one thing in common with
Gogol's--he draws his scenes from commonplace, every-day life in Russia,
his characters are unimportant, every-day people. Gogol's comedies were
such in the strict meaning of the word, and their object was to cast
ridicule on the acting personages, to bring into prominence the absurd
sides of their characters; and this aim accomplished, the heroes leave
the stage without having undergone any change in their fates. With
Ostrovsky's comedies it is entirely different. The author is not felt in
them. The persons of the drama talk and act in defiance of him, so to
speak, as they would talk and act in real life, and decided changes in
their fate take place. But Ostrovsky accomplished far more than the
creation of a Russian theater: he brought the stage to the highest pitch
of ideal realism, and discarded all ancient traditions. The subjects of
his plays are distinguished for their classic simplicity; life itself
flows slowly across the stage, as though the author had demolished a
wall and were exhibiting the actual life within the house. His plays,
like life, break off short, after the climax, with some insignificant
scene, generally between personages of secondary rank, and he tries to
convince the audience that in life there are no beginnings, no endings;
that there is no moment after which one would venture to place a full
period. Moreover, they are "plays of life" rather than either "comedies"
or "tragedies," as he chanced to label them; they are purely
presentations of life. In their scope they include almost every phase of
Russian life, except peasant and country life, which he had no chance to
study.

For the sake of convenience we may group the other dramatic writers
here. The conditions under which the Russian stage labored were so
difficult that the best literary talent was turned into other channels,
and the very few plays which were fitted to vie with Ostrovsky's came
from the pens of men whose chief work belonged to other branches of
literature. Thus Ivan Sergyeevitch Turgeneff, who wrote more for the
stage than other contemporary writers, and whose plays fill one volume
of his collected works, distinguished himself far more in other lines.
Yet several of these plays hold the first place after Ostrovsky's. "The
Boarder" (1848), "Breakfast at the Marshal of Nobility's" (1849), "The
Bachelor" (1849), "A Month in the Country" (1850), "The Woman from the
Rural Districts" (1851) are still act