SNAP SHOTS
Middleton, George
Snap Shots Books, Art, Drama By George Middleton SOME MONTHS ago I called the attention of my readers to the very fine edition of Dos-toevsky's novels which Macmillan is publishing. Already there...
...In a previous review of The House of the Dead I suggested that this record of the famous author's own experiences in prison might be the very best one to begin upon, since in it so much of Dostoevsky's philosophy is stated...
...but one must dig for all the real veins of precious metal which lie hidden in genius...
...A reading of Crime and Punishment—one of the great detective novels of the world lifted to his art because of the marvelous study it gives of human motives—as well as The Brothers Karamazov—which George Moore has said is the greatest novel ever written —brings to light, in a vivid way, the wonderfully tolerant philosophy of this man...
...It is without doubt one of the most depressing books I have ever read, because of the power with which the author makes us realize the uselessness of life...
...A beneficent toleration colors all these pages and one leaves such books as The Idiot and The Insulted and the Injured with a sense of our common humanity even though race and language separate us from his people...
...for any book with which we can strongly disagree is stimulating...
...IT IS interesting to call attention to another of the Russians who is now attracting attention: a man who also probes mercilessly...
...Though he remorselessly probes the lower reaches of human nature, though he dissects all its sores and rotten places, he is essentially a lover of his felldw being...
...Here lies its corrective value...
...Saninc I have already reviewed...
...Yet he lacks the warm sympathy pi Dostoevsky: his is a cold staring vision which shivers all our nice conventional attitudes...
...And it is an interesting comment on life as seen by one, cynical even of his own attitude towards it...
...Two novels and a volume of short stories by Artizibashef (published by B. Huebsch) are now before us...
...He is not always easy reading since many of his pages are burdened with detail...
...I need not give the plot in detail but the fact that it is unpleasant is no reason why one should be blind to its power...
...The Breaking Point is not food for infants...
...Already there are six volumes on the market with more to come...
...It attacks all conventions...
Vol. 7 • November 1915 • No. 11
