A House of Gentlefolk
by Ivan Turgenev 1818–1883
The book, and the century it came out of.
Translated by Constance Garnett
Lavretsky comes home to his estate at forty, ruined by a wife he has left in Paris, and meets a girl of nineteen who plays the piano — and then a newspaper reports that the wife is dead. Turgenev was the first Russian read across Europe and admired by Flaubert and James; this 1859 novel was the one Russians loved most in his lifetime, and the last scene, in a monastery garden, is the quietest ending he wrote. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Lundbye, Krylov and Dreyer among them.
THE NAMES OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE BOOK Marya Dmitrievna Kalitin, a widow.
A House of Gentlefolk, by Ivan Turgenev, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Salon & Steppe
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 192 pages
- Reading time
- about 4 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Translation
- Constance Garnett
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486147937
60 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
A House of Gentlefolk, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Salon & Steppe shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486147937, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of A House of Gentlefolk?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Ivan Turgenev's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 192 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
