The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-05-06
Il ljj[..i 1I|11lt 3 |[ltf !

| er will be conscious OF a vast and profound
| ignorance of most of the names mentioned.
| Tolstoy is widely known thanks to Anna
Karenina" and, it is to be feared, the Tn
natural notoriety of the Kreutzer Soma
! ta;' the names of Tourgueniev, Pouch
kline. Dostoievski. and Gogol are also
| known in some measure. But as for kar-
amziue, Joukovski. Chtchedrine. Lennon
TOW. or Kirieievski, the ordinary reader.
though he may be very well informed
about literature in general. will be as much
| IN the dark about the works of these au-
! thors as about the way in which their
names should be pronounced.
| The author labors under the double diff
/ fculty of having TO condense large
amount of information into small spac,,
and being Obliged to sum up the leading
J characteristics of various authors for the
( benefit of readers who cannot possibly re-
/ fer to the works of these writer's for fur
/ Their study. II must be said. on the whole.
! that he mas brought to the task an enthu-
I siasm and n skill which have resulted in
! some extremely good work. He has not
| ignored, but surmounted. the obstacles IN
! his way. He says in his preface:
/ The form assumed. in the lapse Of time, by
such personages Hamlet or Eugene onieguine,
| j. the two-fold outcome Of original individual
conception. and OF a subsequent and collective
/ process These, first superimpesed. become inter
| in complete fusion. This collaborative process,
] the secret and existence of which escape The no
! ice OF the great majority, constitutes great
difficulty for a writer addressing a public other
| than that in the midst OF which the types he
evokes have sprung into being. Try to forget al
! that the lapse Of years, and the action OF end
less commentaries, the ingenuity. the TENDERNESS.
| the worship of millions OF readers, have addec
| and altered In such figure that Of Gretchen.
/ You will see how much of the original remains
| and you will realize my difficulty in speaking to
my readers OF Tatiana. il by chance (and II IS a
very likely chance) the character of TAtiana be
! unknown TO them.
The first chapter. that dealing with The
Russian Race" must be full OF interest 10
every student of modern events. The au-
| thor regards his own nation as premature
! ly ripe on one side, full OF contrasts be-
tween savage and highly civilized in
stincts Even in the language he finds
these anomalous contrasts. kipling cpl
tibet of ''purring, splitting Russian fairly
expresses the idea which Europe in gen.
eral has of this curiously constructed ton
que But walszewski says of it:
A wondrous instrument it is, the most melo-
dious, certainly in the Slavonic circle, one
of the most melodious in the universe; fex-
ible. sonorous, graceful, lending itself TO
every tone and every style, simple or ele-
giant al will. subtle and refined, elegant,
picturesque. In its diversity of form and CON
struction partly due 10 its frequent diversions,
it resembles the classic languages and German
Its power of e1nbodying a whole figure in one
word marks its kinship with the Oriental tongues
The extreme variability of the tonic accent, which
lends itself to every rhythmic combination! a
markedly intuitive character, and a wonderful
Elasticity. combine TO form language urrlr@!eu,
perhaps, in its poetic qualities. But the instru-
ment was made but yesterday. There gaps in
it, some parts are borrowed; we find discords here
and there which the centuries have not ret had
time TO fill, to harmonic, to resolve. THIS tongue
finds soft and csressing words even for those
things which partske the least of such character.
Nona stands for war; voine for the warrior. But
should the warrior be called to defend his country,
threatened by an invasion, he becomes Kbrsbryi,
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. Can not hear the
hoarse whistling yell of the barbarisns?
Without attempting to pronounce this
last remarkable combination Of the alpha
bet, the average reader will be quite sure
that the barbaric yell is there. (New York:
d. Appleton & Co. s1.5O)