StoryPDF
StoryPDFFathers and SonsIvan Turgenev

Fathers and Sons

Ivan Turgenev

Complete text
NovelEnglish

Arkady returns to his father's country home with Bazarov, a young man who rejects inherited authority and sentimental ideals. Their visit brings new convictions into contact with older loyalties, while friendship, attraction, and family expectations test the independence both young men claim.

29 sections80,120 wordsAbout 6 h 4 min
Read nowDownload PDF

About Fathers and Sons

Turgenev places ideological argument inside households whose members still need one another's affection. Bazarov's bluntness has force because the narration also attends to tenderness, embarrassment, and uncertainty around him. The novel resists making a generational dispute purely abstract: ideas encounter bodies, habits, and feelings that cannot simply be dismissed.

Reading focus

Read a generational conflict in which radical conviction meets family attachment and emotions that resist theoretical control.

This reading edition contains 80,120 words in 29 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.

Author: Ivan Turgenev. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.

Opening excerpt

In this masterly unromantic novel, Turgenev drew a character, Bazarov, who served to express what he taught us to call Nihilism, and made a movement into a man. In Russia itself the effect of the story was astonishing. The portrait of Bazarov was immediately and angrily resented as a cold travesty. The portraits of the "backwoodsmen," or retired aristocrats, fared no better. Turgenev had indeed roused the ire of both sides, only too surely.

Read the complete opening section

Contents

All sections
  1. INTRODUCTION6 min
  2. I7 min
  3. II4 min
  4. III10 min
  5. IV8 min
  6. V11 min
  7. VI6 min
  8. VII12 min
  9. VIII13 min
  10. IX5 min
  11. X21 min
  12. XI8 min
  13. XII10 min
  14. XIII11 min
  15. XIV9 min
  16. XV8 min
  17. XVI18 min
  18. XVII19 min
  19. XVIII9 min
  20. XIX13 min
  21. XX18 min
  22. XXI29 min
  23. XXII10 min
  24. XXIII12 min
  25. XXIV31 min
  26. XXV18 min
  27. XXVI16 min
  28. XXVII29 min
  29. XXVIII10 min

Reading & download help

Is this the complete Fathers and Sons?

This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 29 sections and 80,120 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.

Which PDF should I choose?

A4 is designed for 210 × 297 mm paper; US Letter for 8.5 × 11 inch paper. Both contain the same complete text, selectable text and section bookmarks.

Can I read without signing up?

Yes. Online reading and both PDFs are free. Reading settings and progress stay on this device.

Edition details and corrections.