Rudin was the first of Ivan Turgenev's novels, but already the topic of the superfluous man and his inability to act, which became a major theme of Turgenev's literary work, was explored. Similarly to Turgenev's other novels, the main conflict in Rudin was centred on a love story of the main character and a young, but intellectual and self-conscious woman who is contrasted with the main hero.Indeed, this type of female character became known in literary criticism as the "Turgenev maid."