ABSTRACT
The Crimean war awakened curiosity in England about the enemy, and there was a demand for details about Russian life and manners. The sketches inspired in the reviewer some general reflections about Russia, interesting as generalization about an enemy in a war climate of opinion. A reporter with an unusual fund of Russian experience was an Englishwoman who left Russia at the beginning of the Crimean War, after a residence of ten years, and whose Impressions of the Society and Manners of the Russians at Home appeared in 1855 in New York and London. The mission of art, for Dillman, is to represent the beautiful, and the duty of the artist is to view life harmoniously and reconcile its contradictions through faith in the ideal destiny of mankind. But in all this, there is no real explanation of the part played in Turgenev's novels, and with Turgenev's intention, by the social developments and political events of the day.
