The name of Viktor Petrovich Kliushnikov (also spelled Kliuchnikov) is often mentioned in histories and handbooks of Russian literature, but there has been virtually no scholarship devoted solely to him and his writing. Kliushnikov has been considered a minor literary figure, forgotten by the broader reading public and interesting to scholars mainly as a representative of the so-called antinihilist literature that became common in the 1860s in response to the new radical movement. In fact, while nihilist characters are found in nearly all of Kliushnikov's works, this theme was not his leading preoccupation throughout his career. Kliushnikov did, however, make his name as an antinihilist writer after the publication of his first novel, Marevo (The Mirage, 1864), in which he caricatured the radical revolutionaries and also wrote tendentiously about the Polish uprising of 1863. In spite of many shortcomings in the novel, the publication of Marevo was a significant event...