The criticism of the novel for its supposed “anti-Russian” attitude arose from the fact that Smoke, more than simply a story of a ménage à trois (or even ménage à quatre) and a failed loved affair, is a Roman à thèse, meant largely to display in ironical or farcical light the different strata of Russian society and to offer a political critique on the problems Russia was facing and the shortcomings of Russia’s would-be saviours. As for Alexander Herzen, the exiled revolutionary the likes of whom Turgenev satirized in the character of Gubaryov, he wrote a largely negative review of the work in his revolutionary publication The Bell. Conservatives were enraged by his portrayal of the nobility, Slavophiles denounced Turgenev for denigrating his native Russia, while revolutionaries called the author a senile dodderer incapable or unwilling to appreciate young Russians’ strength and will. The reception to Turgenev’s public readings was a bellwether, for upon publication in Russia the novel was met with almost immediate and universal condemnation in that country.
Smoke was first published in the March 1867 issue of The Russian Messenger (Русский вестник Russkiy vestnik), one of the premier literary magazine of nineteenth century Russia. Petersburg, in February 1867, he gave several public charity readings from chapters of the book, all of which were met with approbation. Ivan Turgenev began work on what was to become Smoke in late 1865 and it's known that he carried a finished manuscript of the novel with him when he visited Russia in early 1867. The story takes place largely in the German resort town of Baden-Baden.īackground and critical reception Smoke ( Russian: «Дым») is an 1867 novel by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883) that tells the story of a love affair between a young Russian man and a young married Russian woman while also delivering the author's criticism of Russia and Russians of the period.
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