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Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov
Anna Odintsov is a clever, wealthy young widow whom Arkady and Bazarov meet at Kolyazin’s ball. Both men quickly become infatuated with her. Anna and her younger sister, Katya, were orphaned by a nobleman who ruined himself by gambling. Later, Anna married an eccentric, wealthy hypochondriac of 46, inheriting his estate, Nikolskoye, after his death. She has always been subject to rumors because of her unusual marriage. Anna is kind but imposing, taking a sisterly attitude toward Arkady and engaging in intellectual debates with Bazarov. She has never had a clear goal in life and thus never feels satisfied; she has also never fallen in love, and when she and Bazarov are attracted to each other, she accepts his explanation that love is meaningless. Despite his unkindness, she hurries to Bazarov’s bedside when he’s dying. She later marries a young lawyer whom she might someday be able to love.
Madame Anna Sergeyevna Odintsov Quotes in Fathers and Sons
The Fathers and Sons quotes below are all either spoken by Madame Anna Sergeyevna Odintsov or refer to Madame Anna Sergeyevna Odintsov. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 16
Quotes
“And so you have no feeling whatsoever for art?” she said, leaning her elbow on the table, a movement which brought her face closer to Bazarov. “How can you get on without it?”
“Why, what is it needed for, may I ask?”
“Well, at least to help one to know and understand people.”
Bazarov smiled. “In the first place, experience of life does that, and in the second, I assure you the study of separate individuals is not worth the trouble it involves. All men are similar, in soul as well as in body. Each of us has a brain, spleen, heart and lungs of similar construction; and the so-called moral qualities are the same in all of us - the slight variations are of no importance. It is enough to have one single human specimen in order to judge all the others. People are like trees in a forest: no botanist would dream of studying each individual birchtree.”
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Chapter 25
Quotes
“Let bygones be bygones,” she said, “especially as, to be quite frank, I was also to blame, if not by being coquettish, then in some other fashion. In short, let us be friends as we were before. The other was a dream, was it not? And who ever remembers dreams?”
“Who indeed? And besides, love . . . is a purely imaginary feeling.”
“Really? I am very glad to hear you say that.”
So spoke Anna Sergeyevna, and so spoke Bazarov, and they both believed they were speaking the truth. Was the truth, the whole truth, to be found in their words? They themselves did not know, and still less does the author. But in the conversation that followed each appeared to have complete faith in the other.
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Madame Anna Sergeyevna Odintsov Quotes in Fathers and Sons
The Fathers and Sons quotes below are all either spoken by Madame Anna Sergeyevna Odintsov or refer to Madame Anna Sergeyevna Odintsov. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 16
Quotes
“And so you have no feeling whatsoever for art?” she said, leaning her elbow on the table, a movement which brought her face closer to Bazarov. “How can you get on without it?”
“Why, what is it needed for, may I ask?”
“Well, at least to help one to know and understand people.”
Bazarov smiled. “In the first place, experience of life does that, and in the second, I assure you the study of separate individuals is not worth the trouble it involves. All men are similar, in soul as well as in body. Each of us has a brain, spleen, heart and lungs of similar construction; and the so-called moral qualities are the same in all of us - the slight variations are of no importance. It is enough to have one single human specimen in order to judge all the others. People are like trees in a forest: no botanist would dream of studying each individual birchtree.”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25
Quotes
“Let bygones be bygones,” she said, “especially as, to be quite frank, I was also to blame, if not by being coquettish, then in some other fashion. In short, let us be friends as we were before. The other was a dream, was it not? And who ever remembers dreams?”
“Who indeed? And besides, love . . . is a purely imaginary feeling.”
“Really? I am very glad to hear you say that.”
So spoke Anna Sergeyevna, and so spoke Bazarov, and they both believed they were speaking the truth. Was the truth, the whole truth, to be found in their words? They themselves did not know, and still less does the author. But in the conversation that followed each appeared to have complete faith in the other.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
