For Freeborn, this is downhill nearly all the way: he traces a growing pessimism in the writer which begins early (Turgenev was convinced life was over by the time he turned thirty) and gathers strength as ill-health, concern for and absence from his native land, and an increasingly hostile nature drain his self­confidence. Dessaix’s study does not negate these findings, but places them in a specific context the eponymous quest for a faith which would sustain his desire for life when that life appeared to have lost all meaning.

Thus the five major novels, plus some short essays, and in particular the ‘fantastic tales’ (several of which have been translated and published separately by Dr Dessaix) are analysed for the spiritual, philosophical, or political frameworks they provide for both characters and author. (It is worth noting that these are not the satisfactions the modem reader seeks and finds in the works of Turgenev: we are much more likely to be impressed by the elegant prose, the vivid pictures of Rusian manners, and the finely balanced to the point of ambiguity judgement of the author. But these are not Dr Dessaix’s concern.) Thus in Rudin an idealist basis for faith is explored; in A Nest of Gentr, Christian mysticism; and romantic nationalism in On the Eve. Fathers and Sons asserts the inadequacy of materialism. while romantic idealism and positivistic realism ‘come into acute conflict’ in Virgin Soil. Smoke, perhaps, because such a ‘tour de force of cynicism’ can scarcely be part of a ‘quest for faith’ is only partly dealt with.

The study was carried out with impressively comprehensive reference to materials in Russian, English and French, and with an excellent grasp of the ideas prevalent in Russian and European thought during Turgenev’s lifetime. While the book must be a little erudite for the average devotee of the Penguin translations of Turgenev’s works, it will be invaluable to students and scholars, and particularly to those without access to Russian sources.