Anna Sergeevna is a wealthy widow who entertains nihilist friends at her estate (nihilist is a movement which rejected all authorities). Bazarov (one of the main characters) declares his love for her, but she is unable to reciprocate, both out of fear for the emotional chaos it could bring and an inability to recognize her own sentiments as love itself. Bazarov's love is a challenge to his nihilist ideal of rejection of all established order.
And this is why I like Anna Sergeevna:
"Anna Sergeena was a rather strange creature. Having no prejudices of any kind, having no strong conviction even, she never gave way or went out of her way for anything. She had seen many things very clearly; she had been interested in many things, but nothing had completely satisfied her; indeed, she hardly desired complete satisfaction." pg. 82
"Dreams sometimes danced in rainbow colours before her eyes even, but she breathed more freely when they died away, and did not regret them. Her imagination indeed overstepped the limits of what is reckoned permissible by conventional morality; but even then the blood flowed as quietly as ever in her fascinatingly graceful, tranquil body." pg. 82
"...He had struck Madame Odintsov's imagination; he interested her, she thought a great deal about him. In his absence, she was not bored, she was not impatient for his coming, but she always grew more lively on his appearance; she liked to be left alone with him, and she liked talking to him, even when he irritated her or offended her taste, her refined habits." pg. 86
"You want to fall in love," Bazarov interrupted her, "and you can't love, that's where your unhappiness lies."
Madame Odintsov began to examine he sleeve of her lace.
"Is it true I can't love?" she said.
"I should say not! Only I was wrong in calling that an unhappiness. On the contrary, any one's more to be pitied when such a mischance befalls him."
"Mischance, what?"
"Falling in love." pg. 91
"So you have noticed reticence...as you expressed it...constraint?"
"Yes."
Basarov got up and went to the window. "And would you like to know the reason of this reticence? Would you like to know what is passing within me?"
"Yes," repeated Madame Odinstov, with a sort of dread she did not at the time understand.
"And you won't be angry?"
"No."
"No?" Bazarov was standing with his back to her. "Let me tell you then that I love you like a fool, like a madman...There, you've forced it out of me." pg. 96
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longest post ever. but do you see why i love her?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
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