ncentration of time, place, action, language, and a tremendous
condensation of character traits which are not only truly, typically
national, but which come within the ken of all fair-minded persons in
other countries.

The volume with which he scored his first success, and which must remain
a classic, is 'Evenings at a Farm-House near Dikanka.' As the second
volume, 'Mirgorod,' and his volume of 'St. Petersburg Tales,' all
combine essentially the same ingredients, though in varying measure, we
may consider them together. All the tales in the first two volumes are
from his beloved birthplace, Little Russia. Some of them are simply the
artistic and literary rendering of popular legends, whose counterparts
may be found in the folk literature of other lands. Such are the story
of the vampire, 'Vy,' 'St. John's Eve,' and the exquisite 'A May Night,'
where the famous poetical spirit of the Ukraina is displayed in its full
force and beauty. 'The Lost Document,' 'Sorotchinsky Fair,' 'The
Enchanted Spot,' and others of like legendary but more exclusively
national character, show the same fertility of wit and skill of
management, with close study of every-day customs, superstitions, and
life, which render them invaluable to both Russians and foreigners.

More important than these, however, are such stories as 'Old-Fashioned
Gentry' (or 'Farmers'), where keen but kindly wit, more tempered than
the mirth of youthful high spirits which had imbued the fantastic tales,
is mingled with the purest, deepest pathos and minute delineation of
character and customs, in an inimitable work of the highest art. To this
category belong also 'How the Two Ivans Quarreled' (the full title, 'How
Ivan Ivan'itch and Ivan Nikifor'itch Quarreled,' is rather unwieldy for
the foreign ear), and 'The Cloak,' from the volume of 'St. Petersburg
Tales.' We may also count 'The Nevsky Prospekt' with these; while 'The
Portrait' is semi-fantastic, 'The Nose' and 'The Calash' are wholly so,
though not legendary, and 'The Diary of a Madman' is unexcelled as an
amusing but touching study of a diseased mind in the ranks of petty
officialdom.

Gogol's capital work, however, is his 'Dead Souls.' In it he carried to
its highest point his talent for accurate delineation of his countrymen
and the conditions of their life. There is less pathos than in some of
his short tales; but all the other elements are perfected. Pushkin's
generosity and sound judgment were never bett