Russian Tsar Era Classics — Fathers and Sons, Part 1, by Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" (1862) — the great novel of the generation gap — in a fresh in-house English translation, performed by the KacheliTV cast. The complete novel is presented in six parts; this is Part 1 of 6 (Chapters 1–7).
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
May 1859. Arkady Kirsanov comes home from university to his father's estate, Marino, bringing his friend Yevgeny Bazarov — a young medical student and a nihilist, who believes in nothing but what can be dissected, measured, and proved. In a few weeks Bazarov turns the quiet house upside down: he quarrels with Arkady's elegant uncle Pavel Petrovich over everything the older generation holds dear, charms the servants and peasant children, and then, in the town and at the estate of the widow Anna Sergeyevna Odintsova, meets the one force his philosophy cannot dissect. Turgenev's complete novel, carried as written — all twenty-eight chapters, from the dusty highway to the little village graveyard.
The chapters:
0:52 — Chapter One: "Is there still no sign of them?" — Nikolai waits on the highway; Arkady comes home, bringing a friend
8:08 — Chapter Two: the dust of the road — father and son embrace; Bazarov is presented, and unsettles the house
12:12 — Chapter Three: "A candidate at last" — the first evening: Pavel's English toilet, and frogs after supper
24:21 — Chapter Four: the household at Marino — the servants, the peasants' troubles, a house quietly out of date
33:37 — Chapter Five: Bazarov up before everyone — dissecting, measuring, and the morning's first argument
47:46 — Chapter Six: Nikolai tells how he met his wife; Arkady answers with the story of Uncle Pavel
54:47 — Chapter Seven: Pavel Petrovich's story — the guards, the duel of honour, and Princess R., the sphinx
Source: Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883), «Отцы и дети» ("Fathers and Sons"), first published in the journal Russky Vestnik, February 1862 — public domain. Russian text via ilibrary.ru. Fresh in-house English translation made for this performance; no existing translation used.
Dramatized performance by the KacheliTV cast: narrated by Violetta, with Scratch as Bazarov, Felix as Arkady, Amos as Nikolai Petrovich, Silas as Pavel Petrovich, Magnolia as Anna Sergeyevna Odintsova, Lulu as Fenechka, Orson as Vasily Ivanich, Madame de Pamplemousse as Arina Vlasyevna, Bruno as Sitnikov, Morgana as Kukshina, and Mira as Katya.
Music: the theme (Imperial Violin Masquerade) opens and closes this part and returns briefly between the chapters. No music plays under the narration.
Season 147 — Russian Tsar Era Classics, Episode 12.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
