On the Eve

On the Eve is a novel by Ivan Turgenev, first serialized in 1859 and published in book form in 1860. Set before the Crimean War, it joins private choice to political expectation.

Elena Stakhova is dissatisfied with the comfortable but aimless life of her Moscow household. The sculptor Shubin and the scholar Bersenyev both admire her, yet the arrival of Dmitri Insarov, a Bulgarian exile committed to liberating his country, offers a purpose beyond courtship.

Elena's love for Insarov becomes a decision to share his cause despite family opposition, illness, and uncertainty. Their secret marriage and journey toward Bulgaria turn devotion into deliberate action, while the men around her reveal different forms of talent without direction.

Turgenev places Russia “on the eve” of change but gives the novel's strongest resolve to a woman and a foreign revolutionary. Elena's departure leaves a question about Russia's future: who will convert intelligence, sympathy, and restless hope into action?

"On one of the hottest days of the summer of 1853, in the shade of a tall lime-tree on the bank of the river Moskva, not far from Kuntsovo, two young men were lying on the grass. One, who looked about twenty-three, tall and swarthy, with a sharp and rather crooked nose, a high forehead, and a restrained smile on his wide mouth, was lying on his back and gazing meditatively into the distance, his small grey eyes half closed."

This download follows Constance Garnett's English translation in the 1920 Heinemann and Macmillan edition.