Fathers and Sons: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

At Madame Kukshin’s, the friends are met by a woman who’s neither servant nor companion, a sign of the lady’s “progressive tendencies.” They find Madame Kukshin in a study that’s cluttered with papers and cigarette butts. Madame Kukshin is young, plain, and somewhat disheveled, and, like Sitnikov, she seems “perpetually on edge.” Everything she does seems affected rather than spontaneous. She orders lunch and champagne for the guests and begins talking with Bazarov about chemistry; she’s invented a material to make unbreakable dolls’ heads.

The conversation drifts to women’s education. Bazarov takes little interest in the discussion until Madame Kukshin mentions a woman named Madame Odintsov, a clever, rich widow, albeit not “sufficiently advanced,” according to Sitnikov. The group goes through four bottles of champagne and debates marriage, equality, and individuality. Bazarov and Arkady unceremoniously leave after their hostess starts drunkenly singing ballads. Sitnikov skips after them, asking what they think of Madame Kukshin, whom he thinks “in her own way, a highly moral phenomenon.”