Preparations for Hunt by Evgraf Krendovsky (1836)
Picture sourceI come back to Turgenev’s own description of this book (which I quoted on the resources post):
“Much has come out pale and scrappy, much is only just hinted at, some of it’s not — right, oversalted or undercooked — but there are other notes pitched exactly right and not out of tune, and it is these notes that will save the whole book.”
Despite belonging to a different age and speaking out against a system that no longer exists, the simple beauty of Turgenev’s prose (especially the pitch-perfect notes) makes it an enjoyable read today.

Ivan Turgenev online resources

Online resources for A Sportsman’s Notebook

Discussions on the book:
One
Two
Three

The first paragraph of “Bezhin Meadow”

A quick look at Reading Turgenev by William Trevor and the so-called “Turgenev maiden”