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sufferers themselves the greatest part of the blame. There
is a strong and quiet emotion which is always softened in
its expression. It is seldom that a great and productive
author has made so little noise as he.
There is something aristocratic in this noble and
simple attitude. It is not that, like Lord Byron or Prince
Pückler, he has impressed the marks of superiority upon
his works by any external stamp. But the impression
forces itself upon us that the author has inherited his
intellectual refinement, and has always lived in the best
society. He was a man of the world, and we feel behind
his works the experience in life of a man of the world,
which the German authors generally lack. But this
experience has neither made him cynical, like so many
French authors, nor given to moralizing, like so many
English. Although he has never shown any lack of
good breeding in his style, still his tone is not the tone
of the world. Even his contempt is not a cold contempt.
There is always a soul in his voice.
It is difficult to say briefly and precisely what it is
which makes Turgenief an artist of the first rank. We
might almost say that it is because his style is so
genuine. But even this word needs an explanation. The
fact that he possesses in the highest degree the quality
of a true poet, of being able to create men who live,
is not all. What makes his artistic superiority so
perceptible is the harmony which the reader traces
between the author’s conception of the person who is
described, his opinion of him, and also the impression
which is made upon him as well as upon the reader by
that person.
The point is here. The relation of the author to his
own creations is such that every weakness which he has
as an artist or as a man must be exposed to the light.
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