ABSTRACT
The first great novelist after Gogol was Ivan S. Turgenev. It was in 1847 that Ivan S. Turgenev published in The Contemporary the first of those delightful jottings which, came out in book form under the title, A Sportsmans Sketches. Encouraged by the success of A Sportsmans Sketches, Turgenev wrote novels, stories, and even a few plays, most of which are now among the permanent treasures of European literature. The first of his novels, Rudin, appeared in 1855. In contrast to the bulk of Russian authors, Turgenev was meticulous about the artistic finish of his writings. As for Turgenev's ventures in playwriting, his comedy, A Month in the Country, should be mentioned, partly on account of its recent popularity abroad, and partly because its essential features hardly differ from those readers find in his novels and stories. He paved the way for the triumph of Russian literature as a European power.
