Bazarov and Arkady often have philosophical arguments, too. Over the coming weeks, Bazarov stays at Maryino, working on scientific experiments and befriending many of the servants, although he disdains Nikolai’s and Pavel’s backwater lifestyle and old-fashioned liberalism. When Bazarov appears, Pavel interrogates him about his rejection of all authorities, an exchange that leaves both men feeling hostile. When Pavel, Nikolai’s sophisticated brother, joins the table, Arkady explains to his baffled father and uncle that Bazarov is a nihilist-someone who “looks at everything critically” and takes no principle for granted. When Fenichka doesn’t appear at the breakfast table the next morning, Arkady rushes to introduce himself to her, but he compounds the awkwardness when he discovers that Fenichka and his father have an infant son, Mitya. When Nikolai mentions that his lover, Fenichka, has begun living in the house, he is deeply embarrassed, but Arkady reassures him, feeling proud of “his own more emancipated outlook.” Nikolai is overjoyed to see his son, but during the journey home to Maryino, the family estate, he is conscious of a growing divide between them. When Arkady’s carriage arrives, he is accompanied by his “great friend” and mentor, whom Arkady introduces to Nikolai as Yevgeny Vassilyich Bazarov, a medical student. He waits at an inn for his son, Arkady, a recent graduate of Petersburg University, to arrive. In 1859, 44-year-old Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov is the owner of a modest Russian country estate.
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