over twenty years ago, they have never had any vogue among
English-speaking people, and indeed they have produced very little
impression anywhere outside of Russia. This is a misfortune for the
world, for Gogol was assuredly one of the great literary geniuses of
the nineteenth century, and he richly repays attentive reading. In
Russia he has been appreciated, immensely respected and admired, from
the day that he published his first book; but his lack of reputation
abroad is indicated by the remark of Mr. Baring in 1910, "the work of
Gogol may be said to be totally unknown in England." This statement is
altogether too sweeping, but it counts as evidence.

Despite Gogol's undoubted claim to be regarded as the founder of
Russian fiction, it is worth remembering that of the three works on
which rests his international fame, two cannot possibly be called
germinal. The drama "Revizor" is the best comedy in the Russian
language; but, partly for that very reason, it produced no school. The
romance "Taras Bulba" has no successful follower in Russian
literature, and brought forth no fruit anywhere for fifty years, until
the appearance of the powerful fiction-chronicles by Sienkiewicz. It
has all the fiery ardour of a young genius; its very exaggeration, its
delight in bloody battle, show a certain immaturity; it breathes
indeed the spirit of youth. With the exception of "The Cloak," Gogol
had by 1840 written little to indicate the direction that the best
part of Russian literature was to take. It was not until the
publication of "Dead Souls" that Russia had a genuine realistic novel.
This book is broad enough in scope and content to serve as the
foundation of Russian fiction, and to sustain the wonderful work of
Turgenev, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski. All the subsequent great novels in
Russia point back to "Dead Souls."