456 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1899. 



as W. Los, G. Zapolska, Sewer, W. Kosiakiewicz, 

 K. Glinski, K. Rojan, etc., the fiction list in- 

 cludes W. Sieroszewski's short stories, At the 

 Edge of the Forest (strong, especially in descrip- 

 tions of Siberia); A. Dygasinski's humorous and 

 truthful tales of village folk; the historical novels 

 For the Throne (O Tron, effective account of 

 struggle in Poland after the abdication of John 

 Casimir), by A. Krechowiecki and Wasi ojcowie, 

 by Z. Kaczkowski; Z. Jenike's The Orchids (love 

 stories) : The Distaff, by M. Rodziewicz, and 

 Emma Jelenska's The Young Lady, both stories 

 of personal sacrifice to hold Polish soil ; Mme. Z. 

 Kowerska's psychological Brothers and Elective 

 Affinity (some good points; prolix); A. Grus- 

 zeekiVThe Swindlers (drastic description of the 

 Hebrew stock jobbers of Warsaw) and In the 

 Old Mansion (contrasts the old nobility and the 

 country folk) ; W. Reymont's The Promised Land 

 (vigorous description of business life in the 

 manufacturing town of Lodz) ; S. Zeromski's 

 Works of Fiction (studies obscure mental pro- 

 cesses) : and J. Zych's The Labors of Sisyphus 

 (Sysyfowe prace), an accurate and admirable de- 

 scription of the mental development of a Polish 

 student reared under Russian influence. Much 

 new verse has appeared by Z. Dembicki, W. Lie- 

 der, J. Sten, and others. Especially noteworthy 

 are The Wild Rose Shrub (pessimistic; vigorous 

 language), by J. Kasprowicz, and L. Rydel's 

 Poems (agreeable form). Here, as in other lands, 

 the " moderns " discuss " art for art's sake " and 

 other like watchwords of new aims; an older 

 writer, however, declares that these most recent 

 arrivals have not yet produced any very remark- 

 able work. On the stage, too, the " young ones " 

 are in evidence, not yet with great success, it 

 seems. S. Przybyszewski's For Fortune (a psy- 

 chological argument; no drama) was a failure. 

 J. Kisielewski shows talent in Caricatures (a 

 sketch of a decadent) ; poetical ability and poor 

 stagecraft mark S. Wyspianski's Song of War- 

 saw and Lelewel (historical) ; S. Kozlowski's 

 latest piece is of the old romantic school and 

 has a dash of the operatic; and L. Rydel's The 

 Enchanted Circle won success with the public 

 by its dramatic situations, good dialogue, and 

 truthful delineation of rural life. 



Portugal. Literary news from this country 

 is ever rare, for obvious reasons. (See Annual 

 Cyclopaedia for 1895.) Noteworthy books of the 

 year are Jose de Souza Monteiro's O Auto dos 

 Esquecidos; Magalhaes de Azeredo's Procellarias 

 (verse; a mixture of truth and fable; writer has 

 proved his talents in various forms of literature) ; 

 Portugal e Italia: Ensaio de Diccionario biblio- 

 graphico, by Antonio de Portugal de Faria 

 (deals with the historical, artistic, and social re- 

 lations of the two countries) ; Bibliographia juri- 

 dica portugalensis, by Eduardo Alves de Sa (first 

 year, 1898) ; and a useful Diccionario de las seis 

 Lenguas (the languages being French, German, 

 English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese), issued 

 by the publishers of the interesting illustrated 

 periodical Occidente. 



Roumania, etc. The French tendencies men- 

 tioned in 1897 are accentuated in Pompiliu Eli- 

 ade's interesting and careful De 1'Influence fran- 

 Caise sur 1'Esprit public en Roumanie and A. 

 Macedonski's Les Bronzes (dedicated to France, 

 " la seule patrie des intellectuels " ; we are told 

 that the verses are not as good as the author's 

 Roumanian poems, though some of them are re- 

 markable). Books dealing with Roumania are Ne. 

 ?.Minovici'sTatuajurile in Romans! (1898) ; Docu- 

 mente privatoare la Istoria Romanilor, X: Ra- 

 poarte consulare prusiene din Jasi si Bucuresti 



1703-1844, adunate di Neculai Jorga (1897; Prus- 

 sian consular reports from the Danubian coun- 

 tries) ; and the important Reminiscences of the 

 King of Roumania (which appeared in English), 

 dealing with the remarkable rise of the country 

 under his rule. At Leipsic was published a 

 Linguistischer Atlas des dacorumanischen Sprach- 

 gebietes, hrsg. auf Kosten der rumamschen Akade- 

 mie von Gustav Weigand, Weigand being the 

 manager of the Institut fur rumanische Sprache 

 in Leipsic. 



As to the other Danubian countries, it is noted 

 that in Servia much translating goes on (as, 

 Vicar of Wakefield, 1898), and that M. I. Sgalai- 

 kovitch issued La Bosnie et 1'Herzegovine : Etude 

 d'Histoire diplomatique et de Droit international 

 (Paris, 1899). 



Russia. Prominent among historical works 

 is N. K. Shilder's elaborate Emperor Alexander I 

 (a " historico-psychological monograph"). Also 

 worthy of note are N. Kutepof's interesting Im- 

 perial Sports of the Czars Mikhail Feodorovitch 

 and Alexei Mikhailovitch in Russia; second edi- 

 tion of P. Miliukof's Chief Tendencies of Rus- 

 sion Historical Thought; Diakonof's comprehen- 

 sive Sketches of the History of the Village Popu- 

 lation in the Muscovite Empire; and A. Dmitrief- 

 Mamonof's The Insurrection of Pugatchef in 

 Siberia (new information, based on original docu- 

 ments). The collected writings of N. S. Tikhon- 

 ravof, edited by M. Speranski and V. Yakushkin, 

 form a " valuable storehouse for Russian histori- 

 ography." Books and the stage form the theme 

 of A. Pypin's History of Russian Literature; P. 

 A. Sergyeenko's How Count L. N. Tolstoi Lives 

 and Works (characteristic, interesting); Shliap- 

 kin's valuable Natalia Alexievna and the Theater 

 of her Time (throws light on the early history of 

 the stage) ; M. Stcheglof's The National Theater 

 in Sketches and Pictures (on the popular theater 

 at Moscow; second edition) ; Sketches of the His- 

 tory of Georgian Literature, a readable account 

 by A. S. Khakhanof, a native Georgian; a second 

 edition of Merezhovski's Eternal Fellow-Travel- 

 ers (interesting character studies of Pushkin, 

 Ibsen, Montaigne, and others) ; N. Kotliarevski's 

 Disgust with the World at the End of the Past 

 and Beginning of the Present Century (" a series 

 of characteristics, vigorously described, from the 

 domain of romanticism, of Chateaubriand, Schil- 

 ler, and Nodier"); and G. Potanin's thorough 

 investigation of Eastern Motifs in the Mediaeval 

 European Epos. The Pushkin centenary celebra- 

 tion was a memorable event. A. Borozdin's The^ 

 Protopope Avvakum illustrates intellectual life in^ 

 Russia in the seventeenth century, and A. Viazi- 

 gin's Sketches of the History of the Papacy in 

 the Eleventh Century is a " careful study of docu- 

 ments." The Northern Messenger (Sieverni Viest- 

 nik) has ceased publication, and three new 

 periodicals have seen the light: Life (Zhizn) and 

 The Beginning (Natchalo), both devoted to eco- 

 nomic and sociological questions, and The World 

 of Art (Mir Iskusstva), issued by writers and 

 painters of the younger school. Weak critical 

 studies on economic questions are said to be 

 numerous. 



The ethical tendency in fiction is ever appar- 

 ent, and is deplored by clear-sighted critics. Thus 

 Tolstoi's otherwise remarkable The Resurrection 

 (Voskresenie) is said to be marred by common- 

 place moralizings and truisms. It should be 

 added that others say that it is the author's plain 

 and fundamental truth about social life that 

 arouses opposition. Other titles in fiction are 

 Yasinski's The Rebellion of the Cockroaches 

 (draws a merciless and gloomy parallel between 



