arse line is to be found
in Turgeneff's work; not a single glaring hue. The objects depicted do
not immediately start forth before you, in full proportions, but are
gradually depicted in a mass of small details with all the most delicate
shades. Turgeneff is most renowned artistically for the landscapes which
are scattered through his works, and principally portray the nature of
his native locality, central Russia. Equally famous, and executed with
no less mastery and art, are his portrayal and analysis of the various
vicissitudes of the tender passion, and in this respect, he was regarded
as a connoisseur of the feminine heart. A special epithet, "the bard of
love," was often applied to him. Along with a series of masculine types,
Turgeneff's works present a whole gallery of Russian women of the '50's
and '60's, portrayed in a matchless manner with the touch of absolute
genius. And it is a fact worth noting that in his works, as in those of
all the "authors of the '40's," the women stand immeasurably higher than
the men. The heroines are frequently set forth in all their moral
grandeur, as though with the express intention of overshadowing the
insignificance of the heroes who are placed beside them.

Towards the beginning of the '60's, the germs of pessimism began to make
their appearance in Turgeneff's work, and its final expression came in
"Poems in Prose." The source of this pessimism must be sought in his
whole past, beginning with the impressions of his childhood, and the
disintegrating influence of the reaction of the '50's, when the nation's
hopes of various reforms seemed to have been blighted, and ending with a
whole mass of experiences of life and the literary failures and
annoyances which he underwent during the second half of his life. And in
this connection it must not be forgotten that the very spirit of
analysis and skepticism wherewith the school of writers of the '40's is
imbued, leads straight to pessimism, like any other sort of skepticism.

The following specimen, from "The Notes of a Sportsman," is selected
chiefly for its comparative brevity:

"THE WOLF."

I was driving from the chase one evening alone in a racing
gig.[23] I was about eight versts from my house; my good mare
was stepping briskly along the dusty road, snorting and
twitching her ears from time to time; my weary dog never
quitted the hind wheels, as though he were tied there. A
thunderstorm was comin