SOURCE: "Pushkin's Prose," in Pushkin: A Collection of Articles and Essays on the Great Russian Poet, A. S. Pushkin, The U. S. S. R. Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, 1939, pp. 106-15.

In the following essay, Shklovski praises Pushkin's prose and describes his historical narratives of Russian life.

I

In Pushkin's days Russian prose was chiefly imitative. In 1834 Pushkin wrote an article of which the title alone "The Paltriness of Russian Literature"—is sufficient to show how matters stood. In this article he wrote:

"Voltaire and the titans have not a single disciple in Russia, but ungifted pygmies, fungi that grew up at the roots of the oaks: Dorat, Florian, Marmontel, Guichard, Madame de Genlis, hold sway over Russian literature. Sterne is alien to us all except Karamzin."

Pushkin strove to be a philosophical and literary influence in the country. He wrote for his readers and he...