ith any kind of self-conscious Olympianism.
A doctor, a consumptive, and a passionate lover of children, there is
a whimsical humanity about all that Tchekoff writes which has a
singular and quite special appeal.

The "Seagull" is a play full of delicate subtleties and dreamy
glimpses of shy humane wisdom. The manner in which outward things--the
mere background and scenery of the play--are used to deepen and
enhance the dramatic interest is a thing peculiarly characteristic of
this author. Tchekoff has that kind of imaginative sensibility which
makes every material object one encounters significant with spiritual
intimations.

The mere business of plot--whether in his plays or stories--is not the
important matter. The important matter is a certain sudden and
pathetic illumination thrown upon the essential truth by some casual
grouping of persons or of things--some emphatic or symbolic
gesture--some significant movement among the silent "listeners."

52. ARTZIBASHEFF. SANINE, _translation published by Huebsch_.

Artzibasheff is an extremist. The suicidal "motif" in the
"Breaking-point" is worked out with an appalling and devastating
thoroughness.

Pessimism, in a superficial sense, could hardly go further; though
compared with Dostoievsky's insight into the "infinite" in character,
one is conscious of a certain closing of doors and narrowing of
issues. "Sanine" himself is a sort of idealization of the sublimated
common sense which seems to be this writer's selected virtue.
Artzibasheff appears to advocate, as the wisest and sanest way of
dealing with life, a certain robust and contemptuous self-assertion,
kindly, genial, without baseness or malice; but free from any scruple
and quite untroubled by remorse.

If regarded seriously--as he appears to be intended to be--as an
approximate human ideal, one cannot help feeling that in spite of his
humorous anarchism and subjective zest for life, Sanine has in him
something sententious and tiresome. He is, so to speak, an immoral
prig; nor do his vivacious spirits compensate us for the lack of
delicacy and irony in him. On the other hand there is something
direct, downright and "honest" about his clear-thinking, and his
shameless eroticism which wins our liking and affection, if not our
admiration. Artzibasheff is indeed one of the few writers who dare
excite our sympathy not only for the seduced in this world but for the
seducer.

53. STERNE--TRISTRAM SHANDY.