I. Structure: Three estates and three transitions

Carriage ride
1. Mar´ino (Kirsanov brothers, Fenechka): a medium-sized estate (200 serfs)
Town of *** (Sitnikov, Kukshina)
2. Nikol´skoe (Anna and Katia Odintsova): a large estate
Carriage ride
3. “Small manor house” (Bazarov’s parents): a poor estate (15-25 serfs)
Several journeys by the main characters back and forth among these estates

II. Names

• Arkadii: <Arcas, son of Zeus and King of Arcadia (which was named after him), a sparsely populated, mountainous region in Central Greece adopted by the poets as a symbol of the quiet, rustic life
• Bazarov: < Russ. bazar = bazaar; also, the noise and commotion attached to it. Also < Russ. bazarit´/razbazarit´ = to waste one’s time, talent and energy on fruitless pursuits
  
• Kirsanov: < ? Russ. kirasir < Fr. cuirassier = a prestigious category of officer in the Napoleonic period (reminiscent of Arkadii’s grandfather, the old general)
  
• Odintsova: < Russ. odin = one, alone, solitary, lonel
  Kukshina: < Russ. kuksha = colloquial term for certain birds of the crow family
  
• Sitnikov: < Russ. sitnik = a loaf of bread made from sifted flour

III. Henry James on Turgenev’s novelistic technique:

The germ of a story, with him, was never an affair of plot -— that was the last thing he thought of: it was the representation of certain persons. The first form in which a tale appeared to him was as the figure of an individual, or a combination of individuals, whom he wished to see in action, being sure that such people must do something very special and interesting. They stood before him definite, vivid, and he wished to know and to show, as much as possible of their nature. The first thing was to make clear to himself what he did know, to begin with; and to this end he wrote a sort of biography of each of his characters, and everything that they had done and had happened to them up to the opening of the story. He had their dossier, as the French say, and as the police have that of every conspicuous criminal. With this material in his hand he was able to proceed; the story all lay in the question, What shall I make them do? He always made them do things that showed them completely; but, as he said, the defect of his manner and the reproach that was made him was his want of “architecture” — in other words, of composition… If one reads Turgenev’s stories with the knowledge that they were composed— or rather that they came into being — in this way, one can trace the process in every line. [From Partial Portraits, London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 1888]