New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-20
RUSSIAN LITERATURE.

IDEALS AID REALITIES L, New edition.
E sls N vi III 81 New YORK: Alfred a Sn0pf'
NY CHILDHOOD. by Maxim Cory; VIA WI. ,sn-
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oRIoMov. BY Ivan Genehsro, From iee n TSo
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THE DEATH OF IVAN HIITCH' ND ALE v,h 5r
STORIES By Count Leo Tolsiey ,s,,o nm
Constance Garnett. Popular Edition' i-'"'' W.
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cHTIKAsH. AND OTHER STORIES. From The
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YORK. Alfred A. knop'. o.r-.
rnE LITTLE ANGEL. AND OTHER STORIES 3
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p5s New York Alfred A. Knopi
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RUSSIAN SILHOUETTE :,.s MGre i From the Rus
Ian hy Msrisn Fell. l2no. pp. vi. sls' Charies
scribner's Sons
More than twenty years have passed
since "the Russians brief expires
aiop is in itself q tribute-began to
exert their influence upon the literary
art of the West. The French discov-
ered them first; It is to Melchior de
yogue's "The Russian Novel and 20
the early French translators' rather
than to Kropotkin's history OF husslaL'
literature, now republlshed oy VT
Knopf under it's original and lar more
appropriate title, that America owes us
srst deener knowledge Of these mas
tar. and the not altogether judicious
;nit;ai enthusiasm aroused by their dis
coyerv. For. behold, the first champions
Of Russian realism among us-Mr'
Howells at their head-practised 1t &C,
cordin0 to a perhaps hardly realized
formula; GAIL the Russian realism tha'
10 AZ 10 print under the restrictions
laid down by the Anglo-American inter-
arv tradition" When our busy novel
ists OF the school saw the old, familiar
danger signal ahead-there have been,
there are no such signals IN Russian
fction-they sheered off in frightened
haste. Thin ice was not for them. Ac'
cording to the tradition, there was no
such thing in life; they did not dare
nor care. TO plunge below the surface
They would not even look into the
denths. And so they did their best
with the unessential, with Photographic
renderings Of trivialities, minute analy'
sea of perfectly permissible and avow-
able everyday moods, Impulses, expe,
riences and reflections. What looked
like great art afar off in that mys-
FERROUS. chaotic country became DOWN
right disreputable in our own weli-or-
dered lives. ,o,.
Az matter Of fact, we must LOOK
for the real first impulse toward I,
greater freedom in our 1ctlon-aho
heaven knows we have great deal OF
IL nowadavs,- toward the Frenchmen.
toward Flaubert and Maupassant and
Zola. in the nineties Of the last cen
,urv' The Russian influence, was lar
less direct; il reached US in far more
roundabout way. To-day 1t is percepti-
bic in almost every new novel that the
Young Englishmen send US, with TINS
naradoxicai result, however, that their
heroes and heroines are all too often
Slavs masouerading as English men and
women. rather than Anglo-Saxons. This
sformation OF influences into
models to be slavishly copied is seen az
its fullest development in an Ameri-
can novel, recently published, George
Towards Gods Man.
II was. if we mistake not, kropotkin
who first told us that foreigners can
not understand Russian literature un.
less they know Russia well, and that
only n Russian can understand 1t thor
oughly. Certain il is that the remark
has been made over and over again
since by Russians enlightening Amerl'
can enthusiasts and attempting to eX'
plain the inadequacy OF our cary
translations (mostly ulI the Frencn)
which often got entangled beyond com
prehension in so minor matter as tne
infinite wealth of endearlng diminu'
tives lavished by the Russian IN daily
intercourse upon relatives, friends ano
strangers. And, indeed, one can say OF
Russian fiction what can be said OF the
fiction of no other country IN such tull
measure: that every one Of its products
is Russian, whether it be the INTERIM
nable chaos of one OF Dostolevsky
novels. or a short story by Tchekov. In
deed. one wonders If the great Rus
slams formlessness is not as much part
of the national. the racial quality of
his work as are its psychology, its in
finite sympathy with suffering and sin'
its faith in redemption.
However. since the days when every
body was reading "Anna karenlna" we
have progressed steadily toward a pet
ter understanding of Russian notion,
thanks to the pioneers who admired but
did not dare to emulate in the right
direction, thanks TO the experiments OF
the holder spirits that followed, but
mos. If all. perhaps, 70 more recent