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Turgenev's second novel is indeed closest to the ideal of pure Turgenev, certainly reminiscent of his dramatic work, depicting the lives of the gentry, Russian society and family relationships, while maintaining a humanistic stance towards the circumstances of the peasantry, all with a deep connection and love for the country and the landscape itself. It's even initially staged like one of Turgenev's dramas, each of the principal characters making their walk-on entrances at the Kalitin household, but Turgenev novelistically fills out the relevant background detail of a number of the characters with depth and precision. It's at the Kalitin household that Lavretsky, on his way back home to his estate after the break up of his marriage in Europe, calls in on his relatives and falls in love with his cousin Liza Mikhaylovna. Liza is however being courted by an important but dull government official who Lavretsky feels is unworthy of the deeply religious young woman, but Lavr...