“The air blew in a gust for an instant; a streak of fire flashed across the sky; it was a star falling. “Zinaïda?” I wanted to call, but the word died away on my lips...”

First Love by Ivan Turgenev, published in 1860, describes the love story between a 21-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy.

The sixteen-year-old boy, Vladimir Petrovich, has fallen in love for the first time.

The twenty-one-year-old girl, Zinaïda, is independent and powerful and cruel to her suitors, yet they cannot get away from her.

Turgenev’s novella is a vivid and sensitive account of adolescent love that plunges into a whirlwind of emotions—inevitably leading to a truly heart-rending revelation.

IVAN TURGENEV (1818–1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction. He is also known for such masterworks as The Diary of a Superfluous Man, First Love, Torrents of Spring, King Lear of the Steppes, and Smoke.