The heroine of "Rudin," the young girl Natalya, is a faint sketch of
the future Lisa. Turgenev's girls never seem to have any fun; how
different they are from the twentieth century American novelist's
heroine, for whom the world is a garden of delight, with exceedingly
attractive young men as gardeners! These Russian young women are
grave, serious, modest, religious, who ask and expect little for
themselves, and who radiate feminine charm. They have indomitable
power of will, characters of rocklike steadfastness, enveloped in a
disposition of ineffable sweetness. Of course they at first fall an
easy prey to the men who have the gift of eloquence; for nothing
hypnotises a woman more speedily than noble sentiments in the mouth of
a man. Her whole being vibrates in mute adoration, like flowers to the
sunlight. The essential goodness of a woman's heart is fertile soil
for an orator, whether he speaks from the platform or in a
conservatory. Natalya is limed almost instantly by the honey of
Rudin's language, and her virgin soul expands at his declaration of
love. Despite the opposition of her mother, despite the iron bonds of
convention, she is ready to forsake all and follow him. To her
unspeakable amazement and dismay, she finds that the great orator is
vox, et praeterea nihil.
"'And what advice can I give you, Natalya Alexyevna?'
"'What advice? You are a man; I am used to trusting to you, I shall
trust you to the end. Tell me, what are your plans?'
"'My plans--Your mother certainly will turn me out of the house.'
"'Perhaps. She told me yesterday that she must break off all
acquaintance with you. But you do not answer my question.'
"'What question?'
"'What do you think we must do now?'
"'What we must do?' replied Rudin, 'of course submit.'
"'Submit?' repeated Natalya slowly, and her lips turned white.
"'Submit to destiny,' continued Rudin 'What is to be done?'"
But, although the average Anglo-Saxon reader is very angry with Rudin,
he is not altogether contemptible If every man were of the Roosevelt
type, the world would become not a fair field, but a free fight. We
need Roosevelts and we need Rudins The Rudins allure to brighter
worlds, even if they do not lead the way. If the ideals they set
before us by their eloquence are true, their own failures do not
negate them. Whose fault is it if we do not reach them? Lezhnyov gives
the inefficient Rudin a splendid eulogy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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