Gogol has made brilliantly colored pictures of his Zaporogues,
which please by their very grotesqueness; but sometimes it is too
evident that he has not drawn them from nature. Moreover, these
character-pictures are framed in such a trivial and romantic
setting that one regrets to see them so ill-placed. The most
prosaic story would have suited them better than these melodramatic
scenes in which are accumulated tragic incidents of famine,
torture, etc. In short, one feels that the author is not at ease on
the ground which he has chosen; his gait is awkward, and the
invariable irony of his style makes the perusal of these melancholy
incidents more painful. This style which, in my opinion, is quite
out of place in some parts of "Taras Bulba," is much more
appropriate in the "Viy," or "King of the Gnomes," a tale of
witchcraft, which amuses and alarms at the same time. The grotesque
easily blends with the marvelous. Recognizing to the full the
poetic side of his subject, the author, while describing the savage
and strange customs of the old-time Cossacks with his usual
precision and exactitude, has easily prepared the way for the
introduction of an element of uncanniness. -- From Prosper
Merimee's Preface to this volume.
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