CHAPTER II: PUSHKIN; LERMONTÓFF 39 PUSHKIN--Beauty of form--Pushkin and Schiller--His youth; his exile; his later career and death--Fairy tales: _Ruslán and Ludmíla_--His lyrics--“Byronism”--Drama--Evghéniy Onyeghin--LERMONTÓFF--Pushkin or Lermontóff? His life--The Caucasus--Poetry of nature--Influence of Shelley--_The Demon_--_Mtsýri_--Love of Freedom--Pushkin and Lermontóff as prose-writers--Other poets and novelists of the same epoch. CHAPTER III: GÓGOL 67 Little Russia--_Nights on a Farm near Dikánka_ and _Mírgorod_--Village life and humour--_How Ivan Ivanovitch quarrelled with Ivan Nikíforytch_--Historical novel: _Tarás Búlba_--_The Cloak_--Drama: _The Inspector-General_--Its influence--_Dead Souls_: Main types--Realism in the Russian novel. CHAPTER IV: TURGUÉNEFF; TOLSTÓY 88 Turguéneff--The Character of his art--_A Sportsman’s Note-book_--Pessimism in his early novels--His series of novels representing the leading types of Society: Rudin--Lavrétskiy--Helen and Insároff--Bazároff--Why _Fathers and Sons_ was misunderstood--_Hamlet_ and _Don Quixote_--_Virgin Soil_--Movement towards the people--Tolstóy--_Childhood_ and _Boyhood_--During and after the Crimean War--_Youth_: in search of an ideal--Small stories--_The Cossacks_--Educational work--_War and Peace_--_Anna Karénina_--Religious crisis--His interpretation of the Christian teaching--Main points of Christian ethics--Latest works of art--_Kreutzer Sonata_--_Resurrection_. CHAPTER V: GONTCHARÓFF; DOSTOYÉVSKIY; NEKRÁSOFF 151 Gontcharóff--_Oblomoff_--The Russian malady of Oblomoffdom--Is it exclusively Russian? _The Precipice_--Dostoyévskiy--His first novel--General character of his work--_Memoirs from a Dead House_--_Down-trodden and Offended_--_Crime and Punishment_--_The Brothers Karamázoff_--Nekrasoff--Discussions about his talent--His love of the people--Apotheosis of Woman--Other prose-writers of the same epoch--Serghéi Aksákoff--Dal--Ivan Panaeff--Hvoschinskaya (V. Krestovskiy-pseudonyme)--Poets of the same epoch--Koltsoff--Nikitin--Pleschéeff--The admirers of pure art: Tutcheff; A. Maykoff; Scherbina; A. Fet--A. K. Tolstóy--The Translators. CHAPTER VI: THE DRAMA 191 Its origin--The Tsars Alexei and Peter I.--Sumarókoff--Pseudo-classical tragedies: Knyazhnín; Ozeroff--First comedies--The first years of the nineteenth century--Griboyedoff--The Moscow stage in the fifties--Ostróvskiy: his first dramas--_The Thunderstorm_--Ostrovskiy’s later dramas--Historical dramas: A. K. Tolstóy--Other dramatic writers. CHAPTER VII: FOLK-NOVELISTS 221