Page:Russian Literature - A Study Outline.djvu/7



Prince Kropotkin says "In no country does literature occupy so influential a position as in Russia." This being the case, if one would understand Russia and the Russians it is of the utmost importance to familiarize one's self with Russian literature. The rewards for so doing are great, for one finds here some of "the supreme heaven-dwellers in the Pantheon of Literature." No literature "is more individual, more characteristic, more distinctly national, more sharply, radically, diametrically and unmistakably different from all other literatures, past and present." No portrayals of social and individual life are more realistic.

By universal consent Tolstoy, Turgenev and Dostoevski take the foremost rank in Russian letters, and for this reason they are accorded a major place in this Outline.

If any club wishes to cover the ground in less than sixteen meetings, programs one, two or three may be eliminated, or the two meetings each given to Turgenev and Dostoevski may be consolidated into one.

The initial meeting covers the folk-lore and folk-songs. Especial interest attaches to these, as they have been orally handed down even to the present time. The attempts at literature from the time of the epic age to Peter the Great are not vitally interesting, and hence are omitted.

There, is a wide divergence in the English spelling of Russian names and consistency is almost impossible of attainment. Since Webster's Dictionary is always available, and since it follows somewhat closely Wiener's "Anthology of Russian Literature," which has been cited throughout the Outline, the spelling and dates found in Webster have been given preference.

In the case of the lesser known writers only Wiener's "Anthology" and texts found in periodicals have been