incessantly
with gloomy episodes, such as the agonies of an old man or of a
child. It is a book for "blase" people, a book which a reader with
moral health will not read without a certain feeling of uneasiness.

We are also indebted to Artzybashev for a series of highly colored
stories. "Sub-Lieutenant Golobov," "Blood," "The Workingman
Shevshrev," and "The Millions" are some of the most remarkable.

* * * * *

Like Artzybashev, but with less talent, Anatol Kamensky has written
little stories happily enough conceived. Thus, "Laida"--the story of
a worldly woman so taken up with liberty that she exhibits herself
nude before her husband's guests. Another story called "Four," tells
of four women taken from the most diverse social classes, ranging
from a young school-girl to the wife of a clergyman, who give
themselves to an officer at the end of a trip of twenty-four hours.
Then there is also the story of a woman who proposes to an unknown
man that he should play a game of cards with her companions, she
being the prize. This story is called "The Game." Finally, there is
the story of a young man whose agreeable profession consists in
living among others gratuitously and in seducing women under the
eyes of their husbands.

These stories are sadly spoiled by a crude philosophy and by
"anarchistic" protestations against present values.

* * * * *

Certain authors wander into far-away countries for their subjects:
to Sodom and Lesbos. The best known is Michael Kouzmine. This
writer, who happily began with stories of the Orient in the Middle
Ages, has now acquired a rather sad renown for himself with his
story called "The Wings," which appeared at the end of 1906. The
scandalous success which this book won, encouraged the author to go
on in the same manner. In poor verse, and especially in the story,
"The Castle of Cards," Kouzmine has exalted the sin of Sodom as
being the most supreme form of aesthetic emotions.

* * * * *

Closely related to these writers, although surpassing them all in
original talent, Feodor Sologoub is the most intellectual and subtle
of the Russian modernists. His principal work consists in depicting
the small provincial towns. His heroes are little bourgeois petty
officials, school-teachers, and country proprietors.

This chanter of birth and death, disgusted by the banality of
existence, has given us