The International Library of Famous Literature (Volume 18); Selections from the World's Great Writers, Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern, with Biographic

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1898. Excerpt: ... NIHILIST CIRCLES IN RUSSIA.1 By GEORG BRANDES. (From Impressions of Russia translated by Samuel C. Eastman.) [georg Br Andes is one of the most eminent of Scandinavian critics. He was born of Jewish parentage in Copenhagen, Denmark, February 4, 1842, and after graduating at the university in that city, traveled and lectured in all parts of Europe. In 1883 he returned to Denmark, his fellow-countrymen having guaranteed him an income of four thousand crowns for ten years, with the single stipulation that he should deliver public lectures on literature. The most important of his publications, over thirty in number, are: ., Esthetic Studies, Criticisms and Portraits, Principal Tendencies in the Literature of the Nineteenth Century, Danish Poets, Impressions of Russia, Benjamin D'Israeli, and William Shakespeare.] Two thousand women annually, of their own accord, accompany the exiles to Siberia, frequently to hard labor. In this way a lady of high rank, Baroness Rehbinder, some years ago went with the celebrated physician, Dr. Weimar, who was implicated in the trials for the attempts at assassination. It can generally be said of those who go out among the people, that when the home life is oppression or obstruction, they seek emancipation from it at any cost. It was in this view that what at the time was called sham marriage was invented, though it has nearly gone out of use. The young girl found a comrade of the same views of life as herself, who consented to marry her pro forma, but who neither had nor claimed any control over her, and by whose aid she escaped from the surveillance of her family. Sometimes it happens that the two (as in Mrs. Gyllembourg's Light Nights), after having become better acquainted, actually marry; in other cases the man is said to have ...