First Love by Ivan Turgenev is a short story about the infatuation of a 16 year old boy, Vladimir Petrovich, with a 21 year old new neighbour, Zinaida Alexandrovna Zasyekina, who happens to have a royal title, albeit her family are, relatively, poor.
The story is somewhat predictable in aspects and its characters limited in depth and values, which may make it a difficult read, despite its shortness. And, yet, the story depicts well, I think, the simultaneously compelling and empty nature of such infatuation.
"..I felt great weariness and peace.. but Zinaïda's image still floated triumphant over my soul. But, it too, this image, seemed more tranquil: like a swan rising out of the reeds of a bog, it stood out from the other unbeautiful figures surrounding it, and as I fell asleep, I flung myself before it in farewell, trusting adoration..."
As banal as Vladimir's obsession (and that of his co-suitors) seems to be, not to mention detached, in ways, from reality, Turgenev goes to lengths to sympathetically describe his ardour. The result, I feel, is a very realistic and frank portrait of romantic infatuation, an experience that seems to defy empathy given it's subjectivity - which necessitates, apparently, suffering in silence.
Turgenev goes some way to challenging that silence and, I think, First Love is a consolation which may comfort the sufferer.
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