The great Russian novelists of the 19th century are often considered unmatched as a group in literature and perhaps only approached by the 19th century composers of classical music. But who were these masters of image as portrayed through the written word? What made them tick and what makes their works keep on ticking? Professor William Lyon Phelps offers us a delicious beginning with a superb analysis of the Russian character in fiction and follow with a cogent presentation of the lives and works of Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoi, Gorki, Chekhov, Artsbashev, Andreev and Kuprin. This book, originally published in 1915 by the MacMillan Company, has been completely retyped and indexed for this publication.