Nido de nobles

Lavretsky, the hero of this novel, Turgenev's second -one of his greatest successes and the one that perhaps incorporates the most autobiographical traits-, has had a unique upbringing: his father, a noble landowner who eloped and married a servant, and then he left her in Russia to live "the merry life" of Europe, he wanted to make him "not just a man, but a Spartan." Dressed in the Scottish style, awakened with jugs of cold water at four in the morning, and schooled in Voltairean principles, the boy did not quite understand how all this was reconciled with contempt for the land and the life of the peasants. Already older, and after a "love wedding" and the corresponding European journey, he returns to Russia crestfallen, separated from his wife (who was cheating on him) and exposed to ridicule... but with the firm conviction of undertaking reforms and taking care of the land. However, his "thirst for happiness" stands in the way of his good intentions like an implacable curse: Liza, the young daughter of his cousin, awakens in him sensations that she thought were lost and...