Parasha and Other Poems

One of
the pillars of nineteenth-century Russian prose fiction alongside towering
figures such as Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev started his
writing career as a poet, gaining much critical acclaim and renown in that
field. The title piece of this collection, Parasha, which brought the young
author to the attention of the influential critic Vissarion Belinsky and
established his reputation, is a humorous narrative poem in the vein of
Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin or Lermontov’s Sashka, telling the story of a young
woman’s marriage to her dull, unromantic neighbour and the couple’s humdrum
and more or less happy life ever after.

Also contained in this volume are four other narrative poems by Turgenev -
Andrei, A Conversation, The Landowner and The Village Priest - all showing
the author’s early interest in ordinary stories of Russian life and all
displaying the wit and stylistic versatility that we have come to associate
with his more famous prose works.