This world is so beautiful, this world is so cruel, snapshots from Turgenev’s A Hunter's Album
Perceptions of a literary masterpiece that helped innovate human lives.
Contemplating an old masters paintings: first, a boy and his bird. An expression of fear and shock forever imprinted on that bird. Alas, a cat attacked it and though it survived, later a rat bit off its beak. This is a disturbing composition, with striking images. Still, there is elegance in the rendering and an intricacy not immediately perceived.
Surviving in a hut, a former healthy and beautiful girl, whose joy was dance and song. Now in her 30s, on her own, paralyzed and atrophied. In spite of tragedies, serenity settled on that fate tested face. Another one: in a clearing a wealthy young man acting cruel towards his conquest, a village girl. The hunter and the hurting pray. Her helplessness is remarkably vivid. One fantasizes a way of helping her, envisions a happier resolution to her story.…show more content… This is Turgenev’s collection of short stories, not actual paintings, works of art nonetheless.
Similar to one of the characters mentioned, the narrator is a huntsman. In spite of his position, he is a sympathetic witness. This huntsman glances under the veil of a troubled world. 19th century Russia, when nearly all villagers were childlike and all their lives - dependence. A place in time when simple people were serfs on a lord of the manor's land. What today are ones pears or neighbors, appeared as underdeveloped and under-capable beings. The mind blocks such