A prolific writer of a prolific age, Daniil Lukich Mordovtsev was extremely productive as a journalist, historian, and novelist. His journalism is relevant within the context of the era of the Great Reforms. His historical research reflects the turn of Russian historiography to the study of grassroots movements. His first novels are of interest as a part of the argument about the "new men" begun by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev and Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky. But his foremost contribution is in the area of the historical novel. Although Mordovtsev did not create a single masterpiece of lasting importance, his many novels on subjects from the Russian and Ukrainian past earned him a place in the rich tradition of Russian historical fiction. In addition to Russian, Mordovtsev wrote in his native Ukrainian, and, although his output there is rather modest, he is warmly remembered in Ukrainian culture. Mordovtsev did not belong...