Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. He was born into a family of Russian land-owners in Oryol, Russia, on November 9, 1818. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), was a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons (1862) is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction.Turgenev never married, but he had some affairs with his family's serfs, one of which resulted in the birth of his illegitimate daughter, Paulinette. He was tall and broad-shouldered, but was timid, restrained, and soft-spoken.