466 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1872. 



think, succeeded in detecting some mistakes 

 made by the official editor with regard to the 

 amours of the poet, his exile, the shipwreck, 

 etc. About the poem itgelf he tells us nothing 

 new. 



In science there is no novelty. M. Aguiar 

 and M. Bocage, having learned by experience 

 that the public do not care for labors and dis- 

 coveries in chemistry or in natural history, 

 send their communications to the scientific 

 societies of England and Germany, where they 

 are better known than in Portugal. 



The Patriarch of Lisbon (Cardinal Saraiva) 

 left behind him tolerably numerous manuscripts 

 on subjects connected with political and eccle- 

 siastical history, antiquities, etc. The first vol- 

 ume of his works has just appeared : seven vol- 

 umes are promised. 



RUSSIA. Though the bitter disputes about 

 trifles continue to occupy the newspapers and 

 to disfigure the political literature of the day, 

 there is a better tendency observable in pure 

 literature. One fault is common to Russian 

 literature of every class an execrable style. 

 Hardly three authors in Russia are capable of 

 writing clearly, concisely, vigorously, and for- 

 cibly. 



In considering the Russian literature of the 

 past year, the first place belongs by every 

 right to Russia's greatest writer, Tourgugnief. 

 His novel, "Spring Floods," which was pub- 

 lished early in the year, is, in many respects, 

 one of his best works, and by its freshness, 

 delicacy, and vigor, takes us baek to his earlier 

 tales. Another, and still more characteristic, 

 reminiscence of his earlier style is " The End 

 of Tchertopkhanof," the sequel to one of the 

 most striking episodes i& the " Memoirs of a 

 Sportsman," which was promised to the world 

 twenty-five years ago, but has only now been 

 published. It is a most touching sketch of a 

 man who, when all he loved have either died 

 or deserted him, concentrates all his affections 

 on a horse. His horse is stolen, but he spares 

 no trouble nor money in the pursuit, and 

 finally, as he supposes, recovers him. But, lit- 

 tle by little, suspicions begin to come to him 

 that the horse is not the same, and, when he 

 is finally convinced of it, he kills him for the 

 crime of resembling too closely the horse he 

 so much loved, and soon dies himself from a 

 broken heart. Next on the list comes " A 

 Neglected Question," by B. M. Markevitch, a 

 little-known writer, which, by its tenderness 

 and originality, makes a great contrast to the 

 rest of the works of fiction. Another new 

 writer, Karazin, in his novel, " On the Distant 

 Frontiers of Russia," describes, in a spirited 

 and picturesque manner, the life of the Rus- 

 sian colonists in Toorkestan, an entirely new 

 field for even a Russian novelist. "Alexis 

 Slobodin," by P. Alminsky, apparently an ex- 

 perienced writer, under a fictitious name, is, 

 in some respects, a remarkable book; and 

 "Dilettanti," by Roemer, "The Cathedral 

 Clergy," by Leskof-Stebnitsky, and Melnikof s 



sketches of life among the Dissenters, are 

 more or less praiseworthy attempts in the 

 new field on which Russian fiction has ou- 

 tered. 



Almost the only poetical book of the year 

 is the collected edition of the poems of Ry- 

 16ief, a third-rate poet of the Pushkin epoch, 

 which have been kept out of their proper 

 place in Russian literature by the part the 

 writer took in the revolt at the accession of 

 the Emperor Nicholas. 



" The Predecessors of Shakespeare," by N. 

 Storozhenko, is a careful and valuable study 

 of the earlier English dramatists, with the 

 purpose of making clear the development and 

 culmination of the English drama. The pres- 

 ent volume is devoted to Heywood, Lilly, and 

 Marlowe. Two new publications of the old 

 Russian Lives of the Saints, with variations 

 and comments, are valuable both for literature 

 and hisfpry ; and the eighth volume of the 

 " Collection of the Department of Russian 

 Language and Literature of the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences " is of great worth and 

 interest. One of the greatest of Russian nov- 

 elists, Count Leo Tolstoi, makes his appear- 

 ance again this year, but this time as the au- 

 thor of an " Alphabet and Reader," for the 

 use of children and schools. The book is not 

 without its literary merits, for many of the 

 short sketches and tales were written expressly 

 for it by the novelist. 



In bibliography we have three important 

 books. The eight volumes of the " Russian 

 Historical Bibliography," for the literature, 

 both books and articles, of the year 1862, has 

 just been published, some nine years behind 

 its time. The "Bibliographical Index to the 

 History of Russian and General Literature," 

 by the painstaking V. Mexhoff, is a complete 

 list, in systematic order, of all Russian books 

 and articles in journals and newspapers which 

 appeared in Russian from 1855 to 1870. It is 

 simply invaluable. The " Catalogue of Rus- 

 sian Engraved Portraits," by D. Rovinsky, is 

 also useful and valuable, and is the only con- 

 tribution of importance to art history. 



In books of travel there is little to record 

 besides Ogorodnikof s hastily-written book on 

 America, a new treatment of the same sub- 

 ject by Zimmermann, and E. Markof s excel- 

 lent " Sketches of the Crimea," a region which 

 the author has explored far more completely 

 than most travellers, and of which he can 

 speak with authority. 



The important book of the year in philoso- 

 phy is K. Ravelin's " Problems of Psychology," 

 which is calling out a severe criticism on the 

 part of the materialists. 



"What may be called folk-literature is this 

 year unusually rich. There are the studio- <-t' 

 Hilferding, on the "Ballads and Ballad-Singers 

 of Olonetz;" of Kostomarof, on the "Ballad- 

 Poetry of Great Russia," and " South-Russian 

 Songs and Ballads; " of Rudtchenko, on " The 

 Tchumak in Popular Songs; " and of Buslacf, 



