A Russian Novelist.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 173, 9 October 1886, Page 5

A Russian Novelist.

There are three Russian novelists who* though, with one exception, little known out? of their own country, stand head and shoulders above most of their conteaa* poraries. la the opinion of some not indifferent critic?, they are euperior to alt other novelists of this generation. Two o£ ' them, Dostoyevsky and Turgenieff, died not* long ago ; the third, Leon Tolstoi (cousin to the statesman), still lives. The one with the most marked individuality of character and probably the most highly gifted was unquestionably Feodor Mikailovitch Doatoyev* sky. His own life was a tragic romance, and he met with stranger experiences and underwent a more remarkable' training thai* any writer of his time. Nowhere but fa. Russia would such experiences have been. possible. Born at Moscow in 1821, in & poor-house of which his father, a retired army surgeon, was the medical director,, Feodor from his boyhood was familiar with, human misery in its direct shape, and. acquired a capacity of sympathy with suffering and sorrow, and an insight into, character, which deepened and strengthened with every succeeding year of his life* After beine educated at the School of Engineers arid passing a year in the army,, he resigned his commission and took tQ journalism and letters, a calling at th.s> best uncertain, but in Russia, and aboYe> all at that time, both precarious and dangerous. Though noble^ Dostoyevsky'g; family was poor ; he had no other means of subsistence than such as hia pen might bring him ; and despise his genius and industry, he sometimes lacked the common necessaries of lite, and often knew notwhero to lay his head. Yet at twenty-three heproduced a romance, "The Poor Folk," which won the warm approval of Russian critics, and made him known to every Russian who; could read. "A new Gogol is born," exclaimed the poet Bielinsky, when he had read the book. In any other country, a beginning so brilliant would have assured an author affluence, if not fortune. But to Dostoyovsky it brought nothing more substantial than fame, and for forty long years this man, who has been called "Russians Shakespeare," struggled in the mire of indigence and debt. Save when in prison or at the hulks, he hardly ever knew what It; it was to be free for a day from the carking cares of poverty. He came very near being hanged, too. In IS4S a few Western ideas began ta penetrate into the Empire ot the Night, and Doetoyevsky was induced to join a society* organised by a man of the name of Petra^ chevBky, for the discussion of social and political questions. It went on for nearly two years without exciting the attention of the police, and it was only in 1849 that thej Russian Government, alarmed by the spread of revolutionary ideas in neighbouring countries, broke up the society, and arrested thirty -three of its member?, among whom were Dostoyevsky and his brother, It does not appear, however, tha they had taken a leading part either in the; organisation or the proceedings of the? society, for the brother was thortly after* wards released, and the only charges the police could bring against Feodor wore that he had taken part ia conversations on the severity of thecensorship, and listened to the reading o£ seditious books and pamphlets. He was among the twenty-one who were tried — ins. their absence — by a military tribunal, and sentenced to they knew not what, until some titnej later. On December 22 (1849),. however, they were taken from their cells: to Semenovsky Square, where a scaffold ha.d been erected and every preparation mad© for an execution. There was even a cart load of coffins on the ground. While th© prisoners stood on the scaffold, Dostoyevsky communicated to Monbelli, one of his companions, the plan of a novel which he had thought out in his cell. Then they wers ordered, despite the terrible cold, to strip to* their shirts and listen to the readingof their sentence, ltlastedhalf an hour, butonly whom the end was reached did they know thafe they were condemned to death, and ordered! to be ehofc in batches. The first batch consisted of Fetrachevsky and two other two, ringleaders. They were fastened to a post, and the tiring-party ordered to advance,. The officer in command gave the worde, " Load ! present !" — tho soldiers' finger* were on the trigger? of their pieces, and he> was about to say " Fire !" when a white flagwas run up and flultere-I to the breeze. Ifc was a sign of grace. The Oar had granted a commutation of the Fentence pa°sed byr the court martial. Instead of death, the, twenty-one victims had to undergo various terms of ponal servitude Dostoyovsky'ss doom was four years' hard labour in Siberia* an indefinite term of service as a common soldier, deprivation of his rank as noble^ and loss of all his civil rights ! Postoyevsky's experiences in Siberia are> narrated in the only book of his which, till within a week or two, had been translated! into English, "Buried Alive" (published by Lomnnans). It is not, however, gene? rally known that this book is a record of what Dostoyevsky himself saw and under** went, for the ostensible narrator ip a certain. Alexander Petrovitch Goriantchikofi, undec sentence of ten yearß, penal servitude for as civil crime — killing his wife in a fit of justifiable jealousy. Thi3 device was adopted? to avoid the perils of the censorship, for afe that time the Russian Government would not admit or ha\so it said that political offenders existed ; and Siberia as. a? place of punishment was never mentioned. Even the judges designated it by, &. euphemism. Had Dostoyeveky written in, his own name an account of hie adventures^ hia manuscript (or proofs) would have been confiscated, and himself punched a second time. All this wap, of course, well known* in Russia, where tho book made a veritably sensation Its exposure of the frightful* abuses which then prevailed in Siberian* prisons, where convicts were not unfrequently flogged to death, eve.t roueed ths Government to action, and led to consider* able reforms in the eystem ot panal servitude Dostoyevsky underwent his full terna of hard labour, but was exempted from eer\r, ing in tho army ; and after hia return< to» civilisation, betook himsrlf once more to» literature, wrote the books "which > thought they may not have brought him much sub* stantial reward, place him in the first- rattle of the world's novelists, — " Spectator

Cruel. Sh<=» -" lam going to the beach, and I want to pet come enrt of a betfjlfe' ing doatume. Most of them are so ludiQ~ roun, you know. Can'fc you suggest some* thing that will prevent me from making* a fright of myself?" He— "Yo\i tnig&& keep beneath the surface of the watery