LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1876. 



475 



bidrag till tnflo galleriets historia" ("The 

 National Muslim, Contributiuns to the His- 

 tory of the Picture Gallery "), based on care- 

 ful researches. The productions of the modern 

 pictorial art of the North are represented by 

 Nordirtka malares taflor " ("Pictures by 

 Northern Painters "), with an explanatory text; 

 and tin- i'.\liil>ition of tlie works of Egron 

 Lundgren (the painter in water-colors so high- 

 ly esteemed in England), which had the hon- 

 or of numbering the Queen of England among 

 its exhibitors, together with our present exhi- 

 bition of industrial productions of art proofs 

 that the fine arts are cultivated in Sweden. 



The Swedish literature has this year been en- 

 riched with a most valuable collection of po- 

 ems, written by C. D. af Wirsen. These songs, 

 pervaded as they are by a mournful tone, 

 through which, however, glimmers forth a man- 

 ly trust that is based on Christian principles, 

 carry the reader into a poetical atmosphere, 

 which reminds him of that which surrounds B. 

 E. Malmstrom's best productions. 



RUSSIA. The literature of Russia for the 

 year seems barren. The continuation of what 

 is so far a really great novel, still unfinished, 

 Count Leo Tolstoi's u Anna Karenina," is all 

 Russia can boast of. What is, perhaps, the 

 greatest production of the year has not yet suc- 

 ceeded in satisfying the censorship, and is still 

 retained in the printing-office, the important 

 work of Prince Vasiltchikof, "Land Tenure 

 and Agriculture." Turgeneff appears in one 

 short tale only, "The Watch," in which he 

 shows all his old pathos. Moved by the Bul- 

 garian horrors, he sent to one of the Russian 

 newspapers a short poem a vision of a game 

 of croquet at Windsor which, in its half- 

 dozen stanzas, gave a more impressive picture 

 than any Russian poem which has appeared for 

 years. Fortunately his pen has not been idle, 

 and u new novel, longer than most of his for- 

 mer works, " Nov'," is now in course of publi- 

 cation. Dostoiefsky has devoted all his force, 

 not to works of art or to realistic novels, but 

 to his serial, " The Journal of an Author," half 

 autobiographical and half critical, on society 

 and politics. The poems and dramas of the 

 late Count Alexis Tolstoi have been collected 

 and published ; Stohodrin (Soltykof) has given 

 us some new satirical sketches, " Conservative 

 Talk ; " and Pypin has begun a series of studies 

 on the history of Russian literature, which are 

 already good and promise to be better. Be- 

 yond this we find nothing but the productions 

 of third-rate writers a play or two, some 

 slight though graceful verses, and a few novels, 

 occasionally of merit. Such things are pub- 

 lished and are read because the Russian read- 

 ing public is growing larger, and must, some- 

 how, be satisfied. To supplement the defi- 

 ciency of native talent, now, as once before in 

 Russian literary history, translations of the 

 best contemporary authors are in vogue, and 

 are becoming more and more the staple of some 

 of the magazines. 



In poetry the event of the year has been the 

 rv|Mil>]ication of the poems and dramas of 

 Count Alexis Tolstoi. This edition, \vliilu 

 containing many things that were scattered 

 through the pages of periodicals, is not com- 

 plete, in the sense that it does not contain some 

 poems which the censorship would forbid from 

 their political satire, and some which were 

 never intended for publication, but only for 

 the amusement of friends, being caricatures 

 of men of the time, or full of Rabelaisian hu- 

 mor. 



The strong point with the Russian literature 

 of 1876, as lor many years of late, is in history 

 and historical material. Of the latter, three 

 journals deserve a special mention for their 

 general as well as their historical interest, the 

 memoirs of Michael Garnofsky, of Madame 

 Passek, and of Baron Rosen. Garnofsky was 

 an artillery colonel, who was for many years 

 the overseer of the houses, villas, and glass- 

 works, of Prince Potemkin in St. Petersburg; 

 and during the frequent absences of the prince 

 from the capital had charge of all his affairs, 

 not only those of property, but of various com- 

 missions, and business at the court and with 

 people in near relations to the Empress Cath- 

 erine, as also with various ministries and de- 

 partments of the Government. Potemkin con- 

 sidered him as his right hand, all houses in St. 

 Petersburg were open to him, and he was on 

 intimate terms with many of the leading men 

 of the epoch. They are written in a clear and 

 business-like but lively style, and extend from 

 1786 to 1790. " The Recollections of Madame 

 Passek," of which a small portion had already 

 been printed, begins with the accession of 

 the Empress Catherine II., and extends to 

 1812. The recollections concern rather the 

 writer herself and her immediate acquaintances 

 than political affairs in general, although they 

 are full of valuable references. The publica- 

 tion of the memoirs of Baron Rosen is a new 

 proof of the great interest which the present 

 generation takes in all that concerns the De- 

 cembrists, that band of noble and enthusiastic 

 young men who endeavored to prevent Nich- 

 olas from ascending the throne in 1825, and to 

 force upon Russia a free government. Another 

 interesting contribution to historical literature, 

 for it covers and attempts to decide many 

 knottv points, is " The French in Moscow in 

 1812," by D. N. Popof. the writer has care- 

 fully studied the whole literature of the sub- 

 ject, and many diaries and papers which have 

 never been published, and gives us full mate- 

 rials to judge for ourselves how and why Mos- 

 cow was burned. 



Among other historical publications should 

 be noted the " Relations of Russia with the 

 European Powers before the War of 1815," by 

 A. Popof ; the second and third volumes of the 

 new edition of the " Complete Collection of 

 Russian Laws," etc., which extend to 1723; 

 the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth vol- 

 umes of the "'Collection of the Russian llistori- 



