of Thackeray. Among English
novelists it is, perhaps, only Meredith who has struck such strong,
piercing chords, nobler than anything in Daudet or Maupassant, more
reserved than anything in Victor Hugo, and worthy of the great poets,
of the tragic pathos of Goethe and Dante. The character of Bazarov, as
has been said, created a sensation and endless controversy. The
revolutionaries thought him a caricature and a libel, the reactionaries
a scandalous glorification of the Devil; and impartial men such as
Dostoevsky, who knew the revolutionaries at first hand, thought the
type unreal. It is impossible that Bazarov was not like the Nihilists
of the sixties; but in any case as a figure in fiction, whatever the
fact may be, he lives and will continue to live....--From "An Outline
of Russian Literature" (1914).

LIST OF CHARACTERS

NIKOLAI PETROVITCH KIRSANOV, a landowner.

PAVEL PETROVITCH KIRSANOV, his brother.

ARKADY (ARKASHA) NIKOLAEVITCH (_or_ NIKOLAITCH), his son.

YEVGENY (ENYUSHA) VASSILYEVITCH (_or_ VASSILYITCH) BAZAROV, friend of
Arkady.

VASSILY IVANOVITCH (_or_ IVANITCH), father of Bazarov.

ARINA VLASYEVNA, mother of Bazarov.

FEDOSYA (FENITCHKA) NIKOLAEVNA, second wife of Nikolai.

ANNA SERGYEVNA ODINTSOV, a wealthy widow.

KATYA SERGYEVNA, her sister.

PORFIRY PLATONITCH, her neighbor.

MATVY ILYITCH KOLYAZIN, government commissioner.

EVDOKSYA (_or_ AVDOTYA) NIKITISHNA KUKSHIN, an emancipated lady.

VIKTOR SITNIKOV, a would-be liberal.

PIOTR (_pron. P-yotr_), servant to Nikolai.

PROKOFITCH, head servant to Nikolai.

DUNYASHA, a maid servant.

MITYA, infant of Fedosya.

TIMOFEITCH, manager for Vassily.

FATHERS AND CHILDREN
A NOVEL

CHAPTER I

'Well, Piotr, not in sight yet?' was the question asked on May the
20th, 1859, by a gentleman of a little over forty, in a dusty coat and
checked trousers, who came out without his hat on to the low steps of
the posting station at S----. He was addressing his servant, a chubby
young fellow, with whitish down on his chin, and little, lack-lustre
eyes.

The servant, in whom everything--the turquoise ring in his ear, the
streaky hair plastered with grease, and the civility of his
movements--indicated a man of the new, improved generation, glanced
with an air of indulgence along the road, and made answer:

'No, sir; not in sight.'

'Not in sight?' repeated his master.

'No, sir,' responded the man a second time.