ABSTRACT
Ivan Turgenev was the kind of novelist the young Henry James wanted to be. He had grace and irony, he never lost his composure, he understood both Russia and Europe. James called him in a celebrated phrase ‘the novelist’s novelist’. Pushkin, always the master for Turgenev, taught him a tone and a perspective. They belonged to the same class; and they appreciated the same things: a simplicity in elegance, the note of Tatyana’s drawing-room; independence and honesty; the good sense of the practical Russian mind as they saw it; in a word, the virtues of humanism. Turgenev may be compared with Thackeray in his general attitudes: an early radicalism modified with the years; a certain hauteur; and a deep-seated pessimism. Both respond to the spectacle of this world, its brightness and variety, the grain on the social surface; they observe keenly and feel humanely.
