SOURCE: "Russian Genius," in Spectator, Vol. 200, No. 6783, June 27, 1958, p. 844.

In the following review, Conquest observes that Pushkin "did not produce a literature of extreme situations, " but rather explored "the circumstances of man as a passive object. "

The Captain's Daughter is one of the stories in which Pushkin created Russian prose. Like that of Lermontov, it is true poet's prose, absolutely clear, objective, unpretentious and penetrating. The fictionalised account of his own Negro great-grandfather at the court of Peter the Great is less important in the canon.

Though Pushkin was indirectly involved in the Decembrist plot, and resented the 'adverse trick' that 'let me be born with a soul and talent in Russia,' he also detested the typical revolutionaries—positively heartless men who set little value on their skins and less still on those of others,' as he says here. This is not a very hopeful position...