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In all of his stories Turgenev maintains one quality which few writers have ever teen able to match. He never imposes himself on his characters, never plays ricks on them or the reader. It is this tone of creative tact which so impressed two American storytellers, Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway, when they first looked for literary models. Anderson once called A Sportsman's Notebook "the sweetest thing in all literature."* If he exaggerated, it was not by far.
* Less modest, Hemingway later decided that he had outboxed his master. Said Hemingway in a recent interview: "I started out very quiet and I beat Mr. Turgenev. Then I trained hard and I beat Mr. de Maupassant. I've fought two draws with Mr. Stendhal . . . But nobody's going to get me in any ring with Mr. Tolstoy unless I'm crazy or I keep getting better."