New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-06-20
A VITAL QUESTION.
. r.uoI-S RIFT CRJJDE NOVEL.

~ pnss,sn hy NATHAN HASKELL DOLE and g.
SKIDEIsKY. svo. PIP. 462. Ihomas i''io"0" W.
uuITs TO Pc DONEa A Romance: BY n: g.
TrurRNYCHl wsKY. Translated ny BhNJAn,S " ~
TucKnR. svo PIP. 32s. Boston: benjamin H.
Tucker.
We have here two TRANSACTIONS Of book when
.oue wears AGO caused good deal of sensation IN
prssia The first version is from the original Ipe
sscopd "a from a French rendering. Whoever
.hsrefore wishes to obtain the closest translation
of the authors thought must procure tne eu,''o"
done into English by Messrs. Dole ana ShiueisH'
The story is a strange one Inc au'nor' i'"o
nrisbeysky or Tchernychewski, is az present. anu
has been for many years n siberian eAie' uii'on ~
tbe ricors of his punishment INTO INSANITY ino
.o,.rd conscience which makes all Russian Cars
tyrants saw in this story revolutionary ih'''"
,'ont II had been permitted to appear as serial
:; p,ssan magazine. but when it was finished
.ho Government became afraid Of it. and IL was
srrnressed. No doubt many people will read 1t. il
orlv IN find out what the Russian Government
considers revolutionary and dangerous IN this
form of literature.
That il should have made sensation IN Russia
only shows how crude state public opinion Is III
there. The book has dual motive IL aims al
setting forth the advantages OF cooperative iapo'
associated on plan not unlike Fourier s phaian
stery system in its ultimate developments anu u
seeks To substitute for the present form OF marrleu
life what the author thinks higher ana hope'
one An enthusiasm for reform inspires the WORK.
INT il ia evident that the writer was greatly ha"
nered by m obscure and involved style growing
of course out of a confused and entangled way OIL
rh,nkjnc. In the elucidation of the sewing unions
he is toerably clear and satisfactory, Dut Dis
philosophy is generally muddy, and his more ainbl'
tious soarlngs are too plainly the effect of in
sufficient knowledge upon an excitable primitive
temperament.
Tho storv of the eniranchisement OF Niera
paxlovna is interesting though 1t is not easy to
wade through the authors cumbrous pleasantly
and involved and labored sentences The view OF
Tho married life of Vera and Lopukhon is
crotcbety and disagreeable. The essence OF the
new and higher life to be the maintenance OF
a fricid ceremonialism between husband ard wlie.
while the equality of the latter is recognized TO the
extreme extent of requiring the husband TO
step down and out" when he discovers that MS
spouse has fallen in love with another man.
Lcpukhoff makes this discovery and thereupoh
arronpes make-believe suicide, disappearing and
leaving his wife whom he really loves) to marry
his rival. who is his most intimate friend. The
discussions which take place between Vera and
her two husbands are indeed very far out OF the
ordinary course. IL may be safely asserted that
nobody in real life ever talked such dreary rubbish
or snch fearful quantities of it. But the supple
truth is that Tcnernushevsky is the Russian tyne
of the interpretive novelist and 1T viii have to be
admitted that he has gone beyond his school IN any
other country: even yond that most persevering
branch which iourishes in the United States.
The awful beings who float ghostlike through
Apglo-Saxon fiction of the kind referred to. and
who pass their melancholy lives IN stern SELL
examination, are tiresome enough Not less so is
the tyne of modern novel IN which the author Ills
and in, vhic oh raj
parade of half-studes in morbid psychology is
made TO pass with the superficial reader tor mar
yellous insight into human nature But our
Russian friend with the obectionaby unpTonOurce-
able Name exceeds these familiar examples in every
way. He does not pretend to derive his psychology
from human nature it is HIS ambition Is
yaticnatNry. and he creates his personages af'er
model which has not yet been evolved In snort
he introduces his readers to the man and woman OF
the Future and remarkable membe OF an I'M
possible society they One of his translatorS
protests against charge that he favors Tree love
This accusation IS integible for the author is not
tleyer at making his meaning clear but we do not
think il is ustabe for the kind OF love he affects
strikes MS rs Icing very much less free than any
known to the world thus far.
Still we can understand how easily his views OF
marriage ight be misconceived, and certainly the
GENERALIZATION Of those views IN the practice OF
Viera Pavlovnas first m6ndge is not aurlng to such
as have not been nOurished upon the enthusiasts
which form the principal sustenance OF Young
Russia OF course much. in point OF obscurlty,
must be pardOned n writer who has TO wrap up all
his deepest meanings in order tc elude the censor
but when this is taken fully into account the TACT
remains that works so handicapped cannot be put
in frank competition with the literature of freedom
Precisely what it is which constitutes the Vital
context Perhaps it is the question OF the marriage
relation. Perhaps 1T is the question of cooperative
labor If it is the first the question cannot be said
TO have been answered. for clearly Tchernulshevsky
cannot have meant to intimate that sucide real or
pretended is the proper means OF solving cases OF
incompatibility. No doubt he has striven to make
his meaning plain by showing the working OF his
peoples mental machinery; but we cannot recog-
pize in their thoughts or arguments any clear rela
ton to sane and sober ratocination. and therefore
the light they throw upon the text is but dim. Al
tbe end of the volume there are, indeed two OF
three chapters 30 utterly ncoherent that one might
almost suspect the author of having lost his b lad
before finishing his work, if 1t were not easier to
aconit him by falling foul of his translators
OF his characters the two most conspicuous
(amonc the mem are alike faulty. though they are
intended 10 show what may be attained by ideally
strong and good people Lopukhot is weak,
fantastic fellow, who does his best to spoil Viera
completely Kirsanoh, his dearest friend. who
supplants him. is in many respects exceedingly
disagreeable: a kind of phi!anthropc prlg. OF
loose moral ideas As TO Viera. her conduct in
marrying Krsanot week after Lopukhoh's
suicide little palIated by the far-fetched and
preposterOus arguments made by Rakbmetoh. that
we think no healthy minded man or woman can
after that example of her philosophy retain the
smallest respect or liking for her. In her case the
interpretive method only us TO suspect that
the author really did not know what love H..
There is not a particle of tenderness in the book
from beginning TO end. Love 10 doubt. is spoken
OF that is to say the word is used frequently But
nothing in the rsmotest degree resembling II Is
described, and. moreover, all the "vlsions" Of
future social reform and progress are as cold ana
Unconditional as possible. Never has the introspect-
i've method in novel writing been pushed so far as
natural novel been published. OF course the
q IL Ind # nndcr IL