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Russian Literature RUSSIAN LITERATURE BY P. KROPOTKIN NEW YORK McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. MCMV ^^./%^ 0^0 USHARYof 0ON3RESS Two Copies tteceiy«d APR 19 iyu5 Copyright, igoS, hy McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. Published, April, igoS, N f w PREFACE 1 1 J book originated in a series of eight lectures on THISRussian Literature during the Nineteenth Century which I deHvered In March, 1901, at the Lowell Institute, in Boston. In accepting the Invitation to deliver this course, I fully realised the difficulties which stood in my way. It is by no means an easy task to speak or to write about the literature of a country, when this literature is hardly known to the audi- ence or to the readers. Only three or four Russian writers have been properly and at all completely translated Into Eng- lish; so that very often I had to speak about a poem or a novel, when It could have been readily characterised by simply reading a passage or two from It. However, if the difficulties were great, the subject was.^ ' well worth an effort. Russian literature is a rich mine of original poetic thought. It has a freshness and youth fulness which Is not found to the same extent In older literatures. It has, moreover, a sincerity and simplicity of expression which render it all the more attractive to the mind that has grown sick of literary artificiality. And it has this distinctive feature, that It brings within the domain of Art—the poem, the novel, the drama—nearly all those questions, social and political, which In Western Europe and America, at least in our present generation, are discussed chiefly in the political writings of the day, but seldom in literature. In no other country does literature occupy so influential a position as It does in Russia. Nowhere else does it exercise so profound and so direct an influence upon the intellectual development of the younger generation. There are novels of Turgueneff, and even of the less-known writers, which have — vl PREFACE been real stepping stones in the development of Russian youth within the last fifty years. The reason why literature exercises such an influence In Russia is self-evident. There is no open political life, and with the exception of a few years at the time of the abolition of serfdom, the Russian people have never been called upon to take an active part In the framing of their country's institu- tions. The consequence has been that the best minds of the coun- try have chosen the poem, the novel, the satire, or liter- ary criticism as the medium for expressing their aspirations, their conceptions of national life, or their ideals. It Is not to blue-books, or to newspaper leaders, but to Its works of Art that one must go in Russia in order to understand the politi- cal, economical, and social Ideals of the country—the aspira- tions of the history-making portions of Russian society. As it would have been impossible to exhaust so wide a subject as Russian Literature within the limits of this book, 1 have concentrated my chief attention upon the modern literature. The early writers, down to Pushkin and Gogol the founders of the modern literature—are dealt with In a short Introductory sketch. The most representative writers In poetry, the novel, the drama, political literature, and art criticism, are considered next, and round them I have grouped the less prominent writers, of whom the most Important are mentioned In short notes. I am fully aware that every one of the latter presents something Individual and well worth knowing; and that some of the less-known authors have even succeeded occasionally In better representing a given current of thought than their more famous colleagues ; but in a book which Is Intended to give only a broad, general idea of the subject, the plan I have pursued was necessary. Literary criticism has always been well represented In Russia, and the views taken In this book must needs bear traces of the work of our great critics—Byelinskly, Tcherny- shevskiy, Dobroluboff, and Pisareff, and their modern fol- lowers, Mikhallovsky, Arsenieff, Skabltchevsky, Vengueroff, and others. For biographical data concerning contemporary writers I am Indebted to the excellent work on modern Russian literature by the last named author, and to the PREFACE vii eighty volumes of the admirable Russian Encyclopadic Dic- tionary. I take this opportunity to express my hearty thanks to my old friend, Mr. Richard Heath, who was kind enough to read over all this book, both in manuscript and in proof. Bromley, Kent, January, 1 905. ——— — — — — — CONTENTS Preface Chapter I : Introduction i The Russian Language—Early folk literature: Folklore Songs—Sagas Lay of Igors Raid—Annals—Mongolian Invasion; its consequences—Correspondence between John IV. and Kurbskiy—Religious splitting—Avvakum's Me- moirs—The eighteenth century—Peter I. and his con- temporaries : Tretiakovskiy—Lomonosoff—Sumarokoff The times of Catherine II: Derzhavin—Von Wizin—The Freemasons: Novikoff—Radischeif—Early nineteenth cen- tury: Karamzin and Zhukovskiy—^The Decembrists Ryleeff. Chapter II: Pushkin; Lermontoff . -39 Pushkin—Beauty of form—Pushkin and Schiller—His youth; his exile; his later career and death—Fairy — " tales: Ruslan and Ludmila—His lyrics " Byronism Drama—Evgheniy Onyeghin Lermontoff—Pushkin or Lermontoff? His life—^The Caucasus—Poetry of nature Influence of Shelley The Demon—Mtsyri—Love of Free- dom—Pushkin and Lermontoif as prose-writers—Other poets and novelists of the same epoch. Chapter III: Gogol 67 Little Russia Nights on a Farm near Dikanka and Mir- gorod—Village life and humour How Ivan Ivanovitch quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforytch—Historical novel: Taras Bulba—The Cloak—Drama: The Inspector-General— Its influence Dead Souls: Main types—Realism in the Russian novel. Chapter IV: Turgueneff; Tolstoy ... 88 Turgueneff—The Character of his art A Sportsman's Note-book—Pessimism in his early novels—His series of novels representing the leading types of Society: Rudin — —— — —— — —— CONTENTS Lavretskiy—Helen and Insaroff—Bazaroff—Why Fathers and Sons was misunderstood Hamlet and Don Quixote— Virgin Soil—Movement towards the people—Tolstoy Childhood and Boyhood—During and after the Crimean War Youth: in search of an ideal—Small stories The Cossacks—Educational work War and Peace—Anna Karenina—Religious crisis—His interpretation of the Chris- tian teaching—Main points of Christian ethics—Latest works of art Kreutzer Sonata—Resurrection, Chapter V: Gontcharoff; Dostoyevskiy; Nek- rAsoff 151 Gontcharoff Oblomoff—^The Russian malady of Oblo- moffdom—Is it exclusively Russian? The Precipice—Dos- toyevskiy—His first novel—General character of his work ^Memoirs from a Dead House—Down-trodden and Offended—Crime and Punishment—The Brothers Kara- mazoff—NekrasofiF—Discussions about his talent—His love of the people—Apotheosis of Woman—Other prose- writers of the same epoch—Serghei Aksakof?—Dal—Ivan PanaefE—Hvoschinskaya (V. Krestovskiy-pseudonyme) Poets of the same epoch—KoltsofE—Nikitin—Plescheeff The admirers of pure art: TutchefE; A. Maykoff; Scherbina; A. Fet—^A. K. Tolstoy—^The Translators. Chapter VI: The Drama 191 Its origin—^The Tsars Alexel and Peter I.—Sumarokof! Pseudo-classical tragedies: Knyazhnin; OzerofiE—First comedies—^The first years of the nineteenth century—Gri- boyedoflF—^The Moscow stage in the fifties—Ostrovskiy: his first dramas The Thunderstorm—Ostrovskiy 's later dramas—Historical dramas: A. K. Tolstoy—Other dra- matic writers. Chapter VII : Folk-Novelists . .221 Their position in Russian literature—The early folk- novelists—Grigirovitch—Marko Vovtchok—Danilevskiy Intermediate period: Kokoreff; Pisemskiy; Potyekhin Ethnographical researches—^The realistic school: Pomya- lovskiy—RyeshetnikofE—Levitoff—Gleb Uspenskiy—Zlato- vratskiy and other folk-novelists : Naumoff—Zasodimskiy SalofE—Nefedoff—Modern realism: Maxim Gorkiy. — — — CONTENTS Chapter VIII: Political Literature; Satire; Art-Criticism; Contemporary Novelists . 263 Political Literature—Difficulties of censorship—The circles: Westerners and Slavophiles—Political literature abroad : Herzen—Ogaryoff—Bakunin—Lavroff—Stepniak —The Contemporary and Tchernyshevskiy Satire: Sche- drin (Saltykoff) Art-Criticism—Its importance in Rus- sia—Byelinskiy—Dobroluboff —Pisareff — Mihailovskiy Tolstoy's What is Artf Contemporary Novelists: Oertel—Korolenko—Present drift of literature—Merez- hovskiy—Boborykin—Potapenko—^Tchehoff. Bibliographical Notes ...... 319 Index 321 i PART I Introduction: The Russian Language ft — — CHAPTER I _ THE Russian Language—Early folk literature: Folk-lore Songs—Sagas Lay of Igors Raid—Annals—^The Mongol Invasion; its consequences—Correspondence between John IV. and Kurbiskiy—Split in the Church—Awakum's Memoirs— The eighteenth century: Peter I. and his contemporaries—Tre- tiakovsky—Lomonosoff—Sumarokoff—The times of Catherine II.—Derzhavin—Von Wizin—^The Freemasons: Novikoff; Radischeff—Early nineteenth century: Karamzin and Zhukov- skiy—The Decembrists—Ryleeif. ^NE of the last messages which Turgueneff addressed to Russian writers from his death-bed was to Implore them to keep In Its purity " that pre- oInheritance of ours the Russian language." cious — He who knew In perfection most of the languages spoken In Western Europe had the highest opinion of Russian as an Instrument for the expression of all possible shades of thought and feeling, and he had shown In his writings what depth and force of expression, and what melodiousness of prose, could be obtained In his native tongue. In his high appreciation of Russian, Turgueneff—as will often be seen In these pages—was perfectly right. The richness of the Russian language In words Is astounding: many a word which stands alone for the expression of a given idea In the languages of Western Europe has In Russian three or four equivalents for the rendering of the various shades of the same Idea. It Is especially rich for rendering various shades of human feeling—tenderness and love, sadness and merriment—as also various degrees of the same action. Its plIablHty for translation Is such that In no other language do we find an equal number of most beautiful, correct, and truly poetical renderings of foreign authors.
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