Fathers and Sons (Russian: «Отцы и дети»; Otcy i deti, IPA: [ɐˈtsɨ i ˈdʲetʲi]; pre-1918 spelling Отцы и дѣти), literally Fathers and Children, is an 1862 novel by Ivan Turgenev, published in Moscow by Grachev & Co on 23 February 1862.

University graduate Arkady Kirsanov returns to his father's modest estate, called Marino.

Nikolay, initially delighted to have his son return home, slowly begins to feel uneasy.

A certain awkwardness develops in his regard toward his son, as Arkady's radical views, much influenced by Bazarov, make Nikolay's own beliefs feel dated.

To complicate this, the father has taken a servant, Fenechka, into his house to live with him and has already had a son by her, named Mitya.

Both are greatly attracted to her, and she, intrigued by Bazarov's singular manner, invites them to spend a few days at her estate, Nikolskoye.

She does not respond positively to his declaration; she finds his devaluation of feelings and of the aesthetic side of existence unattractive.

After his avowal of love, and her failure to make a similar declaration, Bazarov proceeds to his parents' home, and Arkady goes with him.

Arkady, who has delighted Bazarov's father by assuring him that his son has a brilliant future in store, reproves his friend for his brusqueness.

After a brief stay, much to the parents' disappointment, they decide to return to Marino, stopping on the way to see Madame Odintsova, who receives them coolly.

... the peasants whom they met on the way were all in rags and mounted on the sorriest little nags; willows with broken branches and bark hanging in strips stood like tattered beggars on the roadside; emaciated and shaggy cows, gaunt with hunger, were greedily tearing up the grass along the ditches.

Both the nihilists (the "sons") and the 1830s liberals (the "fathers") sought Western-based social change in Russia.

Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with the Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality.

[2] Fathers and Sons might be regarded as the first wholly modern novel in Russian literature (Gogol's Dead Souls, another main contender, was referred to by the author as a poem or epic in prose as in the style of Dante's Divine Comedy, and was at any rate never completed).

[6] Canadian playwright George F. Walker's 1988 play Nothing Sacred is a stage adaptation of Fathers and Sons.