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Virgin Soil

by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)

  • Free to read
  • 6 hours to read
  • 39 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev is a novel published in 1877. This final and most ambitious work follows young Russian idealists in the late 1860s and early 1870s who abandon privileged lives to join the Populist movement and live among peasants and workers. The story centers on Nezhdanov, an aristocrat's illegitimate son working as a tutor, who seeks to radicalize the peasantry while becoming entangled with Marianna. Turgenev portrays these revolutionaries as well-meaning individuals pursuing a path he believed destined to fail.

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  • Revolutionaries · Russia
  • Country homes
  • Russia · Social life and customs
  • Russia · Politics and government · 1801-1917

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Chapter I

At one o’clock in the afternoon of a spring day in the year 1868, a young man of twenty-seven, carelessly and shabbily dressed, was toiling up the back staircase of a five-storied house on Officers Street in St. Petersburg. Noisily shuffling his down-trodden goloshes and slowly swinging his heavy, clumsy figure, the man at last reached the very top flight and stopped before a half-open door hanging off its hinges. He did not ring the bell, but gave a loud sigh and walked straight into a small, dark passage.

“Is Nejdanov at home?” he called out in a deep, loud voice.

“No, he’s not. I’m here. Come in,” an equally coarse woman’s voice responded from the adjoining room.

“Is that Mashurina?” asked the new-comer.

“Yes, it is I. Are you Ostrodumov?”

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Contents

Show all 39 chapters
  1. Introduction
  2. Chapter I
  3. Chapter II
  4. Chapter III
  5. Chapter IV
  6. Chapter V
  7. Chapter VI
  8. Chapter VII
  9. Chapter VIII
  10. Chapter IX
  11. Chapter X
  12. Chapter XI
  13. Chapter XII
  14. Chapter XIII
  15. Chapter XIV
  16. Chapter XV
  17. Chapter XVI
  18. Chapter XVII
  19. Chapter XVIII
  20. Chapter XIX
  21. Chapter XX
  22. Chapter XXI
  23. Chapter XXII
  24. Chapter XXIII
  25. Chapter XXIV
  26. Chapter XXV
  27. Chapter XXVI
  28. Chapter XXVII
  29. Chapter XXVIII
  30. Chapter XXIX
  31. Chapter XXX
  32. Chapter XXXI
  33. Chapter XXXII
  34. Chapter XXXIII
  35. Chapter XXXIV
  36. Chapter XXXV
  37. Chapter XXXVI
  38. Chapter XXXVII
  39. Chapter XXXVIII

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About this edition

This free edition of Virgin Soil by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #2466, released 2001-01-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Novels, Russian Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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