Born in 1818 at Orel in Central Russia, Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev's career was dotted with a number of literary disputes. His first literary success came with his prose pieces. He was imprisoned for a month after publishing an article on the death of Gogol and was subsequently banished to his estate where he wrote a series of novels and short stories. He died of cancer in Bougival in 1883
Fathers and Sons transcends the limits of times and cultures, though set in a definite time frame in Russian history. It critically views the conflict between the younger members of the Russian intelligentsia who became prominent after the Crimean War and the old intellectuals. It drew flak from the conservatives as well as the radicals.
