PUSHKIN'S STORIES.* WE may prol ably assume that the translation
of Pushkin's shorter stories has been stimulated by the great success which two or three Russian novelists have achieved of late years. Readers of Tolstoi and Tourguenief must not, however, expect to find even the promise of Anna Karenina or of Spring Floods in these simple stories. Pushkin, whose poetry displays in a very marked manner the influence of Byron, as a writer of prose narratives would seem to have taken Walter Scott, or even Goldsmith, as his model. The longest of his stories, "The Captain's Daughter," which does not appear in this volume, has a good many points in common with Quentin Durward; the chief incident in the" Snow-storm "is taken from St. Ronan's Well ; and" The Lady Rustic" is modelled on the plot of She Stoops to Conquer. It would be idle to compare a writer of this type with the analytical, introspective delineators of character, who, whatever their originality may be, have felt the influence of Balzac and his school. Pushkin must be judged by his times, and by comparison with his two most distinguished contemporaries, Gogol and Lermontoff, who are fairly accessible to the English public in translations. Of these, Gogol's genius was so supremely original, that in spite of his many faults of composition, he is bound to remain a classic. Gogol thoroughly knew his own part of Russia, and his sketches of squires and peasants, officials and tradesmen, are as lifelike as Fielding's and incomparably more various. Here and there, where he has tried his hand at a short story from town-life, he has at least left it doubtful, if he could not have surpassed Pushkin. On the other hand, Gogol's poetry was beneath contempt, while P ashkin's ranks high in the second class by an European standard. It seems, therefore, fairer to compare Pushkin with Lermontoff, who like his elder con- temporary, was essentially a poet, and only by accident, as it were, a writer of prose tales. A modern verdict will probably be, that Lermontoff, though he hardly wrote more than a sixth of what Pushkin left behind him, was more of a poet for all time than his better- esteemed rival ; and puts a deeper interest into his tales. This is the more noteworthy, as Lermontoff, in whom, as in Pushkin, the Byronic influence was strong, reproduced Byron in his most important prose work, even more than in his verse. "A Hero of Our Day," which has been repeatedly translated into every European language, might almost have been an attempt to give the key to Byron's " Giaour." Again, in some minor stories, which are comparatively unknown in the West, Lermontoff seems to have had Hoffmann in his mind. Now, that Byron and Hoffmann are worse models for a novelist than Goldsmith and Scott, seems demonstrable, and yet Lermon- toff, though his critical judgment has failed him in the choice of a master, seems to handle his materials more effectively than Pushkin. On the whole, we must probably assign Push- kin a comparatively low place, even in his own generation, as a teller of stories. Nevertheless, when this is admitted, the critic may acknowledge that the best specimens of Pushkin's style have the supreme merit of being very readable. The story to which we should have been inclined to assign the place of honour in the book is " The Postmaster." It is one with the meagerest of plots. A young Hussar officer, travelling post through the Empire, is fascinated by the wonderful beauty of a post- master's daughter. He counterfeits illness, makes love to the pretty Dunia, and finally, under pretence of offering her a ride to church, drives away with her under the very eyes of her father. The broken.hearted parent pursues his daughter to St. Petersburg, but is repulsed from the door of the seducer, and insulted with the offer of money. He decides, after a little reflection, that it is useless to invoke the law against a man of family, and returns to his work at the posting-station, where he gradually kills himself with drink. The daughter,
* The Queen of Spades, and other Stories. By A.. 8. Pushkin. Transkted from the Russian by Mn,. Sutherland Edwards. Loudon z Chapman and Hall,
to whom her lover remains constant, drives on a journey through the village in a splendid equipage, and prays at her father's grave. The story is the very reverse of sensational, and its great merit is in the telling. In- cidentally, one is impressed by the fact that there is very little which is specially Russian about the narrative, except a few details. The officer's threat to use his whip, when he first arrives in the station, because horses are not ready, is of course a local trait ; but, except for this, the. whole drama might have been acted in England or France in Pushkin's time. Tourguenief would not have failed to trans- port us into the local surroundings of Russian life. The same criticism applies even more to the stories that deal exclusively with fashionable life,—the only life that Pushkin really knew. In "The Queen of Spades," a Frenchified old lady is frightened to death by a German officer, who believes that she has a secret for winning at cards, and wishes to extort it from her. The "Lady Rustic" is a skit upon Anglo-maniacs. The one tale that really deals with facts peculiar to Russia is "The History of the Village of G-orohins,," and it is a mere sketch, indicating how an absentee landlord hands over a defaulting village on his estate to a steward who is a perfect blood-sucker. Those were the days when the upper classes in Russia affected not to know their own language, and cared only for the literature of Western Europe. Pushkin was not above the influences of his set.; and his stories, accordingly, with all their merit, want the colouring and aroma that are inseparable from nationality.
Mrs. Edwards prefixes a short life of Pushkin to the tales.. We could have wished that this had been longer. Most of it is taken up with an account, interesting enough, of the poet's tragical death. Bat the materials exist for a great deal more than this. Pushkin's works contain a great many autobio- graphical notices. For instance, it is not without interest to know that among his teachers was a brother of Marat, who- always spoke of the monster with affection and reverence, and who, himself a revolutionist, was nevertheless tolerated at St. Petersburg. The interview with the Emperor Nicholas, when Pushkin was questioned as to his complicity in Pestel's insur- rection, reflects great credit on the Emperor, and deserves to be told at greater length than Mrs. Edwards has accorded it. The "Journey to Erzeroum," which she evidently knows, was an interesting episode in the poet's life, and occupies little more than a line in Mrs. Edwards's narrative. Pushkin's diary of it is curious, and full of little-known matters. His relations with the literary men of his day were creditable to both parties. They recognised his genius, and he was the friend of several of the ablest, and cordially admired his most important rivals. Lastly, Pushkin's views on a variety of subjects were ex- pounded by himself in short notices, interspersed with historical reminiscences. He seems to have been specially attracted by the fantastic, grandiose character of Potemkin and has preserved a number of anecdotes about him which are not to be found in current history. Is Mrs. Edwards. right, by-the-bye, in saying that Pushkin's death was regarded throughout Russia as a public calamity P Men of letters and young men, no doubt, mourned passionately for him, but there seems reason to believe that he was regarded with dis- trust in Conservative circles ; and tradition says that the clerks of the Foreign Office were forbidden to attend hie funeral, on the ground that his rank in the Civil Service did not entitle him to any such distinction. In this instance, again, the Czar Nicholas, who paid the poet's debts and pen- sioned his widow, showed himself more large-natured and discriminating than his Ministers and his Court.
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