His talents first revealed themselves in 1847, in his "Notes on Angling," and his "Diary of a Sportsman with a Gun," in the Orenburg Government (1852).

Most famous of all, and most delightful, are the companion volumes, "A Family Chronicle and Souvenirs" (1856) and "The Childhood's Years of Bagroff's Grandson" (1858).

In these Russian descriptive language made a great stride in advance, even after Pushkin and Gogol; and as a limner of landscape, he has no equal in Russian literature.

The most noteworthy point about his work is that there is not a trace of creative fancy or invention; he describes reality, takes everything straight from life, and describes it with amazing faithfulness and artistic harmony.

He was the first Russian writer to look on Russian life from a positive instead of from a negative point of view.[19] Pushkin's period had been important, not only in rendering Russian literature national, but still more so in bringing literature into close connection with life and its interests.