[9] M. Haumant has been at great pains to show that Turgenev in his early prose and verse "commenced by appropriating the form and the subjects of the romantics of the 'twenties and the 'thirties, that his 'half revolt' against the romantic convention became accentuated later, and that we find in the plays and poems a 'degradation of the romantic heroes' of Pushkin and Lermontov" (Haumant, pp. 113-122). Although there is not a little truth in his thesis, M. Haumant has forgotten to add that the _social atmosphere_ of the preceding generation, as well as of its literature, music and art, was "romantic," and that the youth of the period, as well as the heroes of Goethe and Stendhal, did act, think and feel in a "romantic" manner. [10] Byelinsky, in his criticism on _Hor and Kalinitch_, says: "His talent is not suited to true lyrics. He can only paint from real life what he has seen or _studied_. He can create, but only with the materials given by nature. It is not a copy of the real; nature has not given the author innate ideas, but he has to find them; the author transforms the real, following his artistic ideal, and so his picture becomes more living. He knows how to render faithfully a character or a fact he has observed.... Nature has given Turgenev this capacity of observing, of understanding, and of appreciating faithfully and quickly each fact, of divining its cause and consequences, and, when facts are lacking, of supplying the factors by just divination." Could anything describe better the brutal spirit of the man who, out of spiteful envy, to revenge his slighted self-love, kills his own friend, Kister, in a duel? Turgenev's description of Kister must be remarked, for the latter in his "good nature, modesty, warm-heartedness and _natural inclination for everything beautiful_" is the twin-soul of his creator. Turgenev's lifelong readiness to lose sight of himself in appreciation of others, even of the men who abused his good offices and repaid him with ingratitude, was notorious.[11] One may assert that Turgenev's character was thus early expressed in four dominant traits, viz. a generous tenderness of heart, an enthusiasm for the good, sensitiveness to beauty of form and feeling, an infinite capacity for the passion of love. These qualities are manifest in his first work of importance, _A Sportsman's Sketches_ (1847-51), an epoch-making book which profoundly affected Russian society and had no small influence in hastening the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861-63. [11] For example, Turgenev warmly commended Dostoevsky's works to foreign critics, after the latter had perpetrated the spiteful libel on him in _The Possessed_. III "A SPORTSMAN'S SKETCHES" CHAPTER III "A SPORTSMAN'S SKETCHES"--"NATURE AND MAN"--THE SECRET OF TURGENEV'S ART