Smoke Paperback – April 19, 1995

This is NOT a review of the contents, the novel itself, but of the FORMAT. I don't know what edition the other reviewers read, but the one I got looked at first glance on the web page like a Penguin paperback or an approximate equivalent. I obviously should have looked closer online, and I fault myself for that. Even on page 13 of the preview pages on the webpage, I now notice there is a meaningless number in the middle of a sentence about halfway down the page, and this recurs frequently in the actual paper copy. In other words, this is a cheap, sloppy generic reprint with many printing errors. mostly the above described meaningless numbers that appear in the middle of sentences. If this is the traditional Constance Garnett translation, no translator is credited in this edition. It's only 60 pages in this format, so even if it's complete, I'm not sure it's a bargain in the condition it's in. The cover graphic is impressive and it's a clean copy-- but that's all. I hope I can find a standard, professionally edited and printed edition somewhere with proper translation credits and no gobbledygook in the text. I'm not snobbish about generic reprints of public domain books, especially the rarer ones, as long as proper credits are given and the reproduction is reasonably accurate and consistent.

Another good book by Turgenev, his writing puts you in the story, I have read several of his books, while many do not end in an uplifting manner, you can feel the characters, feel their plights, see life as it was in mid-1800s Russia

This novel is really only of interest to those with a strong, if not professional, interest in Russian literature. There is an intriguing story here, a love triangle in which not is all what it seems. But in its actual length, it's really only a novelette. The rest of the book is contemporary political commentary that is neither self-explanatory nor coached in universal terms that might make it of interest to people not personally invested in those debates (as opposed to Tolstoy's disgressions on peasant life in Anna Karenina, which deal with basic and inescapable questions of inequality amongst people). And the people personally invested in these political debates -- they've been dead for a hundred years. So this novel is mainly a historical footnote, known for ticking off Dostoevsky. It's a pity too, as the love triangle was getting engrossing when it abruptly was over.It also bothers me that the publisher that reprinted, with more typos than you'd expect, a Garnett translation beyond copyright protection instead of hiring someone to do a more credible job. (I don't know how good of a translation this is, but Garnett's reputation is not one of fidelity.)

It is a classic of Russian literature. I definitely recommend it. This edition is very good.

Turgenev devotees will be pleased to find a copy of this most seldom reissued and perhaps least known of his novels. Its tidy paperback sheath, studded with sepia snapshots from the historical time it depicts, makes a fine outer garment for the spare and slender frame of a tale we find within. For, at first glance, "Smoke" will not appear to have many of the winning features which normally draw readers into Turgenev's fictional realms and keep them there, so happily immured: absent are the legendary lyrical descriptions of the Russian countryside and its owners to be found in such novels as "Rudin" and "Home of the Gentry," and missing are the complex character development and more involved political reflections which are hallmarks of the somewhat lesser yet still impressive "On the Eve." And the discoverer of "Smoke" will be sorely disappointed should she or he hope to find in this work something to satisfy the voracious literary appetite engendered by the sumptuous meal which "Fathers and Children" invariably is. "Smoke," like "Virgin Soil" which immediately followed it, has no dearth of defects. Its plot moves too swiftly, for example, giving no time for characters to change and events to move in credible ways. Its tone is often mean-spirited and sour. Practically no one likeable, aside, perhaps, from the unhappy Tatyana, appears in its pages. Its plot and even dialogue are too often puzzlingly predictable. Yet, for all its lacks, "Smoke" does accomplish the astonishing novelistic miracle, achieved by so few: the creation of two characters, in Irina Ratmirov and Grigory Litvinov, who are utterly unforgettable. Unsavory from first bite to final slurp, an encounter with them will leave the reader longing for some equally ferocious flavor as purgative to the palate. No small feat! Though to a 21st century American ear, this translation will sound quaintly Victorian (Constance Garnett, whose translating career death has not hurt one little bit) and cozily English (check out curiosities like "phiz" and "fly"), it is well-worth not only buying but reading. What better way, really, to point out the always-to-be-remembered truth that even immortals like the divine Turgenev were not continually engaged in the manufacture of masterpieces.

"Smoke," a novel mainly set among wealthy Russians travelling abroad, is not without its problems. The story takes a while to get under way, and Turgenev's effort to fit the plot developments into the broader issue of Westernization in Russia at times places a strain on the narrative.However, a scene in chapter 26 (which gives the book its name) features one of the loveliest passages I have yet encountered in literature. It is a brief passage in which Litvinov, the main character, returning to Russia with his spirit crushed by the circumstances of his ill-fated trip to Baden-Baden, has a reverie prompted by the sight of the smoke he sees outside the train window. As is often the case with Turgenev's writing, it is a simple scene but one laden with humanity and warmth.(BTW: It is also worthwhile to examine this book in connection with Leonid Tsypkin's "Summer in Baden-Baden" which discusses the meeting there between Turgenev and Dostoevsky.)