the conviction that the essence of life lies in self-denial. It is published here with the short story Yakov Pasynkov. In a series of letters to a friend, the narrator relates how he has managed to convince a married woman?hitherto shielded from the powerful effects of poetry and fiction?of the importance of developing the imagination. By introducing her to Goethe’s masterpiece, he sets in motion a chain of crucial events. In this poetic exploration of spiritual awakening, Turgenev demonstrates his preoccupation with the culture of Western Europe and the nature of human relations. Ivan Turgenev was a Russian novelist and playwright who spent much of his life in Western Europe. His writing profoundly affected the course of European literature.

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