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Victorian Comment on Russian Realism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Clarence Decker
Clarence Decker*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas City
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Extract

The Spectator of July 10,1886, voiced the general opinion of the then limited group acquainted with Russian literature when it hailed Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dostoevsky as not only the greatest of Russian writers, but also the most important among contemporary realists. Such enthusiasm seems at first oddly inconsistent with the prevailing popular literary taste, particularly when we remember that these Russian novelists were rather closely identified with the French naturalistic movement—-a movement bitterly assailed by the Victorians. Moreover, their writings, representing virtually the only Russian literature to appear in English translation before 1900, came at a time when the controversy over Balzac had barely subsided and when those over Baudelaire, Zola, and Ibsen had excited a tempest, not only in the literary world, but also from the pulpit, press, and platform—even within the halls of Parliament. The history of Russian realism in England prior to 1900 thus throws into bold relief the essential differences between it and French realism as these two movements appeared to the English, and affords a deeper insight into the Victorian conscience with its troubled concern over art and morality.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , June 1937 , pp. 542 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1937

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References

page 542 note 1 “A Russian Novelist,” Spectator, lix (July 10, 1886), 938.

page 542 note 2 “Balzac's Literary Reputation in Victorian Society,” PMLA, xlvii, 1150–1157; “Zola's Literary Reputation in England,” PMLA, xlix, 1140–1153; and “Ibsen's Literary Reputation and Victorian Taste,” SP, xxxn, 632–645.

page 542 note 3 Ibid.

page 542 note 4 “Count Leo Tolstoy's Novels,” Nineteenth Century, v (April, 1879), 651.

page 542 note 5 “Count Tolstoy's Novels,” Saturday Review, lxiii (Jan. 1, 1887), 23.

page 542 note 6 “Tolstoi's ‘War and Peace’,” Spectator, lx (Feb. 5, 1887), 202.

page 542 note 7 “Count Leo Tolstoi,” Contemporary Review, lii (Aug., 1887), 253.

page 542 note 8 “Count Leo Tolstoi,” Fortnightly Review, xlviii (December, 1887), 783–784.

page 542 note 9 Produced by Mr. and Mrs. Charrington at the Novelty Theatre, June 7, 1889.

page 542 note 10 “Two Russian Realists,” London Quarterly Review, lxx (April, 1888), 57.

page 542 note 11 “Count Tolstoi's Life and Works,” Westminster Review, cxxx (Sept., 1888), 282.

page 542 note 12 Havelock Ellis, The New Spirit (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1926), p. 250.

page 542 note 12a Ibid., p. 210.

page 542 note 13 Edmund Gosse, Critical Kit-Kats (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1903), pp. 116 and 131.

page 542 note 14 “An Appreciation of Russian Fictional Literature,” Westminster Review, cxliv (Dec., 1895), 539.

page 542 note 15 “Tolstoi's New Novel,” Academy, lvii (Sept. 9, 1899), 255.

page 542 note 16 “The Philosophy of a Saint,” Contemporary Review, lxxviii (Dec., 1900), 819–820.

page 542 note 17 “The Russian Novelist Dostojewsky,” Academy, xxviii (Dec. 12, 1885), 395.

page 542 note 18 “A Russian Novelist,” Spectator, lix (July 10, 1886), 938.

page 542 note 19 “Dostoevsky and His Work,” Macmillan's Magazine, lv (Jan., 1887), 187–199.

page 542 note 20 “Two Russian Realists,” London Quarterly Review, lxx (April, 1888), 66.

page 542 note 21 Op. cit., p. 178.

page 542 note 22 This differentiation on the part of the Victorians becomes indisputably clear if a comparison is made between the evidence of this paper and that of the articles on Balzac, Zola, and Ibsen referred to in footnote 2.

page 542 note 23 “Count Tolstoi's Early Reminiscences,” Spectator, cxii, (June 1, 1889), 763.

page 542 note 24 “An Appreciation of Russian Fictional Literature,” Westminster Review, cxliv (Dec., 1895), 539.