The District Doctor

The short story “The District Doctor” by Ivan Turgenev belongs to the genre of narrative. The author caught a cold and invited the district physician to his hotel. After some medical procedures were completed, the main characters had a frank conversation during which the district doctor told the story of his life.

The author said «I am going to impart his narrative to the indulgent reader. I shall endeavour to express myself in the physician's words». Ivan Turgenev is a classical Russian writer, his works are studied in schools. One reason for such success is the ability of the author to use the language of simple people. The translation text from Russian to English can't display all the nuances of this folklore.

The story is very touching, it is a love story without a happy ending. The feelings of people, their thoughts and actions, all of them are very authentic. The slice-of-life narration style conveys perfectly the atmosphere of place and time, where and when the story took place.

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Cyrillic: Иван Тургенев) was a novelist, poet, and dramatist, and now ranks as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. His major works include the short-story collection A Sportsman’s Sketches (1852) and the novels Rudin (1856), Home of the Gentry (1859), On the Eve (1860), and Fathers and Sons (1862).