In their form they possess none of that elegant regularity, of that classical finish and clear-cut outline, which impress us in the works of Turgeneff and Gontcharoff.

On the contrary, they surprise us by their awkwardness, their prolixity, their lack of severe finish, which requires abundant leisure.

It is evident that they were written in haste, by a man who was eternally in want, embarrassed with debts, and incapable of making the two ends meet financially.

At the same time one is struck by the entire absence in Dostoevsky's works of those artistic elements in which the works of the other authors of the '40's are rich.

They contain no enchanting pictures of nature, no soul-stirring love scenes, meetings, kisses, the bewitching feminine types which turn the reader's head, for which Turgeneff and Tolstoy are famous.