Nezhdanov and his fellow idealistic revolutionaries attempt to stir peasant unrest in the Russian countryside, discovering how remote their radical convictions are from the people they hope to awaken.
Books mentioned in Virgin Soil (5)
Candide by Voltaire: “he always kept a translated manuscript of 'Candide' in the bible box at the head of his bed”
Songs Before Sunrise by Algernon Charles Swinburne: “like Swinburne's Songs Before Sunrise, Mazzini's Duties of Man, and other congenial documents”
The Duties of Man by Giuseppe Mazzini: “like Swinburne's Songs Before Sunrise, Mazzini's Duties of Man, and other congenial documents”
Yevgenia Onegin by Alexander Pushkin: “Take up our immortal Pushkin and read over the description of the death of Lensky in 'Yevgenia Onegin.'”
The Story of the Four Brothers: “'The Story of the Four Brothers,' and then the ordinary, well-known ones, which are far better I think.”