* To the best of my knowledge, these reviews have never before been
translated. These translations were made for me by a Russian friend,
Mr. William S. Gordon.

"This novel differs from others of the same sort in that it is chiefly
philosophical. Turgenev hardly touches on any of the social questions
of his day. His principal aim is to place side by side the philosophy
of the fathers and the philosophy of the children and to show that the
philosophy of the children is opposed to human nature and therefore
cannot be accepted in life. The problem of the novel is, as you see, a
serious one; to solve this problem the author ought to have
conscientiously and impartially studied both systems of speculation
and then only reach certain conclusions. But on its very first pages
you see that the author is deficient in every mental preparation to
accomplish the aim of his novel. He not only has not the slightest
understanding of the new positive philosophy, but even of the old
ideal systems his knowledge is merely superficial and puerile. You
could laugh at the heroes of the novel alone as you read their silly
and 'hashy' discussions on the young generation had not the novel as a
whole been founded on these identical discussions."

The radical critic Antonovich condemned the book in the following
terms:--

"From an artistic standpoint the novel is entirely unsatisfactory, not
to say anything more out of respect for the talent of Turgenev, for
his former merits, and for his numerous admirers. There is no common
thread, no common action which would have tied together all the parts
of the novel; all of it is in some way just separate rhapsodies. . . .
This novel is didactic, a real learned treatise written in dialectic