Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN NOVELISTS Translated from the French of Serge Persky By FREDERICK EISEMANN JOHN W. LUCE AND COMPANY BOSTON 1913 _Copyright, 1912_ BY C. DELAGRAVE _Copyright, 1913_ BY L. E. BASSETT To THE MEMORY OF F. N. S. BY THE TRANSLATOR PREFACE The principal aim of this book is to give the reader a good general knowledge of Russian literature as it is to-day. The author, Serge Persky, has subordinated purely critical material, because he wants his readers to form their own judgments and criticize for themselves. The element of literary criticism is not, however, by any means entirely lacking. In the original text, there is a thorough and exhaustive treatment of the "great prophet" of Russian literature--Tolstoy--but the translator has deemed it wise to omit this essay, because so much has recently been written about this great man. As the title of the book is "Contemporary Russian Novelists," the essay on Anton Tchekoff, who is no longer living, does not rightly belong here, but Tchekoff is such an important figure in modern Russian literature and has attracted so little attention from English writers that it seems advisable to retain the essay that treats of his work. Finally, let me express my sincerest thanks to Dr. G. H. Maynadier of Harvard for his kind advice; to Miss Edna Wetzler for her unfailing and valuable help, and to Miss Carrie Harper, who has gone over this work with painstaking care. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. A Brief Survey of Russian Literature 1 II. Anton Tchekoff 40 III. Vladimir Korolenko 76 IV. Vikenty Veressayev 108 V. Maxim Gorky 142 VI. Leonid Andreyev 199 VII. Dmitry Merezhkovsky 246 VIII. Alexander Kuprin 274 IX. Writers in Vogue 289 CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN NOVELISTS I A BRIEF SURVEY OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE In order to get a clear idea of modern Russian literature, a knowledge of its past is indispensable. This knowledge will help us in understanding that which distinguishes it from other European literatures, not only from the viewpoint of the art which it expresses, but also as the historical and sociological mirror of the nation's life in the course of centuries.