Poems in Prose

Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich, 1818-1883Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 103K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Gedichte in Prosa by Ivan Sergeevich TurgenevAuthor: Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich, 1818-1883,Language: German, Class: PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature, Release Date: Oct 11, 2011

Editor's review

Poems in Prose is a collection of short pieces Turgenev wrote in prose form in his later years; the German edition gives German readers or learners of German access to his late style. The pieces are brief, often unfolding from a scene, memory, or philosophical reflection, with concise language and a lyrical, meditative quality that reveals the author's sensitive observation of life, time, love, and death. For readers familiar with Turgenev's novels, it fills in the spiritual profile of his late creative period; for those interested in the prose poem genre, it shows free transitions between narrative and lyric. Read slowly, savoring individual pieces rather than seeking plot continuity. Some pieces carry melancholy and a sense of old age, suited to quiet, close reading. The German text can also serve as language-learning material, though one should note the difference between literary language and everyday expression.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who love Turgenev's novels and want to know his late short pieces
Readers interested in the prose poem genre and lyrical philosophical writing
Readers with basic German who wish to use literary texts to support learning

Not a good fit for

Readers with no German and no willingness to use辅助 tools
Readers expecting full plots and character stories
Readers who prefer light, bright writing and avoid late-life meditation themes

Reading tips

Read two or three pieces at a time, leaving time for reflection and excerpting rather than rushing through
Keep a notebook of recurring images and emotional threads to observe the late style
German learners can first read a piece for the gist, then look up words for close reading, avoiding word-by-word pauses

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a poetry collection?

It is usually regarded as a collection of prose poems, made up of short prose pieces combining narrative, lyric, and philosophical reflection; it is neither a traditional novel nor metrical poetry.

Is the German edition suitable for German beginners?

Not very suitable for absolute beginners. The text is literary language, with sentence patterns and vocabulary marked by the author's style, which beginners may find difficult; with basic grammar and vocabulary, plus a dictionary and辅助 translations, it becomes more feasible.

Does one need to read it in order from beginning to end?

No. The pieces are relatively independent; readers may skip according to interest or read a few each day. To observe recurring themes and stylistic changes, one may also read through and then review.

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About the author

Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich, 1818-1883 Author

Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich (1818–1883), was a nineteenth-century Russian novelist. Because the available records are limited, his early life and education cannot be described in detail here. What can be confirmed is his achievement as the author of several widely influential works; this collection holds thirty-five of his books, including Fathers and Sons (also known as Fathers and Children), the second volume of A Sportsman's Sketches, and the novels On the Eve, Rudin, and Asya. His writing is noted for delicate psychological portrayal and a restrained, concise style, and for showing social change through the interplay of personal feeling and social reality, with characters often caught between ideal and actuality. These works hold an important place in Russian literature and the European novel tradition, and retain lasting value for readers seeking to understand nineteenth-century Russian society and the spiritual character of its educated classes.