William Richard Morfill

“ For his first acquaintance with the literature of his country the future novelist was indebted to a serf of the family, who used to read to him verses from the Rossiad of Kheraskov, a once celebrated poet of the eighteenth century. Turgueniev's early attempts in literature, consisting of poems and trifling sketches, may be passed over here; they were not without indications of genius, and were favourably spoken of by Bielinski, then the leading Russian critic, for whom Turgueniev ever cherished a warm regard. ”

“ His studies of human nature are profound, and he has the wide sympathies which are essential to genius of the highest order. A melancholy, almost pessimist, feeling pervades his writings, a morbid self-analysis which seems natural to the Slavonic mind. The closing chapter of “A Nest of Nobles” is one of the saddest and at the same time truest pages in the whole range of existing novels.
The writings of Turgueniev have been made familiar to persons unacquainted with Russian by French translations. ”

“ Our author first made a name by his striking sketches "The Papers of a Sportsman" (Zapiski Okhotnika) , in which the miserable condition of the peasants was described with startling realism. The work appeared in a collected form in 1852. ”