The author of masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels, Ivan Turgenev seemed to have a particular gift for writing about nature and about social iniquities. He also seemed to have a unique ability for attracting controversy to himself, be it because of his views (he was thrown in prison for the obituary he wrote for Gogol) or his actions (philandering, possibly plagiarism) or inaction (cowardice during a fire on a boat). We...