First published in 1859, ON THE EVE (of the Russian revolution) is another of Turgenev"s lyrical idealist works. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883) defined the philosophy of nihilism and social change and yet managed to dwell on the bittersweet romanticism of Russia"s fading nobility. This is a story of Elena, a young spiritually passionate woman with intense social principles, who abandons her family, home, and country, to follow Insarov, a romantic revolutionary rebel to his native Bulgaria. A classic novel of the courage of life choices on the brink of global change.