unnatural theoretical discussions. Besides, the author is in such a
hurry that he seems never to have had the time himself to read over
his novels before sending them to the printer. And, worst of all,
every one of the heroes of Dostoevski, especially in his novels of the
later period, is a person suffering from some psychical disease or
from moral perversion. As a result, while one may read some of the
novels of Dostoevski with the greatest interest, one is never tempted
to re-read them, as one re-reads the novels of Tolstoi and Turgenev,
and even those of many secondary novel writers; and the present writer
must confess that he had the greatest pain lately in reading through,
for instance, "The Brothers Karamazov," and never could pull himself
through such a novel as "The Idiot." However, one pardons Dostoevski
everything, because when he speaks of the ill-treated and the
forgotten children of our town civilisation he becomes truly great
through his wide, infinite love of mankind--of man, even in his worst
manifestations."

Mr. Baring's book was published in 1910, Kropotkin's in 1905, which
seems to make Mr. Baring's attitude point to the past, rather than to
the future. Kropotkin seems to imply that the wave of enthusiasm for
Dostoevski is a phase that has already passed, rather than a new and
increasing demonstration, as Mr. Baring would have us believe.

Dostoevski's first book, "Poor Folk," appeared when he was only
twenty-five years old: it made an instant success, and gave the young
author an enviable reputation. The manuscript was given by a friend to
the poet Nekrassov. Kropotkin says that Dostoevski "had inwardly
doubted whether the novel would even be read by the editor. He was
living then in a poor, miserable room, and was fast asleep when at
four o'clock in the morning Nekrassov and Grigorovich knocked at his