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IN
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
BY
ERNEST DUPUY
TRANSLATED BY
NATHAN HASKELL DOLE
THE PROSE WRITERS
Nikolaï Vasilyévitch Gogol, Ivan Sergéyevitch Turgenief,
Count Lyof Nikolayevitch Tolstoï
WITH APPENDIX
NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
13 Astor Place
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Copyright, 1886,
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED
BY RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY,
BOSTON.
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| PAGE | |
|---|---|
| GOGOL | 5 |
| TURGÉNIEF | 117 |
| TOLSTOÏ | 215 |
| APPENDIX | 339 |
| INDEX | 441 |
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It may be said, that the emancipation of literaturein Russia dates back scarcely fifty years.All the Russian writers, whether of poetry orprose, with the exception possibly of one or twosatirists, were little more than imitators. Someof the most valued authors during the first halfof this century, Zhukovsky for example, owedall their fame to translations. Pushkin himself,who, on the recommendation of Merimée, hasfor some time been admired in France, did notventure far from the Byronic manner. He died,to be sure, just at the moment when he hadfound his path. He suspected the profit thatcould be made from national sources; he hada presentiment that a truly Russian literaturewas about to burst into bloom; he aided in itsproduction. His greatest originality lies in hishaving predicted, preached, perhaps preparedor inspired Gogol.
Nikolaï Gogol[1] was born in 1810, in a villageof the government of Poltava. His father,a small proprietor with some education, obtainedfor him a scholarship in the college of Niézhin.Fortunately the young Gogol was able to holdhis own in rebellion against the direction of hisinstructors, and neither the dead nor the livinglanguages brought him any gain. He thusfailed of becoming a commonplace man of letters,and consequently had less trouble in theend with discovering his original genius.
In his father’s house, on the other hand, he[Pg 6]received a priceless education,