IN THE HOTEL DE LA MOLE
303
gestive density of his "milieux," almost no trace of the kinetics of the
political and historical background. Meanwhile Thackeray, who
places the events of
V anit
y
Fair
(1847-48 ) most concretely in con–
temporary history (the years before and after Waterloo), on the
whole preserves the moralistic, half-satirical, half-sympathetic view–
point very much as it was handed down by the eighteenth century.
We must unfortunately forego discussing the rise of modern Russian
realism (Gogol's
Dead
Souls
appeared in 1842, his short story "The
Cloak" .as early as 1835 ) even in the most general way; for our
purpose, this
is
impossible when one cannot read the works in their
original language. We shall have to content ourselves with discussing
later the influence exercised by this school.
(Translated
by
W illard R. Trask )
