Description
Turgenev’s povest’ (or novella) Asya of 1858 has a Rhineland setting. Asya the illegitimate daughter of a Russian landowner is travelling abroad with her half-brother. The narrator falls in love with her but cannot bring himself to propose marriage until it is too late. Asya has gone. The narrative stance here struck by Turgenev – one of remorseful recollection – renders Asya one of his most poignant tales. It immediately occasioned a lively debate among contemporary Russian critics: over ‘weak’ as against ‘positive’ heroes and the position of the intellectual vis a vis the people. At a more submerged level of the tale the heroine’s ‘narrative’ has until recently tended to be overlooked.
