Beneath her façade, he can see that she truly is in love, but not with him. Vladimir is a sensitive and observant young man and he is able to see through Zinaida’s extreme coquettishness and notices a gradual change in her manner. There is also no sadness greater than the sadness brought on by unrequited love. On these occasions the young man’s heart swells and there is no joy greater than the joy felt by a young man in love for the first time. She plays them all off one another, but occasionally indicates that she favors Vladimir. They are all older than Vladimir and superior to him in either wealth or social class.
(Perhaps the 19th century equivalent of “ Let’s just be friends.”) At one point, she even asks Vladimir to look after her twelve-year-old brother, emphasizing the their age difference and that Vladimir is still just a boy.Īdding to Vladimir’s frustration are the numerous suitors who come calling on Zinaida every evening. Zinaida toys with him mercilessly, enticing him with hints of a deep and romantic affection and, alternatively, pushing him away and treating him with condescending, sisterly affection.
Zinaida is a beautiful and spirited young women and Vladimir falls hopelessly in love with her. At age sixteen while living in the country, Vladimir meets twenty-one-year-old Zinaida Alexandrovna Zasyekina, the daughter of a titled but very poor family living on the adjoining property. Thus begins Ivan Turgenev’s 1860 novella, First Love. Reluctantly he agrees, but in order to do the story justice, he must first write it down, promising to read it to them at a future date. His companions, desperately lacking any passion of their own, beseech him to tell them his tale. The third, Vladimir Petrovitch, has a story that is so out of the ordinary that he is reticent to tell it. Two of them tell stories that are completely lacking of passion and soul, revealing the shallowness of the men themselves. After the plates are cleared away and the middle-aged gentlemen are enjoying cigars, they trade stories of their first loves. In the late 1850’s, three wealthy Russians have supper at the home of one of the men.
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