ŷ

Ines's Reviews > Sketches from a Hunter's Album

Sketches from a Hunter's Album by Ivan Turgenev
Rate this book
Clear rating

by
43642795
's review


I managed to finish this book with enormous effort, it is complex, especially the Italian version, contains words by now dated and difficult to understand. I read therefore with a huge fear, I was almost to give up the book because the effort was much bigger than the pleasure of reading; and instead...
As I proceeded in the 24 stories, we meet the narrator in his wandering through the Russian countryside, where he meets characters of every social stratum: the noble and the enriched peasant, the vagabond, the servant and the penniless intellectual.
It is the people that we will find most as the pivotal description in the book, their misery and their prejudices, but also their beauty, intelligence and values. One can certainly call it an "inquiry book", everything is reported and described without ever reaching an aggressive tone or clear invective to the regime.(perhaps for this reason, surprisingly, it was not censored by the Russian authorities).
The narrator, who later we will discover to be called Pëtr Petrovič, stands aside, his descriptions remaining neutral, slowly lead to the emergence in a kind of hidden way but a very lucid and pitiless criticism of the 'implacable social system of the time.
The most beautiful part is the description of nature, where the concept of hunting is gradually being left aside for landscape descriptions so intimate and beautiful to take your breath away.
Everything becomes concreteness, the smells of the wet earth after a thunderstorm; all the senses are stimulated. As if in the end the ultimate desire of Turgenev is to point the finger towards an infinite horizon, where is the beauty and the ultimate mystery of nature lead to determine the embrace of happiness for the man's heart.
Wonderful is the description of the sky, an immensity that becomes sea... The elements melt and merge into a universe of colors of sounds and emotions.





Sono riuscita a finire questo libro con enorme fatica, è complesso, soprattutto la versione italiana contiene parole ormai datate e di difficile comprensione. Ho letto quindi con un timore enorme, stavo quasi lasciando il libro perchè la fatica era ben superiore del piacere della lettura; e invece...
man mano che procedevo nei 24 racconti, mi si sono aperte davanti agli occhi tutte le scene descritte....Turgenev nel suo vagabondare per la campagna russa, porta in vita personaggi di ogni strato sociale: l nobile e il contadino arricchito, il vagabondo, il servo e l'intellettuale squattrinato.
E' il popolo che piu' troveremo come descrizione cardine nel libro, la sua miseria e i suo pregiudizi ma anche la sua bellezza, intelligenza e i suoi valori. Si può certamente definirlo "un libro inchiesta", tutto viene riportato ed descritto senza arrivare mai ad un tono aggressivo né si arriva mai alla chiara invettiva (forse proprio per questo, sorprendentemente, non fu censurato dalle autorità russe).
Il narratore, che poi scopriremo chiamarsi Pëtr Petrovič, si tiene in disparte, le sue descrizioni ur rimanendo neutre, portano pian piano a far emergere una critica lucidissima e impietosa sull' implacabile sistema sociale dell' epoca.
La parte piu' bella in assoluto è la descrizione della natura, dove pian piano il concetto della caccia viene soppiantato per lasciar spazio a delle descrizioni così belle da togliere il fiato. Tutto diventa concretezza, gli odori della terra bagnata dopo un temporale; tutti i sensi sono stimolati. Come se alla fine il desiderio ultimo di Turgenev è quello di puntare il dito verso un orizzonte infinito, dove è il bello e il mistero ultimo della natura portano a determinare l'abbraccio di felitica' del cuore dell' uomo.
Meravigliosa è la descrizione del cielo, una immensità che diventa mare....gli elementi si sciolgono e si confondono in un universo fatto di colori di suoni e di emozioni.
52 likes · flag

Sign into ŷ to see if any of your friends have read Sketches from a Hunter's Album.
Sign In »

Reading Progress

January 10, 2020 – Started Reading
January 10, 2020 – Shelved
January 11, 2020 –
page 157
38.96%
January 14, 2020 –
page 187
46.4%
January 20, 2020 –
page 298
73.95%
January 24, 2020 –
page 342
84.86%
January 31, 2020 – Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

message 1: by [deleted user] (new)

Happy reading!


message 2: by Laysee (new)

Laysee Glad your effort to read this paid off, Ines. Lovely review and pictures. How wonderful to be effectively bilingual.


message 3: by Fionnuala (new)

Fionnuala So glad to hear that this selection of tales brought you plenty of rewards in spite of the dated vocabulary, Ines. Your reaction to the landscape descriptions make me want to read it immediately. It's a title that's been on my mind to read in any case as it was cited in a book I read a few months ago. Plus it sounds like a more accessible variation on Gogol's Dead Souls theme—which also features a character who travels around Russia meeting people from different strata of society.


message 4: by Manny (new) - added it

Manny I have not read enough Turgenev. Only his brilliant novel, Fathers and Sons. I’m going to put this on my to read list.


message 5: by Ines (new) - added it

Ines Fionnuala wrote: "So glad to hear that this selection of tales brought you plenty of rewards in spite of the dated vocabulary, Ines. Your reaction to the landscape descriptions make me want to read it immediately. I..."
Thank you Fio! i think you would like this book very much!!


message 6: by Ines (new) - added it

Ines Manny wrote: "I have not read enough Turgenev. Only his brilliant novel, Fathers and Sons. I’m going to put this on my to read list."
I would like to read "Fathers and sons" very soon! i admit that i am new on Turgenev's works 😉, but i love to learn and study everyday


message 7: by Ines (new) - added it

Ines Laysee wrote: "Glad your effort to read this paid off, Ines. Lovely review and pictures. How wonderful to be effectively bilingual."

Thank you very much dear Laysee!!


message 8: by Ilse (new) - added it

Ilse Truly beautiful review, Ines - your poetic last paragraph captures Turgenev's feel for nature stunningly. I read a few stories of him last year and it were exactly his sensuous descriptions of the landscape, the trees, the sky with made me appreciate him much more than when reading 'Fathers and Sons' in my younger days. You make this collection sound delightful.


message 9: by Ines (new) - added it

Ines Ilse wrote: "Truly beautiful review, Ines - your poetic last paragraph captures Turgenev's feel for nature stunningly. I read a few stories of him last year and it were exactly his sensuous descriptions of the ..."
Thank you!!


back to top