7 h 24 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when you give away your power—or hesitate when love asks you to act?
Ivan Turgenev gathers pride, love and regret into three long stories: A Lear of the Steppes, Faust and Acia. On the Russian plains, the powerful landowner Kharlov divides his property between his daughters, Anna and Evlampia. He expects gratitude and a peaceful old age. But his gift puts the life he knows into other hands.
In Faust, Pavel Alexandrovich returns to his country estate and seeks out Vera Nikolaevna, a married woman he once loved. Reading Goethe's poem aloud disturbs her quiet world. In Acia, the young traveler N.N. meets the restless Asya beside the Rhine. Affection grows, but neither speaks plainly, and hesitation carries a cost.
What you’ll discover
- Pride without its power Watch Kharlov place his future in his daughters' hands, trusting that obedience will become gratitude.
- A heart stirred awake Meet Vera, whose life without novels or poetry leaves her unprepared for the feelings a poem awakens.
- Love beside the Rhine Follow N.N. and Asya through an uncertain affection that neither finds easy to name.
- Russian country life Enter a world of estates and family rule, where giving away property unsettles a proud man's place.
- Choices that stay Feel the weight of generosity, awakened longing and hesitation in stories told with clear detail.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, precise fiction about love, pride and regret, and anyone curious about Russian country life before the revolution.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A giant landowner who rules his world
- Pride makes a generous gift dangerous
- A man returns to a love he once failed
- What a poem can do to a heart
- Two Russians meet on the Rhine
- Love meets hesitation, and time moves on
Who’s who
- KharlovA huge, proud landowner of the steppes who is used to obedience and decides to divide his estate among his daughters.
- Anna and EvlampiaKharlov's two grown daughters, who have lived under their father's rule and are given his property.
- SlyotkinKharlov's son-in-law, Anna's husband, who helps take control of the estate and turns against the old man.
- Pavel AlexandrovichThe narrator of Faust, who returns to his estate and seeks out the woman he once loved.
- Vera NikolaevnaA reserved, married woman raised without novels or poetry, whose quiet life is disturbed by a book.
- N.N.The narrator of Acia, a young Russian traveler in Germany who is drawn to a girl he cannot read.
- AsyaA restless, proud girl of about seventeen who longs to be understood and to belong.
- GaginAsya's kind, sad guardian and brother, a Russian who paints and befriends the narrator on the Rhine.
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 24 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Ein Lear der Steppe in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Ein Lear der Steppe
by Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew
A proud landowner divides his estate among his daughters and puts his place in the family at stake.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A giant landowner who rules his world
A Lear of the Steppes opens among friends who are talking about people they have known. One of them says he once met a man who reminded him of King Lear, though this Lear lived on the Russian plains and had never heard of Shakespeare. The man is Kharlov, a landowner of huge size and strength, with a voice that fills a room.
Kharlov is not an educated gentleman. He is rough, proud and used to being obeyed. His servants fear him, his neighbors respect him, and he rules his estate by habit and by the weight of his own body. Turgenev takes care to show how real this power is, so that we understand what Kharlov has to lose.
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What is A Lear of the Steppes about?
It is a novella about Kharlov, a powerful and proud Russian landowner who divides his property among his daughters. The tale follows how that choice changes his place in the family, in the manner of Shakespeare's King Lear.
What three stories are in this collection?
The book holds A Lear of the Steppes, Faust and Acia. The first is a hard portrait of a provincial landowner. The other two are quieter tales of love, memory and missed chances.
What is the Faust in Turgenev's story?
It is not a retelling of the Faust legend. Turgenev's story is about a man who reads Goethe's Faust to a woman who has never read fiction, and about what the poem awakens in her.
The author
Ivan Turgenev
1818–1883 · Russian novelist
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short-story writer and playwright. He was born in Oryol in 1818 and died near Paris in 1883. He lived in Russia, Germany and France. His books include A Nobleman’s Nest (1859), Fathers and Sons (1862) and Virgin Soil (1877).
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