I have not space to enumerate here even the most prominent Russian novelists. No account, however, of their literature would be anything like complete which omitted the name of Ivan Tourgheniev, whose reputation is European. With the Russians the English novel of the realistic type is the fashionable model. In this branch of literature, French influences have hardly been felt at all. The historical novel--an echo of the great romances of Sir Walter Scott--had its cultivators in such writers as Zagoskin and Lazhechnikov; but at the present time, with the exception of the recent productions of Count Tolstoi, it is a form of literature as dead in Russia as in our own country. The novel of domestic life bids fair to swallow up all the rest, and it is to this that the Russians are devoting their attention. Tourgheniev first made a name by his _Memoirs of a Sportsman_, a powerfully written work, in which harrowing descriptions are given of the miserable condition of the Russian serfs. Since the publication of this novel, or rather series of sketches, he has written a succession of able works of the same kind, in which all classes of Russian society have been reviewed. No more pathetic tale than the _Gentleman's Retreat_ (_Dvorianskoe Gnezdo_) can be shown in the literature of any country. There are touches in it worthy of George Eliot. In _Fathers and Children_ and _Smoke_, Tourgheniev has grappled with the nihilistic ideas which for a long time have been so current in Russia. The study of Russian history, so well commenced by Karamzin, has been further developed by Oustrialov and Soloviev. The Malo-Russian is very rich in _skazki_ (national tales) and in songs. Peculiar to them is the _douma_, a kind of narrative poem, in which the metre is generally very irregular; but a sort of rhythm is preserved by the recurrence of accentuated syllables. The _douma_ of the Little Russians corresponds to the _bilina_ of the Great Russians. As might naturally be expected, most Malo-Russian authors of eminence, have preferred using the Great Russian, notably Gogol, who however is very fond of introducing provincial expressions which require a glossary. The foundation of the Malo-Russian cultivated literature was laid by the travisty of the _AEneid_, by Kotliarevski, which enjoys great popularity among his countrymen. A truly national poet appeared in Taras Shevchenko, born a serf in the Government of Kiev, at the village of Kirilovka. Of the literature of the White Russians, but little need be said, as it is very scanty, amounting to a few collections of songs edited by Shein, Bezsonov and others. _PRESENT CONDITIONS_ _E. S._