New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-09-12
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
vrYssflN NOvELISTS.

nuuuyS essays ou Uotot, A"'sV"'oA ""-
,ro,.to, are fair specimens of kind of composition
Co.. x,hich Frencbmen Of letters have speciai
n,;,naa They contain very little searching or
snr,ors criticism; they are not brilliant any more
than they are profound; but they have an
EASY touch aud-go manner; they say little
things with vivacity; sometimes. II must Dc
owned they give fiat things tire air OF epigrams;
.rd mon the whole they are pleasant products OF
Che literary industry which skips about the surface
of important subjects, and paws tribute OF gentcei
admiration even TO What it does not entirely nnder-
stand. Probably the light fabric OF NJ. Dupny
could not be satisfactorily reproduced in a foreign
foncue II does not appear WELL at any rate, IN the
nnidiomatic and sometimes incorrect English OF
MIR. Dole. But tbs essays include interesting
material whose value is Independent of the style
NJ. Dupuy has the art of giving clear aud enter
tanning account of the books which he undertakes
IN review ; sometimes he presents an ABSTRACT "a
the story at other times he contents h:mseh WIN
n few salient points of the work; OUT IN el'Dei
case so far as can Judge from parti' "o
onaiptance with his subjects. he sets forth wha'
il characteristic. and estimates II ipteliige"'y'
Mr. Dole is quite right referring 10 this as Ne
Dupuy's principal merit
The career of Nikola Gogol is full OF romantic
and painful interest He dieu derahseA III -
and il NAV be doubted whether he VAS perfectly
lahors were devoted to the perpetuation in literary
frr, of the fclk.tales superstitons and scenes OF
neasant-hfe in Little Russia, the materials for his
stories being collected with infinite pains aud en-
thusiasm from the lips of old persons ana irom an
extensive correspondence. The short pieces pun
Gsbed under the title Of Evenings at the Farm
in which he embodied the results OF this activity,
were remarkable for their vivid pictures OF the
people and illustrations of popular thought and
r hfph
the keenest apprehension of certain aspects of
nature was combined with very remarkable feel
inc for nature. and the most unconventional
method of expressing it GogoIs perceptions in
This phase of his work, were those of poet and
his treatment of the realities of rustic life and
solitary landscape often truly imaginative
But he was never stylist. and his rude vehemence
WIS that of an impassioned temperament winch
had never been able to bear even the drudgery OF
learning 10 spell. Gogol held professorshp for a
short time but he was not "a man OF education
Ills strength appeared especially IN the romance OF
sTaras BuIba." the hero of which, mighty Cos
sack leader of the sixteenth century after figuring
in the Tales Of the Farm. became later the subject
of an independent book. Here we have the battles
and adventures of giants told vita Homeric relish
for colossal exploit and with that poetic realism
which instead Of wasting rains upon minute detail,
fills the narrative with the bounding pu ses OF lie
Turgen,ef used To sneak with admin alton of this
work as a manifestation Of masculine genius
From the historical epic GogOl turned to coutem-
porary satire aud the best known productions OF
his last period-the farcial comedy Of The Inspec-
tor" and the NOEL of "Dead Souls ARE IN a vein
quite different from that IN which he wrought his
first successes "Tbe Inspector" is terrible ex-
posture of official venality. oppression and misrnIe
as well as an Illustration of the meanness OF human
nature and the fact that its performance was per
mitted at So Petersburg is only accounted Tor 10y
caprice on the part of the Car In Dead Souls
Gogol approached tho social question which has
absorbed the best energies OF his chief literary
contemporaries Under the system OF seridom,
the Russian landowner paid capitatlon tax upon
the serfs on his estate, the number beng Ohclaly
asceriatued from census taken at long interva s;
no reductions were made on account OF death un'll
the next enumeration, that large proprietors
were usually paying a considerable tax on " dead
souls, There was a Government bank which
loaned money on land and serfS, and the hero OF
the tale, peculatug o licia named Iehitchikof,
conceived tie idea of buying up enough OF these
dead serfs-that is their names TO stock an estBIe
In a ai,tant ptoyince so that he might pawn il to
the bank and escape before the fraud was dis-
covered. The author takes him from one country
house to another this business visiting tho differ
ent types of provincial proprietors, whose foibles
are made sport of and whose vices are scourged;
and along with the display of social customs and
individual characters there striking pictures OF
the condition of the serfs To some extent the sub
iect has freshness. for serom at least In the
law has been olished but the suberings of the
peasantry continue under slightly changed condI-
tons and the rustic small gentry are about what
they were fifty years ago. Dead Sonls. therefore,
Is still an extremely powerful and painful study OF
Russian life. The author did not finish it, lie
in fir nj the religiOus
insanity which clouded his last days. and he left
few lines in which he PRAYED that all his works
might be forgotten the products of ignoble
vanity.
I'm. Dupuy's essay on Turgenicf seems less inter
esting than the review OF Gogol, 1t is perhaps
because the subject is more familiar to u.s. At any
rate il adds little of importance to the countless
naces which have been devoted by English and
American critics to this hest known OF the contem-
porary Russian masters the man OF genius who
took M the cause of the Russian peasant at the
point where the unfortunate GogOl had dropped H.
set the pathetic portrait of the ml0k beside the
earlier artists wonderful sketch of the petty pro-
nretor and above all described the new generation
scarcely vet conscious Of its tendencies. with
fidelity which filed Russia with excitement
Bazarof in the novel Fathers and Sons" was pct
IRE of the new man." taken at the moment of his
first appearance and it was in this novel that Mill
ism was first described "a social force. IUr2enlet
was rouudy abused for this book, both by the pro
gressive party aud the conservatives lie was TN
phatically man of progress, but he would not 90
as fast as some of his unwise friends. and he had
little patience with the vagares of the SlavOphles
Who absorbed SO much young Russian enthusiasm
which might have been turned to useful purposes
For many years he was out of touch with the
people wi ose regeneration was always the aspira-
ton of his life The satircal novel. " Smoke" did
not mend matters and 1T was not until after the
appearance of Virgin Soil that the illustrous
xuthor began to be understood by his countrymen.
Probably 1t is only since his death that his rela-