THE BOOKMAN

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 102, 30 April 1921, Page 15

THE BOOKMAN

"The Friend otf the Family; or Stepantchdkovo .and its Inhabitants." By Fydor Dostoevsky. London: William Heinemann.

Thie is the twelfth volume of Dostowsky's novels which the late Mr. William Heinemann had translated by Constance Garnett in order to afford English read-* ers a thorough iasight into the great Russian character novelist. "The Friend of the Family" vat written in 1859, and it is a long (some readers may find it too long) description of a parasite, Fotna Fomitch, who fastens himself upon a iamily. Coming into it as a sort of attendant-amanuensis to. a particularly choleric general, he hangs on long after the general dies, and, in fact, is far more intimate than he ought to be with the general's widow. However, he has a way with him of bringing all beneath the mephitic influence of his humbug; and the strangest thing—to an English reader, at any rate —is how he carries his objects, no matter what they are. The family to whom he has attached his blighting personality suffers most by him and yet fails to see through him. But Dostoevsky fills his large etage with characters, and every one of them he makes interesting, some of them likeable, some utterly loathsome. The people of Stepantchikovo, a Russian small town, are a queer lot; but none of them can be regarded as merely fictional types. That is one of the charms of Dostoevsky : his profound knowledge of human nature and his masterly ability to transcribe it. N

. One requires to be a Russian or to know Russians to fully appreciate "The Friend of the Family," also the accompanying story, "Nyetochka Nyezvanov." This latter story deals with the subtleties of musicians to some extent, but with 6ome aspects of the Russian character that are very interesting to English readers. There are, too, some patches of subtle humour, brightening incidents in both stories, but in the main they make sombre reading.

"Jeremy." By Hugh WaJpole. London and Melbourne : Cassell and Co. (S. and W. Mackay, Wellington.) V^Jeremy" is the story of a rather nice\but quite human little boy, and it is told by a^mastsr, Hamlet was Jeremy's faithful canine companion. Where Jeremy went Hamlet went (unless tied up). The adventure with the sailor who turned out to be A burglar, the experiences at the statute fair, are two incidents in Jeremy's life that stand prominently in the pages of this delightful boy story, first published, by the way, in 1919.