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A Lear of the Steppes
and Other Stories
by Ivan Turgenev
1870
Translated from the Russian by Constance Black Garnett
and with an Introduction by Edward Garnett
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1899
Reprinted with permission of William Heinemann Limited and the
Constance Garnett Estate
From the edition of 1894--1899
First AMS EDITION published 1970
Manufactured in the United States of America
AMS PRESS, INC.
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10003
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-104348
SBN: complete set: 404-01900-5
volume 12: 404-01915-3
Table of Contents
Introduction by Edward Garnett
A Lear of the Steppes
Acia
Faust
INTRODUCTION
By Edward Garnett, 1899
I
AN examination of A Lear of the Steppes is of especial interest to authors, as the story is so exquisite in its structure, so overwhelming in its effects, that it exposes the artificiality of the great majority of the clever works of art in fiction. A Lear of the Steppes is great in art because it is a living organic whole, springing from the deep roots of life itself; and the innumerable works of art that are fabricated and pasted together from an ingenious plan--works that do not grow from the inevitability of things--appear at once insignificant or false in comparison.
In examining the art, the artist will note that Turgenev's method of introducing his story is a lesson in sincerity. Harlov, the Lear of the story, is brought forward with such force on the threshold that all eyes re