A review by beesandbooks
Virgin Soil by Ivan Turgenev

3.0

I’ll be honest, I was expecting this to be more like the Russian literature I’ve read in the past. I’m used to the dark, the gritty, the pessimistic. I was not expecting a romance and a plea for wifely dedication. The main couple aren’t awful, nor do they work well together. The romance didn’t fully interest me and I wasn’t invested in it. Honestly, only one character interested me out of all of them and she was constantly reduced to her beautiful eyes. In doing some research on the author, I learned that this work came after a massive creative failure of his, so perhaps he lost his spark and that is reflected in this work. Whatever the reason may be, Virgin Soil is lackluster, but not a heinous read. If you’re into this sort of book, you can always give it a shot. It’s free on Kindle!