faculty of gloom ; but when he was younger he
could be as gruesOine as Bluebeard. He tried his hand at a novel. The hero, Zinov'ev, is a handsome, strong, open-faced man, popular with' men and Mired by women: His very presence spreads disaster over the countryside. Everyone takes him for a very decent fellow,-z but, beneath the surface, he is consumed with pride, demon-haunted and desperate. His closest friend, a good-natured doctor, has occasionally seen in him character- istics that terrify him ' • he -suspects him of being a
" psychopath," liable to break out into some revolting action.
But apparently no one saw the constant cruelty and egotism of his mind. He is subtle enough to avoid the consequences of the evil in him ; he finds others to suffer in his stead. The story is told in the first person by. Zinov'ev himself—a conven- tional device that is here unusually well employed. By this means Tchekhov shows us more vividly than any other method
would allow the darkness, cunning, and falsity of Zinov'ev's soul. But Tchekhov's talent was not strong enough for a full- length novel, and at times the story seems long-spun-out.
He is not quite able to make the other characters of the book living and fresh. If we treat the novel as a crime-story, we can praise it and say what unexpected psychological insight it reveals. It -is impossible to treat it as a great work of art. In some ways the theme is not unlike Dostoievski's The Possessed ;" . but .the superiority of Dostoievski's novel, in characterization, in depth of idea and in knowledge of the human soul is immeasurable.
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