On the Eve is the third novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by famous Russian writer Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...

, best known for his short stories and the novel Fathers and Sons

Fathers and Sons

Fathers and Sons is an 1862 novel by Ivan Turgenev, his best known work. The title of this work in Russian is Отцы и дети , which literally means "Fathers and Children"; the work is often translated to Fathers and Sons in English for reasons of euphony.- Historical context and notes :The fathers...

. Turgenev embellishes this love story with observations on middle class

Middle class

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 life and interposes some art and philosophy.

Plot introduction

The story revolves around Elena, a girl with a very affected mother and a father who is a retired guards lieutenant and keeps a mistress. On the eve of the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

, Elena is pursued by a free-spirited sculptor (Shubin) and an uptight student (Berzeniev). But when Berzeniev's dashing Bulgarian

Bulgarians

The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...

 friend Insarov meets Elena, they soon fall in love. Secretly marrying the Bulgarian revolutionary, Elena invites the ire of her parents, who had hoped to marry her to a more respectable suitor. Insarov falls ill, but partly recovers. On the outbreak of the war, Insarov's call home only complicates matters further. Insanov returns with Elena to Bulgaria, but dies on the way in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. Elena is never heard of again.

Main characters

• Pavel Shubin - sculptor
• Andrei Bersyenev - student philosopher
• Dmitri Insarov - Bulgarian student
• Elena Nikolayevna - young girl

See also