A linked collection of sketches, usually known in English as A Sportsman's Sketches, drawn from the wanderings of a hunter through the Russian countryside. The narrator meets landowners, stewards, peasants and eccentrics, and listens to their stories while describing fields, forests and weather with great care. Written when serfdom was still law, the pieces present serfs as individuals with dignity, humour and sorrow, and quietly criticise the system without preaching. The book made Turgenev's name and is often credited with influencing public feeling about the peasantry.