On the eve of the Crimean War, the young, headstrong Yelena, the daughter of aristocratic Russian parents, falls in love with a revolutionary from Bulgaria named Insarov. Facing the wrath and disapproval of her family, Yelena abandons her home to follow Insarov to Bulgaria. Their fateful match sets in motion a series of tragic events which challenge notions of love, revolution and idealism.

A highly controversial work upon its original publication, Ivan Turgenev’s On the Eve is now recognized as one of the masterpieces of Russian literature and an essential document of the upheaval that dominated Russian society in the years prior to the Crimean War. Turgenev’s restrained, nuanced prose is rendered beautifully in Michael Pursglove’s new translation.