New-York tribune., 1900-05-06


approach the present century. Kryrov y
fabuIist 076S-1S4D. is the first who is in,s-.-
ing to Europe for his own sake. and eve,
low is not Of worldwide celebrity. Poueb.-
ON the other hand. is. or ought 70 be Ba
born in 1799. and with him the modern sc.
begins. the school that by its remar,,.'
achievements has made the reader Of the
ent day a ready and sympathetic student O, y
sian literature. Pouchkine. LermOntov G..
Toure11eniev. DostOievski and TOlstOI thAs.
the names most familiar 70 ali and tia
over which NJ WaIiszewski necessarily In
longest. In their works We find cu--
blending Of national qualities. touched often a,
Tourgueniev. with impulses derived from so,.,-
models. In them il cannot be said that Va =
the fruit Of centuries OF Development T.
would be inexact- Russian literature ds :
develop steadily enough. its evolution was n. I
matter Of normal, uninterrupted growth III.
vou can trace from beginning % end with 60
tifc precision. It is rather az II for een.,.
the genius OF Russian literature vas slur.
ing 10 be reused now and then 0y the en-.
or 4 Peter. the joyous dilejtanteism Of a q.
crime and then left 70 sink back into t-pr.
sleep. There was always something 70 per-
the spring. to dam up the stream; the cir.
the racial backwardness. the -epressive fo-r.
political institutions But at last. with the la,
OF the nineteenth century. literature cou,s r.
up its head. the nation Vas learning ignor,,
was still rampant but not 50 uniformly d.
and while the State was in the long run to J.
scourge to authors. crushing them with the o.
sorship as the people were oppressed 5y g0gs-
mental despOtisrn, the genius Of the great "
was no longer to BE- kept utterly from expart-,
Existence was hard. but Il was - be maintzr.
Then the long pent up IDEAS of the nOveists
poets burst forth, the melancholy Of the "a
found an outlet in words. ard an artisee
stinct that one would have hardly exyecs
Russia waxed strong AID fruitful Pou4s
a Russian Byron, VAS rich in emotions
poignant in their very Russian vay. as thos
the English poet. and he expressed then
verse which is full Of life and beauty TIE
elists all had something to say. as English
American readers well know There is noi-
fippant or shallow about the s-oryteIers w.
names We have cited above They are knos.
the West. of course. n translations- We =
| quote what u. WaIiszewski mas 10 say about
| language they use:
A wond-ous instrument it is the most mel
Gus. certainly in the Slavonic circle, one Of
most rnelodiJus in the universe flexible. s0z-
| Gus graceful. lending itself 70 every tone
every style. simple OF elegant at VIII, su--
| and refined, energetic, picturesque In It's
versity IF form and construction. partly dus
| its frequent diversions. Il resembles The ezs
languages and German It's power 0t ernb-
| ing a whole figure in one word marks its
| ship with the Oriental tongues "Vol
| stands for war; ~vCine' for the warrior.
| should the warrior be called 10 defend his O.
| try threatened by an invader, ne Oecz
| Khra bryf ChtChchaiOuchtchyT Can We
hear the h0arse Vh-stiinS yell OF the bar bark
Throughout his book NJ WaliszJ Sski IA
US aware Of an undercurTent OF barsarkz
the rnateria! with which he deals Russian
erature has, after all. reflected more
OF the Russian nature. and as We read Es
member that the great empire has long =
behind the rest OF the world in the art
civilization. and 5 only now emerging into p
session OF them, is only now becoming articrz
in the sphere OF letters But at every stag
the story Russia is interesting We may
peruse nine-tenths of the books examined
NJ Walszewski, but We are glad he has tras
them: it is good 10 have them describetu
interpreted for US by an historian SO cOmpes-