to re-read Turgenev's books, and wrote enthusiastically: "I am
constantly thinking of Turgenev and I love him passionately. I pity
him and I keep on reading him. I live all the time with him. . . . I
have just read "Enough." What an exquisite thing !"* The date was set
for the public address. Intense public excitement was aroused. Then
the government stepped in and prohibited it!

* In 1865, he wrote to Fet, "'Enough' does not please me. Personality
and subjectivity are all right, so long as there is plenty of life and
passion. But his subjectivity is full of pain, without life."

Turgenev, like most novelists, began his literary career with the
publication of verse. He never regarded his poems highly, however, nor
his plays, of which he wrote a considerable number. His reputation
began, as has been said, with the appearance of "A Sportsman's
Sketches," which are not primarily political or social in their
intention, but were written, like all his works, from the serene
standpoint of the artist. They are full of delicate character-analysis,
both of men and of dogs; they clearly revealed, even in their
melancholy humour, the actual condition of the serfs. But perhaps
they are chiefly remarkable for their exquisite descriptions of
nature. Russian fiction as a whole is not notable for nature-pictures;
the writers have either not been particularly sensitive to beauty of
sky and landscape, or like Browning, their interest in the human soul
has been so predominant that everything else must take a subordinate
place. Turgenev is the great exception, and in this field he stands
in Russian literature without a rival, even among the professional
poets.

Although "Sportsman's Sketches" and the many other short tales that