Showing results by narrator "Russell Stamets" in All Categories

Poe’s character is the most complex which has yet appeared among American writers, and his genius is the most elusive and individual. He fills a very considerable place in our literary development, and yet, in important aspects of his career, he seems to have been entirely detached from it. His genius is no longer questioned, nor is his influence; and yet his impress on the spiritual life of the country is hardly perceptible.

Historians, even historians of philosophy, have tended to dismiss Stoicism lightly, and popular opinion has taken the cue. No doubt, relevant reasons abound. The riches of Socrates, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle served to accentuate the comparative poverty of the next age.

“Phantoms” and “It is Enough” were written next after “Fathers and Children.” Although one of Turgénieff’s minor works, the critics pronounced “Phantoms” original, wonderfully artistic and philosophical, and wonderfully lyrical. The author himself called it “a fantasy,” as he did other sketches in which he sometimes poured out, in lyrical form, his sadness evoked by the contrary laws of nature, and man’s aspirations toward the absolute, the eternal. It demonstrates the somewhat mystical romanticism which lay concealed in Turgénieff’s nature, and only occasionally came to the light.