speculations, but which are as meaningless to the untutored English eye as a collection of "H.B."'s drawings would be to a Russian who had never studied English politics. Consequently neither of these stories is likely ever to be fully appreciated among us[A]. [Footnote A: A detailed account of both of these stories, as well as of several other works by M. Turgénieff, will be found in the number of the _North British Review_ for March, 1869.] The last novelette which M. Turgénieff has published, "The Unfortunate One" (_Neschastnaya_) is free from the drawbacks by which, as far as English readers are concerned, "Fathers and Children" and "Smoke," are attended; but it is exceedingly sad and painful. It is said to be founded on a true story, a fact which may account for an intensity of gloom in its coloring, the darkness of which would otherwise seem almost unartistically overcharged. Several of M. Turgénieff's works have already been translated into English. The "Notes of a Sportsman" appeared about fourteen years ago, under the title of "Russian Life in the Interior[A];" but, unfortunately, the French translation from which they were (with all due acknowledgment) rendered, was one which had been so "cooked" for the Parisian market, that M. Turgénieff himself felt bound to protest against it vigorously. It is the more unfortunate inasmuch as an admirable French translation of the work was afterwards made by M. Delaveau[B]. [Footnote A: "Russian Life in the Interior." Edited by J.D. Meiklejohn. Black, Edinburg, 1855.] [Footnote B: "Récits d'un Chasseur." Traduits par H. Delavea, Paris, 1858.] Still more vigorously had M. Turgénieff to protest against an English translation of "Smoke," which appeared a few months ago. The story of "Fathers and Children" has also appeared in English[A]; but as the translation was published on the other side of the Atlantic, it has as yet served but little to make M. Turgénieff's name known among us. [Footnote A: "Fathers and Sons." Translated from the Russian by Eugene Schuyler. New York 1867.] The French and German translations of M. Turgénieff's works are excellent. From the French versions of M. Delaveau, M. Xavier Marmier, M. Prosper Mérimée, M. Viardot, and several others, a very good idea may be formed by the general reader of M. Turgénieffs merits. For my own part, I wish cordially to thank the French and the German translators of the _Dvoryanskoe Gnyezdo_ for the assistance their versions rendered me while I was preparing the present translation of that story. The German version, by M. Paul Fuchs,[A] is wonderfully literal. The French version, by Count Sollogub and M.A. de Calonne, which originally appeared in the _Revue Contemporaine_, without being quite so close, is also very good indeed.[B] [Footnote A: Das adelige Nest. Von I.S. Turgénieff. Aus dem Russicher ubersetzt von Paul Fuchs. Leipzig, 1862.] [Footnote B: Une Nichée de Gentilshommes. Paris, 1862]