Turgenieff
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Turgenieff. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
or Tourgenieff, Ivan, e-van' toor-gan'yef (1818-1883), a Russian novelist. He received his education at Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Berlin, imbibing at the latter university, no doubt, opinions of a more democratic character than were prevalent in Russia. On his return to his native land Turgenieff was appointed to a position in the ministry of the interior but he soon got into trouble through writings that displeased the authorities. The reader will not be interested in the various imprisonments and banishments to which the novelist was subjected. He died at Paris. Among the more noted titles in the list of his works we may mention A Nest of Nobles, Virgin Soil, and Father and Sons. Turgenieff was the first to use the word "nihilist" in its present sense. He was for a time a leader of the radicals, but latterly he was accused by them of falling away. In his early years he exerted a strong influence in favor of the liberation of the serfs. His service to literature consists in realistic pictures of Russian peasantry, a subject in which he showed himself at home.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
IVAN, a Russian novelist; born in Arel, Nov. 9, 1818, and was educated at home and in Berlin. His writings show a wonderful insight into human motives and feelings. They include: "Poems" (1841); "Parascha" (1843); "Improvidence" (1843); "Andrei Kolosov" (1844); "Andrei" (1845), a volume of poems; "The Conversation" (1845); "The Landlord " (1846); "Three Portraits" (1846); " Khor and Kalinych" (1847); "The Bully " (1847); "Dimitri Rudin" (1852); "Two Friends" (1853); "Quiet Life" (1854); "Rudin" (1856); "Faust" (1856); "Asya " (1858); "A Nest of Noblemen" (1859), also translated as "Lisa"; "First Love" (1860); "Hamlet and Don Quixote " (1860); "On the Eve" (1862); "Fathers and Sons " (1862); "Visions" (1863); "The Dog" (1863 ?) ; "Story of Lieutenant Jergunov" (1864); "The Brigadier" (1866); exclusive privileges of companies and corporations. Such , however, was the opposition of the clergy and nobility to his reforms that he was dismissed from office in 1776, and retired into private life. He died in Paris, March 20, 1781.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The bare facts still stand, but the spellings and a few details have been tidied: the novelist is now written Turgenev in English, his birthplace "Arel" is Oryol, and he died in 1883 not in Paris itself but at Bougival, in the house he shared with Pauline Viardot's family. Aiton's 1910 talk of "various imprisonments and banishments" overstates matters — the one real episode was his arrest in 1852 over an admiring obituary of Gogol, a month in custody and some eighteen months confined to his estate at Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, which is now a state museum. On the word "nihilist," scholars agree Turgenev did not coin it but made it famous with Fathers and Sons in 1862. His reputation has settled below Tolstoy's and Dostoevsky's as a novelist yet above both as a stylist, and Sketches from a Hunter's Album, the "realistic pictures of Russian peasantry" Aiton's praises, is still the book most credited with turning opinion against serfdom.
Written for this edition, 2026.