When will publishers grasp this? To make the largest
possible amount of money out of an imitative hack, the only way is to
leave him alone. When will publishers grasp that an imitative hack knows
by the grace of God forty times more about the public taste than a
publisher knows?
TOURGENIEV AND DOSTOIEVSKY
[_31 Mar. '10_]
I have read with very great interest Mr. Maurice Baring's new volume about
Russia, "Landmarks in Russian Literature" (Methuen, 6s. net). It deals
with Gogol, Tourgeniev, Dostoievsky, Tolstoy, and Tchehkoff. It is
unpretentious. It is not "literary." I wish it had been more literary. Mr.
Baring seems to have a greater love for literature than an understanding
knowledge of it. He writes like a whole-hearted amateur, guided by common
sense and enthusiasm, but not by the delicate perceptions of an artist. He
often says things, or says things in a manner, which will assuredly annoy
the artist. Thus his curt, conventional remarks about Zola might have been
composed for a leading article in the _Morning Post_, instead of for a
volume of literary criticism. Nevertheless, I cannot be cross with him. In
some ways his book is illuminating. I mean that it has illuminated my
darkness. His chapters on Russian characteristics and on realism in
Russian literature are genuinely valuable.
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