"A Sportsman's Sketches" by Turgenev (1852)

A cover for Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter"

 Ford has been able to make the acquaintances of many country estate owners in his state service and was recently invited on a hunting trip on the estate of Privy Councilor Vladimir Vladimirovich Popov's estate in Oryol. Popov knew of Ford's acquaintance with me and invited me as well. In preparation for the trip, I have decided to study Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev's "Записки охотника" or "Notes of a Hunter." The book is less about hunting and more about other topics, but Turgenev has received quite a bit of attention and fame from this book, making me extremely interested.

Turgenev published these stories in succession between 1847 and 1850 in The Contemporary. I took a while to get around to reading the stories, so before I knew it, the who set of stories we now have was published as a whole in 1852 (Terras 273). As I noted in my previous entry, Turgenev is part of the natural school. “Notes of a Hunter” fits many of the natural school traits because it has many elements that highlight the realness of the lower classes (Hoisington 49). The sketches’ form reflects the plotless structure and emphasis on character that naturalist literature often follows (49).

"Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands" an
illustration by Turgenev of
one of his stories.

I feel deceived in a way because of the title of the book. While each story contains a hunter of some sort, the title led me to believe the novel would contain stories that speak of the sport of hunting explicitly, but the stories contain far more elements of more importance (Newlin 366). “Notes of a Hunter” includes serfs and landowners in various positions, personalities, and virtues. The hunter in each sketch might be considered a fringe character who interacts minimally with the main characters of each story (366).

The language of the stories could also give a clue as to some of the weightier themes Turgenev introduces. The idea of the hunted and the hunter turning into the desired and the desirer arises is many of the stories, not only in regard to the hunter himself (368). For example, many of the sketches, “Yermolai and the Miller’s Wife” and “My Neighbor Radilov,” explore themes of adultery (Hoisington 53-4). Intimacy and adultery are strongly tied to desire psychologically, so Turgenev’s purpose here could be to explore human desire in all forms whether it is virtuous or not.

Another important element of these stories seems to be the symbolism of birds, the hunter’s prey. In Bezhin Meadow, a bird flies away as the peasant boys speak of life and death, as if to symbolize a spirit fleeing (Hoisington 51). The bird in “A Living Relic” appears to represent freedom amidst a story that explores liberty and captivity (52).

Structurally, the stories seem to balance each other out because they can be paired with one another. The first twelve stories encompass the peasant experience, and the last twelve focus on landowners as characters (Hoisington 53). Even though the first half of the sketches is focused on the peasants, the stories still mention the landowners though not in a good light. The second half also shows the landowners in a poor light even though the focus is on them (53-4).

An illustration of "Khor and Kalynich"

To give a better idea of what the sketches generally look like, I will describe the first story in Turgenev’s oeuvre, “Khor and Kalynich,” for you here:

The story begins with a grand description of the countryside to which the narrator, a hunter, has traveled for sport. The narrator takes time to describe the type of people who live in this district of people (Turgenev).

The narrator begins to frame his story by telling of his acquaintance with a petty landlord called Polutikin who he then describes as a fellow hunter and an excellent man prone to repeat anecdotes. When the narrator stays at Polutikin’s the first time, they try to meet Khor, a neighbor of Polutikin’s. Though they meet some other neighbors at Khor’s, they do not meet him, and the narrator begins to ask more about Khor at supper (Turgenev).

Polutikin tells a story of the serf, Khor, and Khor’s characteristics as a shrewd businessman. Even though Khor is illiterate, he is capable. He has a skeptical view on life and knows how to handle people, even his owner (Terras 273).

The narrator and Polutikin continue their hunting the next day and come across another peasant, Kalynich. The narrator describes Kalynich as good-natured and merry, almost the opposite of Khor. Even though Kalynich is a pleasant man and is literature, however, Polutikin informs the narrator that Kalynich is incapable of caring for his land (Turgenev).

Ivan Turgenev

The narrator spends more time in the district and is able to draw some conclusion from his acquaintance with both Khor and Kalynich. He emphasizes how he listened to Khor, though an illiterate serf, and states how wise he considers Khor to be because he is willing to learn from Germans even though they are different (Turgenev).

The contrast of these two character, Khor and Kalynich, contains the contrast between the Westernizer philosophy and the Slavophile philosophy as well. Kalynich can read and dreamily stays in touch with nature like the romantics, and Khor represents a more Western mindset of progress.

With this analysis, I will conclude that Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter,” while a misleading title, explores the nuances of peasant and landowner life in remote Russia. His use of the natural school of thought helps him shed light on the social issues we are experiencing as Russian now.

Works Cited

Hoisington, Thomas H. "The Enigmatic Hunter of Turgenev's Zapiski Ochotnika." Russian Literature, Vol. 42. No. 1, 1 July 1997, pp. 47-64, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3479(97)82574-4.

Newlin, Thomas. "The Thermodynamics of Desire in Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter." Russian Review, vol. 72, no. 3, July 2013, pp. 365-389. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/russ.10696.

Terras, Victor. A History of Russian Literature. Yale University Press, 1991.

Turgenev, Ivan. “A Hunter's Sketches”. London: W. Heinemann, translated by Constance Garrett, 1897, http://www.eldritchpress.org/ist/hunt.htm.