enjoyable book, written in a style that blends humor, compassion, & social commentary. ( )