Chapter I: Preface

The chapters in this book on Tolstoy and Tourgeniev, and those on Chekov and Gogol have appeared before. That on Tolstoy and Tourgeniev in _The Quarterly Review_; those on Chekov and Gogol in _The New Quarterly_; my thanks are due to the Editors and Proprietors concerned for their kindness in allowing me to reprint these chapters here.

The chapter on Russian Characteristics appeared in _St. George’s Magazine_; the rest of the book is new. In writing it I consulted, besides many books and articles in the Russian language, the following:

The Works of Turgeniev. Translated by Constance Garnett. Fifteen vols. London: Heinemann, 1906.

The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy. Translated and edited by Leo Wiener. Twenty-four vols. London: Dent, 1904-5.

Le Roman Russe. By the Vicomte E. M. de Vogüé. Paris: Plon, 1897.

Tolstoy as Man and Artist: with an Essay on Dostoievski. By Dimitri Merejkowski. London: Constable, 1902.[1]

Ivan Turgeniev: la Vie et l’Œuvre. By Émile Haumant. Paris: Armand Colin, 1906.

The Life of Tolstoy. First Fifty Years. By Aylmer Maude. London: Constable, 1908.

A Literary History of Russia. By Prof. A. Brückner. Edited by Ellis H. Minns. Translated by H. Havelock. London and Leipsic: Fisher Unwin, 1908.

Realities and Ideals of Russian Literature. By Prince Kropotkin.

Russian Poetry and Progress. By Mrs. Newmarch. John Lane.

By far the best estimate of Tolstoy’s work I have come across in England in the last few years was a brilliant article published in the Literary Supplement of the _Times_, I think in 1907, which, it is to be hoped, will be republished.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This is an abridgment of a larger book by the author.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. RUSSIAN CHARACTERISTICS 1

II. REALISM OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE 17

III. GOGOL AND THE CHEERFULNESS OF THE
RUSSIAN PEOPLE 39

IV. TOLSTOY AND TOURGENIEV 77

V. THE PLACE OF TOURGENIEV 116

VI. DOSTOIEVSKY 125

VII. PLAYS OF ANTON TCHEKOV 263