Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/593



HE present chapter contains a list of works available in non-russian languages from which readers can acquire a knowledge of Russia, of Russian conditions and evolution. The brief comments are penned from the general outlook of the foregoing study. Reference is made in the text to a few additional books of importance.

One who wishes to learn Russia from within, to acquire such a view as I have endeavoured to present, will find little to help him in European literature. Almost the only books are those of Herzen, the works of that author which appeared in French or German. Russians have of late years written a number of historical accounts of "social thought," the intelligentsia, etc., etc. To gain an understanding of it is necessary to read the more notable Russian authors from Puškin to Gor'kii. The whole series can be procured in translation, and groups of especially valuable works can be selected for special subjects (for example, life in Siberia, prison life, the so-called ethnographical novels, etc.).

(a) The following are the chief works on available in foreign tongues: A. von Reinholdt, Geschichte der russischen Literatur, 1886 (this is still the best and most complete survey of the whole field). A. Brückner, Geschichte der russischen Literatur, 1905 (a stimulating survey of recent literature). S. Volkonskii, Pictures of Russian Life and History, 1898 (brief sketches). Kropotkin, Ideals and Realities in Russian Literature, 1905 (stresses the sociopolitical and revolutionary aspects of recent literature). A. Wesselovsky, Die russische Literatur, 1908 (brief but valuable study, published in the collective work entitled "Die Kultur der Gegenwart"). De Vogüé, Le roman russe, 1868. Ossip-Lourié, La psychologie des romanciers russes du dix-neuvième siècle, 1905 (confused). Maurice Baring, Russian Literature, 1914. K. Waliszewski, History of Russian Literature, 1900. Also the articles on Russian Language and Slavonic Lan-