Ivan Panaev's literary legacy consists mainly of his memoirs, in which he comments on literary Russia of the 1830s and 1840s from his association with the Natural School and from his work as copublisher and coeditor, with Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, of the journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary) from 1847 until his death in 1862. His tales and sketches (he was one of the main practitioners of the "physiological sketch" promoted by Vissarion Grigor'evich Belinsky) rate as quite respectable and still provide enjoyable reading. Nevertheless, Panaev has traditionally been appreciated more for his polemical comments and commentaries, as a memoirist, journalist, and friend and colleague of the progressive literary figures Belinsky, Nekrasov, and Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky. Perhaps because his own memoirs are sufficiently detailed, little independent scholarly writing exists on Panaev's life and work. Most introductory articles to the various editions of his works apologize, as it were, for his status as...