Written by one of Russia’s literary masters, Smoke is both a poignant love story and a brilliant socio-political study. Marked with a barbed wit and a visionary modernism, it became the center of a famous philosophical breach between Turgenev and Dostoevsky.
On the brink of marriage, Grigorii Litvinov visits the fashionable European spa of Baden-Baden, a scene dominated by the Russian upper classes. Among them is the beautiful Irina Osinin, Litvinov’s first love, to whom he was engaged ten years earlier. Litvinov’s struggle with a nostalgic passion is set against the background of a society pulled both toward and against change as it feels the influence of the West.
A sensitive and intelligent commentary on human nature, Turgenev’s Smoke endures for its high aesthetic standards and its universal qualities of understanding.
Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of nineteenth-century fiction. His other novels include Rudin, On the Eve, and Virgin Soil.
Stuart Langton is an award-winning theater, film, and television actor. He has been an audiobook narrator for more than ten years. He lives in New York City.