Rudin

by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

"Rudin" by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a novel first published in 1856. It introduces Turgenev's enduring theme of the "superfluous man"—an eloquent, educated nobleman whose intellectual brilliance masks a fatal inability to act. When the charismatic but penniless Rudin arrives at a country estate, he captivates its inhabitants with his words and captures the heart of Natalya, a perceptive seventeen-year-old daughter of the estate owner. Their love story becomes a test of whether Rudin's soaring rhetoric can translate into genuine deed.