defective in the higher essential qualifications of imaginative writing;
as old ballads and tales, which have no other merit, may be valuable
illustrations of the manners of their time, so by carefully collecting and
concentrating scattered rays, a man possessed of talents for the task may
throw a strong light on states of society that were formerly obscure, and
thus greatly enhance the pleasure we derive from any higher merits we may
find in his story.

M. Lajétchnikoff, in the work before us, appears to have aimed at both
these kinds of excellence; and, in the opinion of his countrymen, to have
attained to that of which they are the best or the only good judges. Mr
Shaw, to whom we are indebted for all we yet know of this department of
Russian literature, tells us in his preface that he selected this romance
for translation because--

"It is the work of an author to whom all the critics have adjudged
the praise of a perfect acquaintance with the epoch which he has
chosen for the scene of his drama. Russian critics, some of whom have
reproached M. Lajétchnikoff with certain faults of style, and in
particular with innovations on orthography, have all united in
conceding to him the merit of great historical accuracy--not only as
regards the events and characters of his story, but even in the less
important matters of costume, language, &c.

"This degree of accuracy was not accidental: he prepared himself for
his work by a careful study of all the ancient documents calculated
to throw light upon the period which he desired to recall--a
conscientious correctness however, which may be pushed too far; for
the original work is disfigured by a great number of obsolete words
and expressions, as unintelligible to the modern Russian reader