3 NOVEMBER 1894, Page 13

jected series of translations of Turgenev's novels, and is introduced

by a critical notice from the pen of M. Stepniak of that writer's charaeteristics. This may be read with great advantage. There is a certain sombreness about Russian fiction which gives some readers, at least, a feeling of distaste, and Rudin is not altogether an exception. Turgenev knew, however, how to put in lights as well as shadows. The other volumes will contain" Liza," "Fathers and Sons," "On the Eve," "Virgin Soil" (in two volumes), and "Smoke." We are not qualified to say how far the translation is representative of the original, but we see that M. Stepniak declares it to be as near an approach to the elegance and poetry of the original as he has ever come across.