LITKRATrRK, CONTINENTAL, IN 1896. 



4 1 ', 



Krag's " Homesickness " and Mi.-< Alvilde Pryd/'s 

 "Hellis" (eolleriinn nf stories), a< well as the 

 strain;-'' "A Divani'-r's I!i">k." by Mons Lie. who is 



Ssychoh laical in " The Confession of a Criminal." 

 tilers in the list of fiction aiv Bernt Lie's " Nye 

 Kraefter " : Amalie Skrani's " I'aa Sunkt .Jorgen " 

 (a vivid picture of life in lunatic- asylums); her son 

 Jacob Worm Mailer's well-written ami spirited 

 stories, "Stormen" and "Four Days": Gabriel 

 Finne's " Emmanuel Daah" : Miss Nanna Th: 

 novelette " A Peasant House"; (). Hansson's " Kn 

 Uppfostrare " : Sven Nils-en's " The Dwarfs " : Mrs. 

 Anna Mnneh's " Koses and Thistles" : and K. Jan- 

 son'> " -Ku'ie-kal ^ Skilsmi>se" and " De Frecl- 

 Ki>e." Peasant life finds masterly delineators in 

 Jens Tvedt. Hans Aanrud. Kasinus Loeland. and is 

 depicted also by Sylfest Muldal.Hans Seland. Vetle 

 Vislie. and Per Sivle. One may name also Peter 

 Egge (sketches of middle-class life in small towns). 

 Jacob Hilditch (" Vandrcliv"). Constantinus Fl"od 

 ("Sommerliv i Fjorden "). Jacob Bull, Oscar 

 Aagaard. Johan Bojer, Thoralv Klavemes. Ole Bang, 

 Dikken Zwilgmeyer. and Rosenkrantz Johnsen. 

 The artist Otto Sinding displays both feeling and 

 humor in his " Day of Judgment '' (poetry). The 

 important literary event of the year was the publi- 

 cation of the second part of Bjornson's powerful 

 and effective " Over Aevne " (Part I published 1883), 

 dealing with the labor problem, and characterized 

 as " the psychology of anarchism/' Other plays 

 are Knut Hamsun's wildly paradoxical "Livets 

 Spil " : Hans Aanrud's witty " The Stork '' : Gabriel 

 Finne's drama " Konny " ; and two short, refined 

 plays by Vilhelm Krag. 



Poland. In history and description we note 0. 

 Balzer's " Genealogy of the Piasti " (the first royal 

 dynasty of Poland): a controversial and historical 

 account of ' The Year 1863 in Poland,'' by K. Bar- 

 toszewicz; Count K. Lanckoronski's "The Cities 

 of Pisidia and Pamphylia " : Count P. Potocki's 

 " Sketches of a Sportsman in the Far East '' (India 

 and Ceylon): and A. Reman's "The Carpathians." 

 P. Chmielowski's " Outlines of the History of the 

 most Recent Polish Literature " : a monograph on 

 the old Polish pi-t M. Rej. by S. Windakiewicz : a 

 comprehensive " Study of Hamlet," by the late W. 

 Matlakowski : and " Literary Essays." by S. Krzem- 

 ienski, a talented and conscientious critic, form 

 noteworthy contributions to literary history. In his 

 brilliant "'Quo Vadisf" H. Sienkiewicz returns to 

 historical romance, taking his subject from the 

 persecutions of the Christians at Rome, and com- 

 bining plastic descriptions with psychological truth. 

 Mine. Urzeszko's remarkable talent seems to be 

 still developing, to judge by " An Australian " and 

 " Melancholy Beings." Other additions to prose 

 fiction are: "Sewer's Biedronie " ia story of peasant 

 life) : K. Junosza's novelettes " The Notary's Villa." 

 "With the Hero." and "Country Photographs" 

 (describing so well the life among the minor nobility 

 and in the small towns) : A. Krechowiecki's his- 

 torical novelette " The Daughter of Master Tarlo " ; 

 " On the Steppes" (historical), by F. Rawita. who in 

 "Dreams" attacks pedantry among women: K. 

 Glinski's "The Founders of Fortune" and ''The 

 Tarantula" (both showing want of observation); 

 "She is alone" (characterized by freshness of ob- 

 servation), by T. T. Jez : M. Ga'walewicz's " Ivy : 

 The Story of a Marriage": Madame Marrenne's 

 somber and pessimistic " Against the Stream " : "On 

 the Heights " and " The Rose of Jericho." by Mile. 

 Rodziewicz. who is not always true to nature; 

 Hajota's " Like a Shadow" (describing social con- 

 ditions on the island of Fernando Po) : the works 

 of the talented A. Dygasinski and of promising be- 

 ginners, such as .T. Lada ("Pastels"). S. Zeromski 

 (" Tales "), W. Berent, and M. Zych. New poetry has 



been published by Mine. M. Konojmicka (' pessimis- 

 tic "). W. Gomulicki (" an optimist "). and A. Asnyk, 

 the three leading modern Js<> by \<, 



and rising writers, such as A. Lange. W. Rapacki, 

 Jr.. and J. Zulawski (who made a promising di'biif). 

 In dramatic literature there has been much activity. 

 E. Lubowski's " The Prince " (introducing th< 

 of a sympathetic ne'er-do-well who reforms); '/.. 

 Sarnecki's fairy play " The Mountain of Gia : Z. 

 Kr/ywdzic's "Reawakened Love": A. K<.nar'-> 

 " The Butterflies " ; K. Zalew^ki's - T .'.ow- 



ing excellent character studies) ; Sewer's peasant 

 play " Marcin Luba " ; and the comedies "The 

 Woman's Question," by M. Balucki. " Hedwig the 

 Widow." by R. Ruszkowski. and " The Wolf and the 

 Lamb," by Jordan, have all attained success on the 

 stage. K. Glinski's historical drama " King Bole- 

 slav the Bold." W. Lebinski's " Ambitious." and W. 

 Rabski's " The Vanquished " are also noted. 



Russia. There is not much to be said of the 

 historical literature of the year. Vol. I of the 

 " Russian Biographical Dictionary." the fine monu- 

 mental undertaking of the Imperial Historical So- 

 ciety, has appeared. Russian political and jurid- 

 ical history are contributed to in the second and 

 materially altered edition of V. Stchegloff' s " The 

 Council of State during the Reign of the Emperor 

 Alexander I." the late Dityatin's essays on the 

 history of Russian law. and Sergueevitch's ''Rus- 

 sian Juridical Antiquities" (Vol. II): while "The 

 Correspondence of Ivan Aksakoff" (Vol. IV) and 

 the " Notes " of Olga Smirnova, who had a brilliant 

 salon, are interesting as illustrating the history of 

 Russian social movements. Derioujinski writes of 

 " The Habeas Corpus Act and its Suspension by 

 English Law " : Kamenski describes " Six Years o'f 

 Try Administration in England (1887-'88 1892- 

 'i"i:!)" : A. P. Tverskoy. a Russo-American, author of 

 "Sketches from the United States of North Amer- 

 ica." has been enthusiastically called " the Russian 

 Bryce." The economic discussions between the 

 "Populists" and the "Marxites" appear to have 

 shifted from theory to politics and actuality. Ka- 

 reev, keeping within the domain of pure theo- 

 ry, met little sympathy with his indictment of 

 " economic materialism " in " Old and New Studies 

 of Economic Materialism." while the success of the 

 day was won by Volguin (pseudonym), who fol- 

 lowed up the criticism on Mikhailovski and Kareev 

 in Beltov's " Monistic View of History '' with an at- 

 tack on the practical programme of the Populists 

 formulated in the numerous works of Vorontzov. 

 The latter's latest book is " The Artel System as 

 the Basis of Russian Society." artels being the pe- 

 culiar co-operative collectivist labor organizations 

 in this country. We are told that the remnant of 

 the Populist party has deserted the "Russian Treas- 

 ury " and founded a journal of its own, the " New 

 World." However much opinions may differ re- 

 garding the Populist idea that the village commune 

 and the home industries may form the basis of a 

 new collectivism, yet the moderate element of so- 

 ciety shows solicitude for the future of the village 

 commune. Thus the Liberal Th. Turner advocates 

 state protection in his " The State and Land Ten- 

 ure : Vol. I : Peasant Proprietorship." while the 

 Conservative K. Golovin is indefinite in "Peasant 

 and no Progress or Progress but no Peasant.'' 

 Alexis Yesselovski's "The Influence of Western 

 Europe on Modern Russian Literature" has been 

 entirely revised : Vol. II of " The Handsel." the pub- 

 lication of the Moscow Society of the Lovers of Rus- 

 sian Literature, contains very interesting historical 

 and literary material : and an important collection 

 of "Great Russian Popular Songs" is well edited 

 by Sobolevski. 



In belles-lettres there is no production of real 



