TOURGUENEFF 
 
 ANU 
 
 HIS FRENCH CIRCLE 
 
TOURGUENEFF 
 
 AND HIS FRENCH CIRCLE 
 
 EDITED BY 
 E. HALPERINE-KAMINSKY 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 ETHEL M. ARNOLD 
 
 LONDON 
 T.FISHER UNWIN 
 
 MDCCCXCVin 
 
f^ B 
 
 'K<Lf,(a "i:ïo1il 
 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 
 
 That Ivan Serguéivitch Tourguéneff was one of 
 the most human and lovable of men readers of his 
 novels must long ago have discovered for them- 
 selves, and the letters contained in this volume, 
 w^ritten for the most part to his intimate friends 
 among that group of remarkable Frenchmen who 
 made Paris what it was in the fifties and sixties, 
 can only confirm this impression. It may be said 
 at once that Tourguéneff was in no sense a great 
 letter-writer. Letters were to him precisely what 
 they have been to many hard-working literary 
 men and women, such as Balzac and George 
 Eliot for instance — viz., merely a means to an end, 
 that end being the communication of necessary 
 information to his correspondents. They made 
 no demand upon his literary sense, and, conse- 
 quently, obtained no response from it. Only very 
 seldom, when, for instance, he found himself back 
 in his native land, on his own property in the 
 Province of Orel, did he indulge in letter-writing 
 
 v 
 
 M64S8 
 
translator's preface 
 
 rightly so-called, and then only because his sense 
 of the complete ignorance of his correspondents 
 as to his surroundings stirred his artistic instinct, 
 urging him to produce graphic little word pictures 
 of his settino- and mode of life. For this reason the 
 letters from Russia will probably be considered by the 
 general public as the most interesting of the series. 
 
 But, as we said just now, for the lover of 
 Tourgueneff's novels, all the letters will possess a 
 certain interest of their own, and this not because 
 they are humorous, profound, or admirably turned, 
 but because thev confirm the impression already 
 formed of the man. 
 
 The last fifty years of this century have wit- 
 nessed many changes in the world of art and letters, 
 but perhaps no change has been so marked, or so 
 revolutionary, as that which has taken place in 
 the whole conception and character of the novel. 
 Fifty years ago the romantic convention reigned 
 supreme ; truth, in our modern sense of the words, 
 lay hidden at the bottom of the well. Time passed, 
 and romanticism, together with all the stage- 
 machinery of old-fashioned fiction, was thrown 
 contemptuously on one side, and every novelist 
 went a-groping down the well for Truth. Many 
 of them emerged bearing inanimate objects covered 
 with mud and slime which they palmed off upon 
 a credulous world as the long-sought goddess, 
 some bearing fragments of undoubted authenticity 
 
 vi 
 
XTranslatot's preface 
 
 but insufficient of themselves to satisfy a desire as 
 old as time, as enduring as eternity. Only one or 
 two, and in our opinion Tourgueneff was pre- 
 eminently one of this select band, found what they 
 sought, and revealed to us the clear, strong, but 
 pitiful face of Truth herself. 
 
 In other words, the so-called " realism " of our 
 generation has been for the most part arid, un- 
 satisfying, unclean. Moreover, in their eager 
 desire to demolish one convention, the reformers 
 only succeeded in establishing another in its stead. 
 On the whole, we have been as far as ever we were 
 from those " slices of life " with which, according 
 to Tourgueneff, it should be the business of every 
 dealer in fiction to provide us. The realism of 
 the French school, for instance, has failed to satisfy 
 the completely constituted human being, because, 
 in its constant appeal to the head, it has altogether 
 ignored the existence of the heart, and turned a 
 deaf ear to that " innuendo by which the soul 
 makes its enormous claim." 
 
 Sooner or later, therefore, the seeker after "life 
 itself" turns away from the masters of modern 
 French fiction with a sense of weariness and dis- 
 satisfaction. If, in this mood of disappointment, 
 he were to take up Les Récits d''un Chasseur 
 he would, we venture to predict, find himself 
 gradually filled with the sense of having found 
 what he sought. For there can be no sort of 
 
 vii 
 
Uranslatot^s ipteface 
 
 doubt that however disillusioned Tourguéneff 
 ultimately became with regard to the political 
 destiny of his country, he was, from beginning to 
 end, a man overflowing with genuine love for his 
 kind. Gifted with a rare insight into the ordinary 
 motives of human nature — those springs and wires 
 whence spring the strange antics we call " life," he 
 had what is rarer still, a tender and understanding 
 heart. Nothing human was outside the range of 
 his sympathy ; he threw himself equally into the 
 life of the serf and of the serf-owner. Through all 
 his analysis of human meanness, merciless as it 
 seems at times, there runs a golden thread of pity 
 for the human being — pity of the kind that purifies 
 and moves the heart, just as the Greek idea of 
 Nemesis fortified the soul to endure the larger 
 conception of the essential tragedy of being. 
 
 In this connection it is interesting to compare 
 Tolstoï and TourgutneflF, the two greatest masters 
 of modern fiction, with one another. Both were 
 granted the gift of human sympathy in a supreme 
 degree. But whereas with Tourguéneff one is 
 increasingly conscious, the more one reads him, of 
 a kind of sad, philosophic acquiescence in the 
 existing order of things, as being the product of 
 conditions essentially and eternally human, between 
 whose limits it is proper for feeling and sympathy 
 to operate freely, with Tolstoï one is perpetually 
 aware of the spirit of the reformer and the zealot, 
 
 viii 
 
XLtansiatov'B ipreface 
 
 in whose sight " whatever is, is bad," whose eyes 
 are forever fixed upon that shining land beyond 
 the mists and " miseries of this present time," which, 
 under all its different names, is, and will remain to 
 most of us, alas ! the land of dreams. 
 
 It will naturally be asked, if TourguenefF was so 
 full of sympathy with all the various manifestations 
 of human feeling, why did he not show more 
 active sympathy with the political aspirations and 
 struggles of his fellow-countrymen ? The answer 
 to this question is to be found in his novels by any 
 intelligent reader, for each successive work marks a 
 certain definite advance in that process of dis- 
 illusionment from which, sooner or later, it would 
 seem, the best men in every reforming or revolu- 
 tionary movement inevitably suffer. As a young 
 man no one was more filled with generous political 
 enthusiasm than was Ivan TourguenefF. He made 
 no secret of his Hberalism when the holding of 
 such a political faith was fraught with the gravest 
 danger. From the time when the power of reflec- 
 tion first stirred within him, until the great day of 
 fulfilment, he longed for the abolition of serfdom 
 with an almost passionate intensity. Early in life 
 he incurred the displeasure of the authorities, 
 ostensibly by the frankness of his obituary article 
 upon Gogol, but, in reality, because of his political 
 tendencies in general. " They wanted to put a 
 stopper on my literary activity," he writes to 
 
 ix 
 
translator's Ipteface 
 
 Madame Viardot in a letter which the reader will 
 find produced in full in the present volume. 
 
 What, then, was the cause of that profound dis- 
 illusionment by which all readers of his later books 
 must inevitably be struck ? Again, we must repeat, 
 the answer is to be found in the books themselves. 
 He became disillusioned, because he realised as the 
 years went by, that the greater part of the revolu- 
 tionary movement could only end in " smoke," that 
 the majority of the reformers, moderate men and 
 extremists alike, were characterised by that essen- 
 tially Slav quality, the power and love of talk^ 
 which seems for ever incapable of crystallising 
 itself into action. That there is nothing to be 
 gained by knocking one's head against a blank wall 
 would seem to be an axiomatic truth, vet it was 
 this very truth which TourguénefF's compatriots, all 
 through those feverish years, seemed most deter- 
 mined to ignore, and it was to his realisation of 
 this fatal obstinacy of theirs that his alienation from 
 the " Young Russia " party v/as undoubtedly due. 
 Thanks to his gift of insight, he saw clearly that 
 the salvation of his country vi^ould not come from 
 the Bazarovs of the day ; being convinced of the 
 futility of this essentially Russian type, he painted 
 it patiently and mercilessly in order that his fellow 
 countrymen might " read, mark, learn, and in- 
 wardly digest" the lesson it embodied. 
 
 That Ivan Tourguéneff was a man of naturally 
 
 X 
 
îTransIator'g Ipreface 
 
 sane, candid, and balanced character all readers of 
 these letters will admit ; that, as such, he could 
 not readily associate himself with a movement 
 marked from the outset by a certain effervescence 
 and extravagance, was only to be expected. He 
 chose instead to fix his home among people with 
 whom he felt a strong intellectual sympathy, and 
 from whom he derived an incalculable intellectual 
 stimulus. He was, in fact, a man of letters first, 1 
 and only quite secondarily a politician. From the 
 first he realised clearly enough that his work in the 
 world was meant to be artistic rather than active, 
 and that the life of a propagandist must necessarily 
 prove fatal to the artistic impulse he felt constantly 
 stirring within him. 
 
 Can there be any sort of doubt now, looking 
 back dispassionately upon his career, that he was 
 right in his choice ? By his life work he not only 
 aroused all over Europe a lively interest in the 
 problems and ideals of a great but hitherto com- 
 paratively unknown country ; but, to use the same 
 words he himself used of Gogol, he " revealed his 
 fellow countrymen to themselves." To complain, 
 in a word, that Tourguéneff did not spend his 
 whole life in his native land, and throw himself 
 heart and soul into the political agitations of the day, 
 is to show an invincible confusion of ideas as to the 
 functions of the man of letters and of the man of 
 action. A man of genius must needs follow where 
 
 xi 
 
XTranslatot^s preface 
 
 that genius leads him. It led TourguenefF to live 
 in France, in an atmosphere whence he drew the 
 stimulus he needed for the production of work 
 which has not only made his own name immortal, 
 but has brought Russia into touch with modern 
 Europe, and within the range of European sym- 
 pathy and European ideas. 
 
 But to return to TourguénefF's letters, which, 
 after all, concern us more nearly than his novels or 
 his politics. The most interesting and intimate 
 among them, are, as will be seen, addressed to 
 Gustave Flaubert. The two men seem to have 
 conceived an instantaneous liking for one another 
 the first time they met, and this instinctive sympathy 
 developed into a friendship which was only ter- 
 minated by Flaubert's death. Of the letters which 
 passed between them, we see of course in this 
 volume only those written by Tourguéneff, but 
 they are quite sufficient to show how easy, 
 affectionate, and confidential were the relations 
 existing between the two men. The common 
 termination of "^^ vous embrasse^'' which, in order 
 to avoid the foreign air a literal translation would 
 inevitably have lent to the correspondence, I have 
 generally translated by " much love to you," is 
 alone sufficient to show the closeness of the friend- 
 ship.^ But in order that no doubt may exist in 
 
 ' The warmth of this mode of ending is in fact commented upon 
 as unusual in a passage in the de Concourt 'Journal. 
 
 xii 
 
îlranglator'g Ipreface 
 
 the reader's mind as to its reciprocal nature, M. 
 Halpérine-Kaminsky gives us several quotations 
 both from Flaubert's letters and from the de 
 Concourt Journals, which show^ clearly enough 
 that TourguénefF's affectionate admiration for the 
 author of Madame Bovary was cordially and amply 
 returned. The same may also be said with regard 
 to his relations with Georges Sand, whom he always 
 revered as the original source of his literary inspira- 
 tion, however far he may have subsequently wan- 
 dered from her artistic methods in his search after 
 truth. 
 
 As to his intercourse with MM. Daudet and 
 Zola, M. Halpérine-Kaminsky has much to say 
 which was doubtless prompted by the generous 
 desire to clear the memory of a great compatriot 
 from the odious suspicion of disloyalty. But, 
 while paying every deference to the motives which 
 actuated him, we cannot help feeling that he has 
 made somewhat too much of an episode which 
 belongs essentially to the category of things best 
 forgotten. An anonymous author, moved evidently 
 by some personal grudge against Tourguéneff, 
 published after his death a volume of so-called 
 Recollections^ in which the dead Russian is made to 
 say a number of ill-natured things about his French 
 literary friends, with whom during his lifetime he 
 had always been, ostensibly, upon the best of 
 terms. From the evidence brought forward by 
 
 xiii 
 
tTranslator's preface 
 
 M. Kaminsky it is clear that these Recollections^ 
 as well as some mysterious letters said to have 
 been written by Tourgueneff to a certain M. 
 Sacher-Mazoch (whom it is clear the former never 
 knew, and with whom, therefore, he certainly 
 never corresponded), are spurious. But apart from 
 this external evidence so laboriously collected by 
 M. Kaminsky, the reader will probably feel that 
 M. Daudet's own personal knowledge of Tour- 
 gueneff's character should have saved him from 
 giving hasty credence to stones so greatly to his 
 dead friend's discredit, and so utterly opposed to his 
 impression of the man. And as M, Daudet him- 
 self would seem to be somewhat inclining towards 
 the same opinion, the incident may surely now be 
 allowed a fair and decent burial. 
 
 One word more as to the actual work of trans- 
 lation and I have done. First and foremost I 
 should like to take this opportunity of expressing 
 my cordial gratitude to my friend, Miss Agnes 
 Williams-Freeman, for without her unfailing 
 practical help, without the constant assistance of 
 her wide and accurate knowledge of French, this 
 version would probably never have been accom- 
 plished, and certainly would have altogether failed 
 to attain to whatever degree of merit it may now 
 possess. There only remains to be said that my 
 object throughout the translation has been to 
 reproduce, as far as possible, the easy colloquial 
 
 xiv 
 
Uranslator'g preface 
 
 character of the original ; and if the freedom of 
 certain renderings draw down upon me the wrath 
 of the critic, I can only plead in extenuation 
 Tourguéneff's own intimate conviction, expressed 
 in one of the letters I have considered it my 
 painful duty to print, of the innate incompetence 
 of " lady translators " ! 
 
 ETHEL M. ARNOLD. 
 
 Palazzo Orsini, Rome, 
 November^ i897« 
 
 XV 
 
Letters of 
 Ivan Tourguéneff 
 
 The letters addressed by the celebrated Russian 
 author, Ivan Sergueivitch Tourguéneff, to his 
 French literary friends, possess a double interest, 
 due, first, to their own intrinsic value, v^^hich they 
 share with everything that came from the pen of 
 this master of style, and, secondly, to the fact of 
 their being a revelation of a side of his literary life 
 hitherto unknown. 
 
 Russians have often blamed their great poet for 
 having spent the greater part of his life abroad, and, 
 consequently, for not having been in direct contact 
 with the men and things of whom he treats in his 
 books. Certain of his Russian biographers have 
 gone so far as to assert that the society in which 
 he lived so long helped to detach him completely 
 from Russian soil, without giving him, in exchange, 
 
 I B 
 
TLonvQwéncU ant) 
 
 either a family or deep-rooted friendships upon that 
 French soil where, according to them, he always 
 remained morally isolated. "The time he spent 
 away from Russia, among strangers, gave no moral 
 satisfaction to Serguéivitch," says one of these bio- 
 graphers, M. Ivanov, " and his own people became 
 more and more estranged from him every year." 
 
 This biographer, who has just published a 
 voluminous essay upon TourguenefF, in which he 
 has collected all the materials hitherto known to 
 the Russian public, uses them as the basis of 
 accusations against the Russian writer's French 
 friends, and ac a proof that their influence was, 
 more than anything else, that of boon companions, 
 whose conversation turned habitually upon women 
 and love. The basis he gives for this statement is 
 the fact that Ed. de Concourt says somewhere in his 
 Journal, " JVoman and Love : these are always the 
 topics of conversation when intellectual men are 
 met together for purposes of eating and drinking. 
 Our talk is always full of doubtful jests, and 
 Tourgueneff listens to us with the rather petrified 
 astonishment of a child of nature who takes his love- 
 making quite simply." According to M. Ivanov, 
 fate, in attaching TourguenefF to a French family 
 and to French society, showed very little solicitude 
 for the talent and the moral aspirations of the 
 Russian author. " We know," says he, " wherein 
 ' domestic happiness ' consisted for TourguenefF 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 under the Viardot roof. Taken as a whole it was 
 nothing but a misunderstanding lasting over long 
 years, which left nothing behind it in his nature but 
 the bitterness of moral isolation, and the void result- 
 ing from unsatisfied feeling. We have seen what 
 kind of pleasures TourguenefF might have looked for 
 through the agency of his Parisian fellow-artists ; 
 their friendship was nothing but the artificial cama- 
 raderie of restaurant life. And in reality Tourguénefï 
 was as much a stranger to the guests at the Villa 
 des Fresnesi as to those at the Café Riche." 
 
 As M. Ivanov has read the Concourt Journal 
 he might have known that, even when the habitués 
 of the Magny dinners or of those at the Café Riche 
 (otherwise known as the " Diners des Cinq," 
 Tourgueneff, Flaubert, Concourt, Zola, and 
 Daudet) talked of " woman " and " love," they did 
 so as psychologists and men of letters, and that the 
 Journal with all its biographical details is of genuine 
 literary interest, and has moreover been useful to 
 M. Ivanov himself in his study of TourguéneiFs 
 moral personality. 
 
 It will be seen from the letters which we are 
 now publishing that TourguenefF's relations with 
 his French friends were above all intellectual 
 relations, and that some of these friends, notably 
 M. and Madame Viardot at the outset, and 
 Flaubert afterwards, had a beneficent influence upon 
 
 ^ M. Viardot's place at Bougival. 
 
 3 
 
the development of his talent ; and to this influence 
 we must undoubtedly attribute his dignified, clear 
 style, and that simple literary manner of his which 
 attained perfection by very reason of its simplicity 
 — qualities so rarely to be found among Russian 
 writers, even among the best. 
 
 When, in 1843, TourguenefF made the acquain- 
 tance of the Viardot family, he was hardly twenty- 
 five years old, and his name was still absolutely 
 unknown to Russian literature. At that time his 
 only passion was sport, and it was during a sporting 
 expedition that he was introduced to M. Viardot. 
 M. Viardot, who had already spent some time 
 in Russia, was on the point of introducing to 
 the French public the masterpieces of Russian 
 literature, and was already known by some learned 
 essays upon art and foreign literature. Madame 
 Viardot who was still very young — she was only 
 twenty-two — was already a celebrated singer, com- 
 bining a matchless execution with that inward 
 flame, that deep feeling, and that exquisite taste, 
 which move the heart. These two artists were 
 destined to produce a strong and lasting impression 
 upon Tourguéneff's aesthetic nature. And indeed 
 the friendship which he afterwards dedicated to the 
 Viardot family preserved until his death, i.e., during 
 a period of forty years, this character of artistic and 
 intellectual sympathy. 
 
 " Foreign countries gave him what he lacked 
 
 4 
 
1btg ^vcncb Circle 
 
 in his own," says Madame Andréïev, another of 
 TourgueneiFs biographers. " The longings of his 
 artistic temperament, which were not sufficiently- 
 understood and encouraged with us, found their 
 satisfaction in the surroundings which he made for 
 himself in the Viardot family." And she concludes, 
 speaking of the Viardots as well as of Tourgueneff's 
 other French friends, "By their sympathy in his 
 literary activity, by their devotion to art, by the 
 freedom and sincerity of their opinions, they 
 gave to TourguénefF just that atmosphere which 
 best harmonised with his character. . . . They 
 and their friends gave him courage to carry out 
 his work to the end, for the glory of his country 
 which he never forgot." And, indeed, Tourgueneff 
 himself says in his Souvenirs, " I should certainly 
 never have written Les Récits d^un Chasseur if I had 
 stayed in Russia." Whence came, then, the melan- 
 choly which his intimate letters undoubtedly 
 betray ? Should its cause be sought in his " moral 
 isolation," as M. Ivanov asserts ? Undoubtedly not, 
 and this is how Tourgueneff himself explains it : — 
 "The existing state of things, the whole social 
 fabric, and particularly the class to which I 
 belonged — the class of landlords, of serf-owners — 
 held out no inducement which could have kept me 
 in my own country. On the contrary, almost 
 everything that I saw about me distressed me, filled 
 me with indignation and scorn. I could not remain 
 
 S 
 
undecided for long. I had either to submit, to walk 
 meekly in the common rut, the beaten path, or 
 tear myself away with one wrench, casting off 
 everything and everybody, at the risk of losing 
 many who were near and dear to my heart. 
 I chose the latter course" [Souvenirs littéraires^ 
 vol. X. of TourguenefFs Complete Works). 
 
 It should also be said that the Russian climate, at 
 least of that part of the country where he was in 
 the habit of staying, did not suit him. As soon as 
 he arrived either at St. Petersburg, or at Moscow, 
 or at his Spasskoïé property, he was seized, more 
 often than not, with an attack of gout or of some 
 other ailment. It is rare for his letters from Russia 
 not to include complaints on this head. 
 
 But in the extremely interesting and detailed 
 letter which I received some years ago from the 
 celebrated poet Polonsky, TourguenefF's oldest and 
 most faithful friend, I find this passage amongst 
 others : — 
 
 " With the fortune which he (Tourgueneff) 
 possessed he could have wandered to the Caucasus, 
 the Crimea, the Ural Mountains, or even as far as 
 Siberia. As a matter of fact he limited his artistic 
 horizon solely to the provinces of Moscow, Tamboo, 
 and Orel. How much his field of observation 
 might have been enlarged, what new types might 
 have issued from his pen I Fate, however, decided 
 otherwise." 
 
 6 
 
1bts fftencb (Tircle 
 
 And then M. Polonsky enumerates a long 
 series of causes which prevented TourguenefF from 
 knowing his vast country better, all of which may 
 be reduced to one and the same, viz., the deep 
 friendship which bound the Russian author to the 
 Viardot family. 
 
 We have seen what was the view of the 
 person most concerned as to the reason of his pro- 
 longed stay abroad. M. Polonsky's explanation 
 would seem therefore to err, either on the ground 
 of a certain poetic exaggeration, or as the jealous 
 expression of friendly affection, mingled with a 
 suspicion of patriotic resentment. For, surely, in 
 order to get at the soul of a nation, to feel one's 
 pulse beat in harmony with its unnamed multitudes,^ 
 there is no need to explore all the parts of a vast 
 Empire ? To be born in one of those remote spots i 
 which bear the peculiar impress of the race, to live | 
 there until years of discretion, to grow up fashioned {^ 
 under the influence of young impressions, to watch !, 
 carefully, through a whole lifetime, the manifesta- J 
 tions of national life, sometimes at close quarters, 
 but oftener from a distance lending clearness and 
 serenity to the view — all this is sufficient for a 
 nature of real distinction to gain an insight into, 
 and to describe, the joys and sorrows of a whole 
 nation and to criticise with less prejudice the 
 national character and manners of an entire period. 
 
 Every one knows in what a large measure 
 
 7 
 
Uouv^uéneff anb 
 
 TourguénefF possessed this nature — the province of 
 Orel where he was born is such a spot. And thus 
 it was that he was able, while living in the heart of 
 the lie de France, to write the Récits d^un Chasseur^ 
 the most essentially Russian, while at the same 
 time the most human of books, and, while only 
 going back from time to time to visit his native 
 land, to draw, in a series of novels which will live 
 as much for their historical as for their artistic ex- 
 cellence, a faithful picture of thirty years of Russian 
 social life. He neither could, nor did, confine his 
 I many-coloured palette to the painting of ethnical 
 I specimens in particular localities ; he both could 
 jand was meant to show us types at once eternal 
 land universal. Nevertheless this separation from 
 his country only intensified his attachment to it, 
 and he was, and remained, a Russian to the marrow 
 of his bones. His French friends were fully aware 
 of this. When his mortal remains were on the 
 point of leaving France, that France which he had 
 loved and which had loved him, Edmond About 
 spoke of him as follows : — 
 
 " You spent twenty years amongst us, nearly a 
 third of your life. Our arts, our literature, our 
 cultivated pleasures, made this Parisian life a neces- 
 sity to you. Not only did you love France, but 
 you loved her gracefully as she wishes to be loved. 
 She would have adopted you with pride, had you 
 so willed it, but you always remained faithful to 
 
1btg jftencb Circle 
 
 Russia, and in so doing you did well, for he who 
 does not love his country absolutely, blindly, fool- 
 ishly even, will never be more than half a man. 
 You would not be so popular in the country 
 where they are awaiting you if you had not been 
 a good patriot. I read in the newspapers that a 
 man belonging to the most numerous and most 
 powerful class in the world — the class of fools — said 
 of you : ' I do not know Tourgueneff; he is a 
 European and I am a Russian merchant.' This 
 poor simpleton was confining you too closely within 
 the boundaries of Europe even — it is to the wholes 
 human race that your heart belongs. But Russiaj 
 held the first place in your affections. She it 
 is whom, before all and above all, you have 
 served." 
 
 Another French author, M. Charles Edmond, 
 who lived during his long literary career in close 
 friendship with the most illustrious men in France, 
 and who was himself for half a century an acute 
 observer of various intellectual coteries, writes to 
 me in a private letter : — ■ 
 
 " In every Parisian set, no matter how con- 
 stituted, Tourguénefï" was certain of receiving a 
 cordial welcome. In return he gave a great deal 
 of himself. His immense intelligence, his attrac- 
 tive wit, the penetrating sweetness of his manner, 
 his low, melodious voice, all that winning personality 
 of his, put him at once upon a footing of cordiality 
 
 9 
 
UontQwénctt an^ 
 
 with them all which soon ripened into genuine 
 friendship. Everybody enjoyed his conversation 
 and delighted in his stories. 
 
 '' Observer and subtle student of character as he 
 was, resolved to maintain, apparently, a settled calm 
 of manner, Tourgueneff would nevertheless break 
 out and become passionately excited whenever the 
 talk touched by chance upon one of the three 
 questions round which his whole life seemed to 
 centre. The abolition of serfdom came first — that 
 is to say until the Russian Government declared the 
 freedom of the peasants. Art came next — that is 
 painting, which to the serious amateur was repre- 
 sented by the masters of French landscape, such as 
 Jk^illet, Troyon, and Rousseau first and foremost ; 
 and music, in which his preferences lay in the 
 direction of Gliick, Mozart, and Beethoven, and 
 whose high ideal he justly found embodied in the 
 person of Madame Viardot ; and, finally, literature 
 in which, apart from his living contemporaries, he 
 gave the palm to Charles Dickens. 
 
 " But the first place in his affections was un- 
 doubtedly occupied by his fellow Russian authors. 
 He waxed enthusiastic over their talent, praised their 
 merits to the skies. He seemed as proud of them 
 as if they were near neighbours or members of his 
 own family. No suspicion of rivalry ever entered 
 his patriotic Slav nature. He admired Pouschkine, 
 and raved about Mickiewicz." All this letter might 
 
 lo 
 
•ffjig fftencb Ctrcle 
 
 be quoted, and I shall have recourse to it as occasion 
 serves. Let us first try and get at the truth of 
 certain facts in connection with TourguenefF's life 
 in France. 
 
 In 1847 Louis Viardot, having been helped in 
 the translation by TourguenefF, published in Paris 
 several of GogoFs works, amongst others Tarass 
 Boulba^ the Mémoires d'^un Fou^ the Calèche^ Un 
 Ménage d"* Autrefois^ the Koi des Gnomes, Belinsky, 
 the greatest of Russian critics, spolce very highly 
 of this translation, remarking that it followed the 
 original very closely and was written in an easy and 
 elegant style. Later, on in 1853, ^* Viardot, still 
 with the co-operation of the Russian author, trans- 
 lated Pouschkine's Fille du Capitaine^ and afterwards 
 almost all TourguenefF's own works. But in 1847, 
 when TourguenefF went with the Viardot family 
 to Berlin, he had only just made his bow to the 
 public with the first of his Récits d''un Chasseur 
 (Khor et Kalinytch), and his new friends were far 
 from suspecting what a glorious future lay before 
 him. The same year he rejoined M. and Madame 
 Viardot in Paris. 
 
 At this time, Tourguénefi\, as he himself related 
 in later life, was entirely without pecuniary resources, 
 for his mother who was displeased at his departure, 
 and hurt at seeing him, man of rank and ancient 
 descent as he was, take up a literary career, had 
 refused to supply his needs. While thus situated, 
 
 1 1 
 
XToitr^uéneft anb 
 
 he received from the Viardot family the most 
 generous hospitality ; and Courtavenel, their place 
 in Rosay-en-Brie, was, to use his own words, 
 his "literary cradle." "Here," he wrote to his 
 friend Fet,i " having no means of existence in 
 Paris, I spent the winter all alone, living on 
 soup, chickens, and omelets, which were cooked 
 for me by an old servant. Here it was, that, in 
 order to make money, I wrote the greater part of 
 my Récits d^un Chasseur^ and here also it was, as 
 you know, that my Spasskoïé daughter came to 
 live." 2 This refers to a child that TourgueneflF 
 had had in his youth, whilst still a student, by one 
 of his mother's serfs. This little girl being very 
 unhappy in Russia, TourgueneflF made a confidante 
 of Madame Viardot, who advised him to have her 
 sent to him and undertook to superintend her edu- 
 cation. The death of Ivan Sergueivitch's mother 
 in 1850, obliged him to go back to Russia, and it 
 was not till 1855 that he returned to his friends. 
 He visited several European capitals, and then 
 settled himself with the Viardot family in Baden. 
 But the war of 1870 forced them to go back to 
 Paris, which in future TourguenefF never left, 
 except to go once every year, or every two years, 
 to St. Petersburg or Spasskoïé, his property in the 
 Province of Orel. 
 
 ' A celebrated Russian poet. - To Fet, Mei Souvenirs. 
 
 12 
 
1bls jftencb Cttcle 
 
 It was the Viardot family who introduced Tour- I 
 gueneff to the French world of art and letters. In 
 their house, soon after he arrived in Paris in 1847, 
 he met for the first time Georges Sand, an old 
 friend of Louis Viardot's, with whom she had 
 founded, in 1841, the Revue Indépendante. But it 
 was not till later on that, owing to Flaubert, their 
 intercourse became regular. 
 
 About the same time he made the acquaintance 
 of Mérimée, who was already known as the trans- 
 lator of several of the masterpieces of Russian lite- 
 rature ; about the same time also, his friendship 
 with Charles Edmond developed into intimacy. 
 He had first met M. Edmond at Berlin, and came 
 across him again at the house of Madame Yazykov, 
 one of his compatriots, vvhich house the famous 
 revolutionary Bakounine, and the exiled Russian 
 author, Herzen, also frequented. 
 
 It was Charles Edmond who, on one single 
 occasion, introduced TourguenefF to all the men 
 forming the elite of the literary world at this period 
 — Sainte-Beuve, Théophile Gautier, Flaubert, the 
 Goncourt brothers, Taine, Berthelot, Renan, Ga- 
 varni, Paul de Saint-Victor, Scherer, Charles Blanc, 
 Adrien Hebard, Fromentin, Broca, Ribot, NefFtzer, 
 &c. — in a word, to all the guests of the famous 
 dinners at the Magny restaurant. He met them 
 then for the first time, except Flaubert whom he 
 had known since 1858. In this connection we 
 
 13 
 
read in the journal des Concourt under the date of 
 the 23rd of January, 1863. 
 
 ^^Dinner at Magnfs : — Charles Edmond brought 
 Tourgueneff, that foreign writer with such a grace- 
 ful talent, author of the Mémoires d^un Seigneur 
 Russe^ and of the Hamlet Russe. He is a great, 
 big, charming fellow, a gentle giant with bleached 
 hair, and looks like the kindly genius of a mountain 
 or a forest. He is handsome, magnificently, im- 
 mensely handsome, with the blue of heaven in his 
 eyes, and that charming Russian sing-song voice, 
 in which there is just something both of the child 
 and of the negro. Being put at his ease by the 
 ovation that was given to him, he talked in a curious 
 and interesting way about Russian literature, which 
 he declares to be well launched upon the tide of 
 realism, from the novel to the play." 
 
 Guizot had already expressed the wish to know 
 the author of Le yournal d^un Homme de tropy 
 which had greatly struck him ; and Lamartine 
 describes enthusiastically his first meeting with 
 Tourgueneff. 
 
 The Russian novelist was also on terms of regular 
 intercourse with Jules Simon, Edmond About, 
 Gounod, Augier, Maxime Ducamp, Victor Hugo, 
 Jules Janin, Francisque Sarcey, and Jules Claretie ; 
 and later on he was introduced by Flaubert to the 
 young naturalistic school represented by Zola and 
 Daudet, who, together with Ed. de Concourt, 
 
 H 
 
Ibtg ffrencb Circle 
 
 Flaubert, and TourguenefF, made up that little 
 "Company of Five" which met at a monthly dinner, 
 sometimes at Flaubert's, sometimes at the house of 
 the Concourt brothers. Finally, through Zola, 
 TourguenefF made the acquaintance of the young 
 writers who collaborated in the Soirées de Medan^ 
 and especially of Guy de Maupassant. 
 
 We have said something about the influence 
 which the constant contact with French men of 
 letters exercised upon TourguenefF's talent. It 
 would be only just to add, that he himself, in his 
 turn, must have had some efFect upon the new 
 naturalistic school. It is, indeed, a noticeable fact 
 that naturalism or rather realism, which, owing to 
 Flaubert and Zola, was becoming a school in France, 
 had been, since Pouschkine and Gogol, the charac- 
 teristic of Russian literature ; and yet Flaubert, as 
 Guy de Maupassant, one of his greatest followers, 
 points out, grew up at the time when romanticism 
 was at its height, and was influenced by it. 
 
 " It was one of the most singular sides to this 
 great man," says Maupassant, in his preface to the 
 Letters of Gustave Flaubert, addressed to Georges 
 Sand, " that this innovator, this revealing, audacious 
 spirit remained until his death under the ruling 
 influence of romanticism. It was almost in spite 
 of himself, almost unconsciously, impelled, so to 
 speak, by the irresistible strength of his genius, by 
 the creative force pent up within him, that he wrote 
 
 15 
 
UonvQViéncft an^ 
 
 those novels of his, characterised as they were by 
 so new a manner, so personal a note. His inclina- 
 tion lay in the direction of epic subjects, unfolding 
 themselves in a succession of cantos, as it were, like 
 the scenes of an opera." 
 
 Tourguéneff, who was the direct outcome of his 
 I Russian masters, often insisted, in his conversation 
 I with his French friends, upon the necessity of their 
 abandoning the old romantic forms with their 
 complicated situations and their artificial person- 
 ages, in order to give themselves up to depicting 
 real life and human character. The novelists of the 
 new school themselves never denied the influence 
 which Tourgueneff's works and opinions had 
 exercised upon them. 
 
 Mérimée, who long before Tourgueneff's arrival 
 in France, had been familiar with the works of 
 Pouschkine and Gogol, and who had even met 
 Gogol himself in Paris at Madame Smirnov's ^ in 
 1837, said to Tourguéneff one day, " With you, 
 t' poetry aims first at truth, and beauty comes after- 
 wards of itself. Our poets, on the contrary, move in 
 an entirely opposite direction ; before everything they 
 seek to be effective, light in hand, brilliant, and if 
 with all this they can avoid outraging truth so 
 
 ^ Madame Smirnov, who was sung by Pouschkine and called by 
 Prince Viazemky " Our Lady of Russian literature," was in the habit 
 of assembling at her salon at St. Petersburg the most famous writers 
 among her fellow-countrymen. 
 
 16 
 
IFjis ifxcncb Circle 
 
 much the better. ... In Pouschkine," he added, 
 " the true flower of poetry seems to blossom spon- 
 taneously and to spring from truth itself." 
 
 In the latter years of his life, the author of 
 Colomba^ writing to a Russian lady (in a letter 
 unpublished in France), saw fit to alter this opinion : 
 " In deference to your wish and to the importuni- 
 ties of some Russian friends, I have read Dos- 
 toievsky's novel Le Cr'nne et la Châtiment. I am 
 told it is his masterpiece, but in spite of the author's 
 great talent, I may tell you frankly that the book 
 does not please me. There is a sense of strain, an 
 extravagance of feeling in it, which mitigates 
 against the truth of his artistic observation. He is 
 the outcome of Victor Hugo rather than of 
 Pouschkine. Is it worthy of a Russian author, 
 having so lofty a model, to follow in the footsteps 
 of Hugo and to find in him his inspiration ? " 
 
 ''T*" 'r^ Tf^ 7t^ 
 
 TourguenefF's intercourse with the French 
 literary world gave rise, during his absences from 
 it, to a great deal of interesting correspondence. 
 Unfortunately the whole of it has not been pre- 
 served or at all events has not yet been found. For 
 instance, we may consider as lost for ever the letters 
 which TourguénefF wrote to Mérimée, and which 
 were burnt in the Rue de Lille during the Com- 
 mune, together with the other papers belonging to 
 the author of Colomba. M. Augustin Filon, the 
 
 17 c 
 
^ourgueneff anb 
 
 author of a very interesting book, Mérimée and His 
 Friends^ and through whose hands all the biogra- 
 phical documents concerning Mérimée have passed, 
 has kindly tried to recover this correspondence, but 
 all his efforts have been in vain. 
 
 We must also give up, for the present, all idea 
 of seeing the letters addressed by TourguénefF to 
 Victor Hugo, for M. Paul Meurice has been unable 
 to discover them among the papers of his illustrious 
 friend. The same thing has occurred w^ith regard 
 to those addressed to Charles Edmond. Thanks to 
 the kindness of M. Jules Claretie, who was himself 
 never one of TourguénefPs correspondents, I have 
 been enabled to make use of two letters addressed 
 by Tourguéneff to Ch. Edmond and of one other 
 to Ph. Burty. 
 
 Jules Simon replied to my request that he had 
 indeed "known and loved TourguénefF well." "We 
 met too often," he adds, " for a literary correspon- 
 dence to have arisen between us, and, moreover, my 
 portfolios have been ruthlessly pillaged." 
 
 It was the same with Francisque Sarcey, with 
 this difference — that he voluntarily gave away to 
 " autograph hunters " the few insignificant notes 
 which he received from TourguénefF. 
 
 A painful incident of which we shall speak later 
 on, when we come to publish TourguénefF's 
 correspondence with Zola, has kept Alphonse 
 Daudet from sending me the letters which he 
 
 i8 
 
Ibis f tench Civclc 
 
 received from the author of the Récits d^un Chasseur, 
 Nevertheless, according to the testimony of Daudet 
 himself, those letters are " cordial and exquisite." 
 Let us hope that in the light of the correspondence 
 which WQ are now publishing, the author of Le 
 Nabab will feel a revival of those sentiments which 
 he long cherished towards Tourgucneff during his 
 lifetime, and that he will pay less attention to 
 vulgar gossip. Finally, Edmond de Concourt 
 assured me that he possessed no interesting letter of 
 Tourguéneff's because they saw one another too 
 often. I am afraid this reply conceals an irritation 
 similar to Daudet's, and similarly caused by some 
 so-called Souvenirs sur Tourguéneff of doubtful 
 veracity. 
 
 To sum up, then, we only possess at present the 
 letters addressed by Tourguéneff to Madame 
 Viardot, Georges Sand, Sainte-Beuve, Théophile 
 Gautier, Flaubert and his niece Madame de Com- 
 manville, Taine, Renan, Charles Edmond, Zola, Guy 
 de Maupassant, André Theuriet, and Philippe Burty. 
 Only the correspondences with Flaubert and Zola 
 are really complete, but the whole series is full of 
 great biographical interest, beginning as it does 
 with Tourguéneff's first literary appearances and 
 only ending with his death. 
 
 There are, no doubt other letters of which we 
 know nothing. We should be very grateful to 
 those who possess any, if they would send them to 
 
 19 
 
us, not only for the sake of giving pleasure to the 
 numerous admirers of the great Russian author, but 
 also to help in establishing the truth of an interest- 
 ing chapter in the intellectual relations between 
 France and Russia. 
 
 We have decided in this publication to follow 
 chronological order and therefore begin with the 
 letters addressed to Madame Viardot, to Flaubert, 
 and to Madame Commanville. 
 
 LETTERS TO MADAME VIARDOT. 
 
 I. 
 
 May 1 6, 1850. 
 
 I am at Courtavenel, and I will confess that I am 
 as happy as a child to find myself here. I have been 
 to say " how d'you do " to all the places I said 
 goodbye to before going away. Russia must wait, 
 with its vast and sombre countenance, motionless 
 and veiled like the sphinx of Œdipus. She will 
 swallow me up later on. I seem to see her large, 
 inert gaze fixed upon me, with a dreary scrutiny 
 appropriate to eyes of stone. Never mind, sphinx, 
 I shall return to thee, and thou mayest devour me 
 at thine ease, if I do not guess thy riddle ! Mean- 
 while leave me in peace a while longer ; I shall 
 return to thy steppes ! 
 
 It is a beautiful day to-day. Gounod has been 
 
 20 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 walking all day in Blondureau wood in search of an 
 idea ; but inspiration, capricious as a woman, has 
 not come, and he has arrived at nothing. At least, 
 that is what he tells me himself. He will have his 
 revenge to-morrow. At this moment he is lying 
 on the bear's skin, "in travail." He has a deter- 
 mination and a tenacity about work which compel 
 my admiration. To-day's barrenness makes him 
 very unhappy ; his sighs would almost blow one 
 away, and he is incapable of rousing himself from 
 his preoccupation. In his depression he falls foul 
 of the libretto. I have tried to cheer him up, and 
 think I've succeeded. It's very dangerous to let 
 oneself go like that ; one ends by folding one's 
 hands and saying, " Bother the whole thing." 
 I've listened to his complaints with a slight smile, 
 for I know that all these little clouds disappear at 
 the first breath of inspiration, and I am much 
 flattered at being made the confident of the small 
 woes of creative genius. . . . 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 Tourgueneff made Gounod's acquaintance at the 
 Viardots and kept up friendly relations with him all 
 his life, but no correspondence between them has 
 survived. Madame Charles Gounod writes to me, 
 " Gounod had a profound admiration for the illus- 
 trious poet. He often chanced to meet him at the 
 houses of mutual friends, but I think that their 
 
 21 
 
UonvQwéncU an^ 
 
 intimate relations ended there, for among Gounod's 
 numerous letters, which I have just recently been 
 sorting, I have not found a single signature of 
 TourguenefF's." 
 
 The composition which was absorbing Gounod 
 at the time TourguenefF wrote to Madame Viardot, 
 was Saphoy his first opera, which was produced 
 April i6, 1 85 1 ; the libretto, as every one knows, 
 being by Emile Augier. Suffering from a grief 
 which had just befallen him in the death of his 
 brother, Gounod, together with his mother, had 
 taken refuge in the country-place belonging to his 
 friend Madame Viardot. In his recently published 
 Mémoires cfun Artiste^ the author relates that it 
 was owing to the illustrious singer's spontaneous 
 promise to appear in his first work that he was 
 able both to get the already famous Emile Augier 
 to write the libretto, and also to make favourable 
 terms with the management of the opera. On 
 hearing of the bereavement which had fallen him, 
 Madame Viardot, who was at that time in Germany, 
 wrote to him immediately, begging him to seek the 
 peace and solitude he needed in her country-place, 
 Courtavenel. 
 
 " I followed her advice," adds Gounod, " and we 
 set out, my mother and I, for the place, where we 
 found Madame Viardot's mother, Madame Garcia, 
 the widow of the celebrated singer, together with a 
 sister of M. Viardot's and a young girl (the eldest 
 
 22 
 
Iblg ffrencb (Tltcle 
 
 of the children), who is now Madame Henriette, the 
 distinguished composer. I also met there a charm- 
 ing man, Ivan TourguenefF, the eminent Russian 
 author, and a faithful and intimate friend of the 
 Viardot family. I set to work as soon as I 
 arrived." 
 
 II. 
 
 St. Petersburg, February 21, 1852. 
 I cannot possibly continue this letter in the tone 
 in which I began it ; a very great blow has fallen 
 upon us. Gogol has died at Moscow — died after 
 having burnt everything — everything — the second 
 volume of Ames Mortes^ a host of things either 
 finished or begun — in fact everything. It would 
 be difficult for you to realise the extent of this 
 loss — its cruelty and its completeness. There is 
 not a single Russian at this moment whose heart 
 is not bleeding. To us he was more than a mere 
 writer — he had explained us to ourselves. To us 
 he was, in more senses than one, the spiritual suc- 
 cessor of Peter the Great. These words may seem 
 to you exaggerated and prompted by grief. But 
 you did not know him. You only knew the least 
 of his works, and even if you knew them all it 
 would still be difficult for you to understand what 
 he meant to us. One must be a Russian to feel 
 it. The most acute minds among foreigners — a 
 Mérimée for example — have seen nothing in Gogol 
 
 23 
 
XTourguéneff an^ 
 
 but a humourist after the English pattern. His 
 historic significance has altogether escaped them. 
 I repeat, one must be a Russian to know all that 
 we have lost. ... I. T. 
 
 III. 
 
 St. Petersburg, May 1/13, 1852. 
 
 My dear Friends, — This letter will be brought 
 to you by some one who leaves here in a few days* 
 time, or rather he will send it to Paris, after having 
 crossed the frontier, in order that I may speak to 
 you with a certain amount of frankness and without 
 fear of poHce curiosity. 
 
 I will begin by telling you that if I didn't leave 
 St. Petersburg a month ago, it was quite against my 
 will. I am under arrest, by the Emperor's order, 
 in a house belonging to an officer of police, for having 
 printed in a Moscow newspaper an article of a few 
 lines on Gogol. This was only a pretext, the 
 article being in itself entirely unimportant. I have 
 been looked askance upon for some time, and they 
 have seized on the first opportunity which turned 
 up. I do not complain of the Emperor ; the matter 
 has been so wilfully misrepresented to him that he 
 couldn't well have done otherwise. The fact is the 
 authorities wished to put an end to all that was 
 being said about Gogol's death, and they were not 
 sorry at the same time to put a stopper on my 
 literary activity. 
 
 24 
 
1btg ffrencb Circle 
 
 In a fortnight's time I shall be sent to the 
 country, where I am to remain until further orders. 
 All this is not cheerful, as you may see. Neverthe- 
 less, I'm bound to say that I am very kindly treated. 
 I have a good room, books, and I am allowed to 
 write. I was allowed to see people during the first 
 few days ; now it is forbidden because too many 
 came. Misfortune does not put friends to flight 
 even in Russia. The actual misfortune, to tell the 
 truth, is not very great ; the year 1852 will have no 
 spring for me, that's all. The saddest part of it all 
 is that it forces me to bid a definite goodbye to all 
 hope of going abroad. However, I have never in- 
 dulged in any illusions on that head. I knew quite 
 well when I parted from you that it was going to 
 be for a long time, if not for ever. Just now I have 
 only one wish, and that is that they will let me 
 come and go freely in the interior of Russia. I 
 hope they will not refuse me that. The Heir- 
 apparent is very kindly disposed. I have written 
 him a letter from which I expect some good to 
 result ; the Emperor, you know, has gone away. 
 
 They sealed all my papers, or rather they put 
 seals on the doors of my rooms — which they removed 
 ten days later without having examined anything. 
 Probably they knew that they would find nothing 
 of a forbidden nature. 
 
 I must confess I am a good deal bored in my 
 hole. I- -am taking advantage of this enforced 
 
 25 
 
leisure to work at Polish, which I began to learn 
 six weeks ago. I have fourteen days of confine- 
 ment left me. You may imagine how I count 
 them ! 
 
 This is not very pleasant news that I am sending 
 you, dear friends. I hope that you will give me 
 better news of yourselves. My health is good, but 
 I am ridiculously aged. I could send you a lock of 
 white hair, without exaggeration, yet I don't lose 
 heart. There is sport waiting for me in the 
 country ! Then I'm going to try and put my 
 affairs in order. I shall go on with my studies of 
 the Russian people, the strangest, the most astonish- 
 ing people on the face of the earth. I shall work 
 at my novel with all the more freedom of mind 
 because it is not destined to pass through the 
 Censor's clutches. My arrest will probably make 
 the publication of my work in Moscow impossible. 
 I am sorry for it, but what can one do ? 
 
 I beg you to write to me often, dear friends ; your 
 letters will help much to give me courage during 
 this trying time. In your letters, in the memories 
 of bygone days at Courtavenel, lies all my happi- 
 ness. I don't let myself dwell upon these things 
 for fear of upsetting myself. You know well that 
 my heart is with you, and now more than ever I 
 can say that my life is over, the charm gone out of 
 it. I have eaten all my white bread ; there is 
 nothing for it now but to eat such brown bread 
 
 26 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 as remains and pray Heaven it be good, as Vivier ^ 
 used to say. 
 
 There is no need for me to tell you that all this 
 must be kept absolutely secret ; the least mention 
 of it, the least allusion in any newspaper whatever, 
 would be enough to ruin me. 
 
 Goodbye, dear friend. Be happy, and your happi- 
 ness will make me as content as it is possible for 
 me to be. Keep well ; do not forget me. Write 
 to me often — be well assured that my thoughts are 
 always with you. I embrace you and send you 
 1,000 blessings; dear Courtavenel, I greet you 
 also ! Goodbye — goodbye. Write to me often. 
 I embrace you again. Goodbye. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 In his Souvenirs littéraires TourguéneflF relates 
 the circumstances of his arrest. The little article 
 he wrote on the death of Gogol, and which he 
 reprints in the Souvenirs^ contained nothing seditious. 
 It was published in March, 1852, in the Moscow 
 Gazette^ with the sanction of the Censor. But the 
 pretext was seized upon in order to make the young 
 author pay for the boldness of his Récits d^un 
 Chasseur, Tourgueneff was put under arrest for 
 a month. Happily, the two daughters of the chief 
 superintendent turned out to be great admirers 
 
 * An improvisor on the cornet, a man of considerable wit, whose 
 sallies often amused Tourgueneff and all the Viardot family. 
 
 27 
 
ZoxxvQxxéncU an^ 
 
 of his talent, and they obtained permission for 
 TourguénefF to occupy as his prison their father's 
 private rooms. It was there that, profiting by 
 his enforced leisure, he wrote his famous story 
 Moumou^ of which Carlyle said that he had 
 never read anything more touching. It is un- 
 doubtedly to this work that the letter we have 
 just read alludes. 
 
 At the conclusion of this period of arrest 
 TourguénefF was sent, " by administrative order," 
 to his property of Spasskoïé, and forbidden to leave 
 it. This confinement lasted until the end of 1854. 
 It was owing to the intercession of the poet, 
 Count Alexis Tolstoï, author of The Death of Ivan 
 the Terrible^ and of Madame Smirnov, whom we 
 have already mentioned, with the Grand-Ducal 
 heir to the throne, that TourguénefF regained his 
 liberty. He hastened to take advantage of it by 
 returning to France. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Spasskoïé, July 7, J une 25, 1858. 
 r Dear Friend, — I have just returned to Spasskoïé, 
 after an absence of four days, to find your letter 
 announcing the sad news.^ I did not dare speak 
 to you of my presentiments. I forced myself to 
 believe that all might yet end well, and now he is 
 
 * The death of the celebrated painter, Ary SchefFer. 
 28 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 no more ! I mourn him greatly for his own sake 
 and for all that he has carried away with him. I 
 fell deeply the cruel grief that his loss must have 
 caused you, the void you will find it so hard to fill. 
 He was so fond of you ! Viardot and Louise ^ 
 must both be very sad too. When death strikes at 
 our ranks, the friends who remain ought to close up 
 more tightly than before. This is not consolation 
 that I am offering you, only a friendly hand I am 
 holding out to you, only a devoted heart which 
 bids you count upon it, as you used to count upon 
 that which has just ceased to beat. I cannot help 
 thinking of the last time I saw SchefFer. He 
 seemed so well, that the idea of its being a last 
 meeting never even crossed my mind. He was 
 busy painting a " Christ with the Woman of 
 Samaria." I sat down behind him, and we had a 
 long talk. I told him about my journey in Italy 
 (it was in the first days of May). I have never 
 seen him pleasanter or in a better humour. What 
 a terrible blow for his daughter ! I am too much 
 absorbed by this sad news to tell you much about 
 myself. I will only say in two words that I spent 
 three very pleasant days with some friends,^ two 
 brothers and a sister, the latter a good woman who 
 is very unhappy. She has been forced to separate 
 
 ^ Mademoiselle Viardot. 
 
 ^ At the country-place of the Tolstoï family, Yasnaia Poliana, 
 which was not far trom Spasskoïé. 
 
 29 
 
XTourguéneg anb 
 
 from her husband, a repulsive kind of country- 
 bumpkinish Henry VIII. She has three children, 
 who are growing up very satisfactorily, especially 
 now that their papa is no longer with them. He 
 treated them very harshly on principle, giving 
 himself the pleasure of bringing them up in Spartan 
 fashion, while he himself led a life of an exactly 
 opposite kind. That sort of thing often happens. 
 Men get in this way the pleasures both of vice and 
 of virtue — those of virtue by p?'oxy. 
 
 One of the two brothers is rather uninteresting ; 
 the other is a charming fellow, idle, phlegmatic, 
 rather silent, and at the same time very kind, very 
 gentle, and refined, both in taste and feeling — a 
 really original being. The third brother (Count 
 L. Tolstoï, of whom I have spoken to you as one 
 of our best writers^ which will make you smile and 
 remind you of Fet, whom I shall see to-morrow, 
 for he is my neighbour here — but to return to 
 Tolstoï, he has really and truly an exceptional 
 talent, and I hope some day to convince you of it 
 by translating his Histoire d^une Enfance ; and now 
 I will end this interminable parenthesis) the third 
 brother who was to have come didn't come. The 
 sister is 2. fairly good musician ; we played Beethoven, 
 Mozart, &c., together. 
 
 30 
 
Ibis Stench Circle 
 
 V. 
 
 -* Spasskoïé, yuly 21, 1858. 
 
 f Dear kind Madame Viardot, — I must begin 
 my letter with a piece of news which is distressing 
 all Russians. IvanofF the painter, of whom I think 
 I have already spoken to you in my letters from 
 Rome, has just died of cholera at St. Petersburg. 
 Poor fellow ! after twenty-five years of work, of 
 privation, of poverty, of voluntary seclusion, at the 
 very moment when his picture was being exhibited, 
 before having received any reward whatever, before 
 having even convinced himself of the success of the 
 work to which he had devoted his life, comes death 
 — death as sudden as a stroke of apoplexy, but more 
 cruel, for it did not go straight to the brain. A 
 wretched newspaper article full of abuse, endless 
 delays, studied contempt — that is all that his country 
 gave him in the short space of time which passed 
 between his return to it and his death. As for his 
 picture ^ it undoubtedly belongs to that period of 
 Art upon which we entered a century ago or more, 
 and which is, it must be confessed, a period of 
 decadence. It is no longer painting pure and 
 simple, but philosophy, poetry, history, and religion 
 as well. There are deplorable faults in it, but all 
 the same it is a fine thing, a serious, lofty piece or 
 
 ^ The picture of which TourguenefF speaks is the famous " Appari- 
 tion du Christ," at which the Russian painter worked for more than 
 a quarter of a century, and which is his chief claim to fame. 
 
 31 
 
work, whose influence one cannot fail to desire for 
 Russia, if only as a reaction against the school of 
 Biuloff." I 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Spasskoie, July 31, 1858. 
 
 Here is what I have been doing during the last 
 nine days. I have worked a great deal at a novel 
 which I have begun and which I hope to finish by 
 the beginning of the winter. 2 Then I went for a 
 shoot 150 versts from here, and wasted thereby 
 five days, for the marshes were still barren, the 
 migratory period of woodcock and snipe not having 
 yet begun. At the same time I have been busy 
 with my uncle, settling my relations with my 
 tenants. Starting from the autumn they will all be ^ 
 put a Vobroc — that is to say, I shall give up to them ' 
 half the land for an annual rent, and I shall hire 
 labourers to cultivate my half. This will only be a 
 temporary arrangement while awaiting the decision 
 of the Committees, for nothing can be definitely 
 settled till then. 
 
 I have just spoken to you of a novel which I am 
 busy writing. How happy I should be if I could 
 lay the plot of it before you, describe its characters, 
 
 ' The representative of academic art. 
 
 - This refers to A la 'veille, a novel translated into French under 
 the title of Un Bulgare. 
 
 32 
 
1blg ffrencb Circle 
 
 and the object which I've set before myself. How 
 carefully I should treasure your remarks ! This 
 time I have thought over my subject for a long 
 time, and shall avoid, I hope, those rash and abrupt 
 deductions which so rightly jarred upon you. I 
 feel in the vein for work, and this notwithstanding 
 that I have left the enthusiasm of youth far behind 
 me. I write with a calmness which astonishes me. 
 Let us hope that the work will not suffer there- 
 from. /Coldness generally implies médiocrités 
 
 Ivan Tourgueneff. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Paris, February i6, 1865. 
 I haven't been to any theatre. It really does 
 not amuse me to go alone. I was present yesterday 
 at the opening of the Chambers in the great " Salle 
 des Etats " at the Louvre. We were packed like 
 herrings. Three things struck me — first, the ex- 
 clusively military character of the ceremony (the 
 only applauded passage being one in which some 
 one spoke of a new triumphal arch about to be 
 built) ; second, the complete and entire absence of 
 pretty women's faces ; and third, the quality of the 
 Emperor's voice. If one could classify voices as 
 one does heads one would have said that it was a 
 Swiss professor speaking — a professor of botany or 
 of numismatics. The speech in itself was very 
 
 33 D 
 
XTour^uénett an^ 
 
 harmless, very peaceful in tone — and ambiguous, 
 which goes without saying. 
 
 The Empress wore a very ugly gown, but she 
 has a great deal of grace and dignity. The Prince 
 Imperial looks very delicate and devitalised. Prince 
 Napoleon, in general appearance, bears a real resem- 
 blance to Tiberius or Domitian. I was to have 
 dined with him yesterday at Biscio's, but I refused 
 that honour. I don't like him at all, and besides 
 he talked with too much contempt of my poor 
 Russians. You cannot imagine anything more 
 ridiculous than certain hooded figures at the cere- 
 mony, dressed up in official uniforms ; their red, 
 yellow, variegated, and gilt headgear had a sham 
 Oriental look about it calculated to make one die of 
 laughter. Such decorations, medals, gold trimmings, 
 helmets, and plumes ! Good heavens ! and to 
 think that all this flummery impresses people ! . . . 
 What am I saying ? Why, it rules the world ! 
 
 Ivan Tourgueneff. 
 
 VIII, 
 
 Spasskoie, July i, 1865. 
 Dear kind Madame Viardot, — I am quite 
 delighted with what M. Rietz ^ (whose acquain- 
 tance I much regret not to have made) said to 
 you. It ought to give you wings. It is very 
 
 ^ Leader of the Gewandhaus orchestra at Leipzig. 
 
 34 
 
1F3ts jFvencb Circle 
 
 different from anything that we humble amateurs 
 could have said, and if you don't produce some 
 sonatas, if I don't find on my return some beautiful 
 adagio nearly finished, I shall have to scold you. 
 I can well imagine that musical ideas must work 
 themselves out with greater fulness and freedom 
 when one has no framework traced out beforehand, 
 the colour and form of which are already fixed, 
 and that by some one else. And now set to work ! 
 I have never admired and preached work so much 
 as I have since I have been doing nothing myself ; 
 and yet look here, I give you my word of honour 
 that, if you will begin to write sonatas, I will take 
 up my literary work again. " Hand me the cinna- 
 mon and I'll hand you the senna." A novel for 
 a sonata — does that suit you ? Heavens, what a 
 prospect of feverish activity is opening before me — 
 enough to last me the whole winter ! 
 
 Ivan Tourgueneff. 
 
 LETTERS TO GUSTAVE 
 FLAUBERT. 
 
 We have said that the friendship between Tour- 
 gueneff and Gustave Flaubert began as early as 
 1858 ; nevertheless they did not meet often till 
 1863, when Tourgueneff became a regular guest 
 
 35 
 
XTourguénetC an^ 
 
 at the Magny dinners. This friendship soon 
 acquired a touching closeness, owing to the equal 
 veneration in which both writers held Georges 
 Sand — a veneration which with the Russian as well 
 as with the Frenchman was of long standing, and 
 of which we shall have to speak when the time 
 comes for the publication of Tourguéneff's letters 
 to Georges Sand. 
 
 There was a bond, an affinity of simple goodness 
 between these two kindly natures. "It was Georges 
 Sand who married them," says Alphonse Daudet in 
 his Study of Tourguéneff, and he goes on : " The 
 boastful, rebellious, quixotic Flaubert, with a voice 
 like a Guard's trumpeter, with his penetrating, 
 ironical outlook and the gait of a conquering 
 Norman, was undoubtedly the masculine half of 
 this marriage of souls ; but who, in that other 
 colossal being, with his flaxen brows, his great 
 unmodelled face, would have discovered the woman, 
 that woman of over-accentuated refinement whom 
 TourguenefF has painted in his books, that nervous, 
 languid, passionate Russian, torpid as an Oriental, 
 tragic as a blind force in revolt ? So true is it that 
 in the tumult of the great human factory souls 
 often get into the wrong covering — masculine souls 
 into feminine bodies, feminine souls into cyclopean 
 frames." 
 
 Goncourt, Zola, Maupassant, all bear witness to 
 the close friendship which bound Tourguéneff to 
 
 36 
 
1btg f tench Circle 
 
 Flaubert, but it is in the correspondence of the 
 latter with his friends, and specially with Georges 
 Sand, that one finds, at every step, traces of this 
 mutual affection. For example, in a letter dated 
 July 2, 1870, he writes to the Lady of 
 Nohant : — 
 
 "But for you and TourguénefF, I don't know a 
 single soul with whom I can talk freely about the 
 things I have most at heart — and you both live so 
 far away ! " (Correspondence^ Series iv. p. 25). 
 
 And later : — 
 
 " I spent a pleasant day yesterday with Tourgué- 
 neff, and I read him the 115 pages of Saint Antoine 
 which are written. After that I read him nearly 
 half the Dernières chansons. What an audience ! 
 and what a critic ! He dazzled me with the depth 
 and accuracy of his judgment. If only all the 
 people who meddle with literary criticism could 
 have heard him, what a lesson it would have been ! 
 Nothing escapes him. At the end of a poem of 
 a hundred lines he remembers a single weak 
 adjective. On the subject of Saint Antoine he gave 
 me two or three exquisite pieces of advice as to 
 detail" {^Correspondence^ iv. p. 95). 
 
 And in a letter to Madame Régnier we read : — 
 
 " Madame Sand is now the only literary friend I 
 have besides Tourgueneff. It is true that these two 
 are worth a multitude!" [Correspondence^ \v. p. 140). 
 
 This friendship of Flaubert's for TourguénefF 
 
 37 
 
was undoubtedly amply returned, as Flaubert well 
 knew. 
 
 " Tourgueneff," he wrote to Madame Sand, 
 ''seemed very much pleased with the two first 
 chapters of my wretched old book, but perhaps 
 Tourgueneff loves me too well to judge me im- 
 partially" [Correspondence, iv. p. 21 1). 
 /"tourgueneff considered Flaubert as the most 
 /remarkable French writer, and Madame Bovary the 
 most powerful work, of the century. This latter 
 opinion was also held by Taine. From his cor- 
 respondence we shall see that he translated into 
 Russian the Légende de Saint yulien F Hospitalier 
 and Hérodiade. He brought to this translation so 
 much love and so much care that it is considered in 
 Russia as a masterpiece of accuracy and style, so 
 much so that his publishers thought it worth while 
 to include it in the posthumous edition of his com- 
 plete works. After the war Flaubert and Tourgue- 
 neff, who had somewhat neglected the Magny 
 dinners, decided to form a more intimate little set 
 for social purposes. Alphonse Daudet, in the article 
 quoted above, thus relates its origin : — 
 
 " It was at this time that the idea of a monthly 
 gathering where friends should meet over a good 
 dinner was first conceived. They were called the 
 ' Flaubert dinners,' or the ' Dinners of the hissed 
 authors.' Flaubert belonged to them owing to the 
 failure of his Candidat, Zola because of the Bouton 
 
 38 
 
1biB fvcncb Citrcle 
 
 de Rose, Goncourt because of his Henriette Maréchal^ 
 I because of my ArUsienne. Girardin wanted to 
 insinuate himself in our band, but he wasn't a 
 man of letters, so we excluded him. As for 
 TourguénefF, he gave us his word that he had been 
 hissed in Russia, and as it was a long way off we 
 didn't go there to find out." 
 
 These monthly dinners were not the only oppor- 
 tunities that Flaubert and TourguénefF had of 
 meeting, for Flaubert wrote to Georges Sand at the 
 end of 1873 : " I see the Muscovite every Sunday; 
 he is very well, and I love him more and more." 
 
 Taine, Georges Pouchet, Claudius Popelin, 
 PhiHppe Burty, Léon Fladel, Catulle Mendés, 
 Emile Bergeras, José Maria de Hérèdia, Guy de 
 Maupassant, Paul Alexis, Huysmans, Léon Hen- 
 nique, Séard, Gaston Toulouse, also frequented 
 these Sunday receptions, besides the regular guests 
 at the " dinners of the hissed authors." 
 
 " Often the first to arrive was Ivan Tourgueneff, 
 whom he (Flaubert) would embrace like a brother," 
 relates Guy de Maupassant. " Though a still 
 greater man than Flaubert, the Russian novelist 
 loved the Frenchman with a deep and rare affec- 
 tion. Affinities of talent, philosophy and intelli- 
 gence, similarities of taste, of ways of living, and 
 of ambition, an identity of literary tendency, of 
 lofty ideahsm, of enthusiasm, and of learning, gave 
 them so many incessant points of contact that they 
 
 39 
 
both felt in seeing one another a pleasure that came 
 perhaps even more from the heart than from the 
 head. 
 
 " TourguenefiF used to bury himself in an arm- 
 chair and talk slowly in a gentle voice, rather weak 
 and hesitating, yet giving to the things he said an 
 extraordinary charm and interest. Flaubert would 
 listen to him with religious reverence, fixing his 
 wide blue eyes, with their restless pupils, upon his 
 friend's fine face, and answering in his sonorous voice, 
 which came like a clarion blast from under that 
 veteran Gaul's moustache of his. Their conversa- 
 tion rarely touched upon the current affairs of life, 
 seldom wandered away from literary topics or 
 literary history. 
 
 " Tourgueneff would often come laden with 
 foreign books, and would translate fluently poems 
 by Goethe, Pouschkine, or Swinburne." 
 
 The friendship between the two writers remained 
 true to the end, and, even after Flaubert's death, 
 Tourgueneff still venerated his memory, as we 
 shall see from his letters to his friend's niece, 
 Madame Commanville. It is owing to Madame 
 Commanville, who has already performed the pious 
 duty of collecting and publishing all the corres- 
 pondence of her illustrious uncle, that we are able 
 to make known to the public the whole series of 
 Tourgueneffs letters to Flaubert and to Madame 
 Commanville herself. 
 
 40 
 
1btg fvcncb Circle 
 
 I. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Allow me to present you with the 
 two accompanying volumes.^ I shall send you 
 two more to your house near Rouen later on ; for 
 I must not take advantage of your kindness. It 
 would be very nice of you if you would come and 
 spend at least a part of to-morrow (Monday) 
 evening at my house, Rue de Rivoli 210. We 
 are having a few friends, among others Madame 
 Viardot, who is anxious to make your acquaintance. 
 It will be one way of lessening a little the regret 
 I feel at having met you so late in life. Mean- 
 while please accept my warmest regards.^ 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 Sunday^ Rue de Rivoli 210. 
 
 ' The volumes of which Tourguénefï" speaks can only be his 
 Récits d'un Chasseur and the Sch:es de la Vie Russe in two series, the 
 only works at that time translated into French. The Récits d'un 
 Chasseur^ and the second series of the Vie Russe comprised t Aubrege 
 du Grand Chemin^ L' Autchar^ Le Pain d^ Autrui, Une Correspondance, 
 Deux journées dans les grands Bois and Le Partage, translated by 
 Louis Viardot ; the first series comprised Les Deux Amis, Jacques 
 Passinkof, Moumou, Faust, Le Terrai/leur, Les trois Portraits translated 
 by Xavier Marnier. 
 
 " This undated letter is certainly the first which Tourgueneff 
 wrote to Flaubert 5 Madame Commanville thinks so, and both the 
 tone and the subject of the letter confirm this opinion. Moreover, 
 it begins with the still formal expression " Dear Sir." It is curious 
 to note the gradation of these expressions, according as the relations 
 between the two friends become more intimate : " Dear Sir," " Dear 
 Monsieur Flaubert,'' "My dear Comrade," " My dear Friend," and, 
 finally, " My dear old Boy." 
 
 41 
 
UonvQwéncU anb 
 
 II. 
 
 Paris, Rue de Rivoli 210, 
 
 March l()j 1863. 
 
 Dear Monsieur Flaubert, — Your letter made 
 me blush as much as it pleased me, and that is 
 saying a great deal. Such praise makes one proud, 
 and I wished I deserved it. However that may be, 
 I am delighted to have pleased you, and am grateful 
 to you for having told me so. 
 
 I send you a book of mine which has just come 
 out. I am publishing another which I will send 
 you as soon as it is finished. i You will see that I 
 no longer spare you. 
 
 Aren't you thinking of coming to Paris before 
 the summer ? I should be so glad to go on with 
 the acquaintance which began under such good 
 auspices, and which, so far as I am concerned, 
 would certainly ask nothing better than to result in 
 the closest friendship. 
 
 Full of the friendship I feel for vou already, I hold 
 out my hand to you, and beg you to accept my 
 most affectionate regards. 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 ^ The two volumes, the sending of which is announced in this 
 letter, are evidently Roudine and Une Nichée de Gent'ihhommes. 
 
 42 
 
fbis jFtencb Cttcle 
 
 III. 
 
 Paris, Rue de Rivoli 210, 
 
 Jpriie (18), 1863. 
 
 My dear Comrade, — I hope there is no need 
 to tell you what great pleasure your second letter 
 gave me — and more than pleasure. If I didn't 
 answer you immediately it was because I had to get 
 through a host of tiresome little matters of business, 
 which made me both cross and idle. 
 
 These petty worries are still going on, but any 
 further delay would be on my conscience. I 
 counted, and I still count, upon your indulgence, 
 and I wish particularly to thank you and to shake 
 your hand. Your approval has made me very 
 happy, and I am sure you know it. I know well 
 that an artist and a kindly disposed man like your- 
 self will read between the lines of a book a host of 
 things of which he generously gives the credit to 
 the author. But never mind, praise from you is 
 worth its weight in gold, and I take it to myself 
 with pride and gratitude. 
 
 Shall we not see you in the course of the 
 summer ? One hour of good, frank talk is worth 
 a hundred letters. I am leaving Paris in a week's 
 time in order to settle at Baden. Won't you come 
 there ? There are trees there such as I have never 
 seen anywhere, right on the top of the mountains. 
 The whole place is full of vigour and youth, and, at 
 
 43 
 
the same time, of poetry and grace, and it does a 
 great deal of good to one's eyes and to one's soul. 
 When one is seated at the foot of one of these 
 giants one feels as if one took in a little of its sap, 
 and that is very good and helpful for one. Seriously, 
 do come to Baden, if only for a few days. You 
 will carry away from it some famous colours for 
 your palette. 
 
 Before my departure you will receive a book 
 of mine, which has just been published. I am sur- 
 feiting you, but it is your own fault. 
 
 A thousand kind regards. Keep well, work, and 
 come to Baden. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 I. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Bade, Thiergarten Strasse 3, 
 
 May 26, 1868. 
 My dear Friend, — I am very grateful to you 
 for having thought of writing to me. Your letter 
 was a very great pleasure to me, because it took up 
 the thread of our intercourse again, and because it 
 showed me that my book pleased you. There is 
 no longer any artist at the present time who is not 
 also a critic. The artist is very strong in you and 
 you know how much I admire and love him, but 
 I have also a high opinion of the critic, and his 
 
 4+ 
 
Ibjg fvcncb Circle 
 
 approval makes me very happy. 1 know well that 
 your friendship for me counts for something in it, 
 but I feel that a master has stood before my canvas, 
 looked at it, and nodded his head with a satisfied air. 
 Well, I say again that pleases me. I was very 
 sorry not to see you in Paris. I only stayed there 
 three days, and I am still more sorry that you did 
 not come to Baden this year. You were harnessed 
 to your novel — that's right. I am awaiting it with 
 the greatest impatience. But couldn't you give 
 yourself a few days' rest, whereby your friends here 
 might profit ? 
 
 Since the first time I saw you (in a kind of 
 hostelry on the other side of the Seine) I have been 
 conscious of a great drawing towards you. There 
 are few men, especially few Frenchmen, with 
 whom I feel so quietly at my ease, and so alive at 
 the same time. I feel as if I could talk to you for 
 whole weeks together ; moreover, we are moles 
 burrowing in the same direction. All this means 
 that I shall be very glad to see you. I start for 
 Russia in a fortnight's time, but I shall not 
 stay there long, and by the beginning of July I 
 shall be back again, and shall go to Paris to see my 
 daughter, who will probably have made me a 
 grandfather by that time. I shall be quite capable 
 of going to your own place to seek you out if you 
 are there. Or shall you be coming to Paris ? 
 Anyway I must see you. Meanwhile I wish you 
 
 45 
 
good luck. That living and human truth which 
 you are pursuing with such indefatigable energy- 
 only lets herself be caught on good days. You 
 have had them, and will have them again — many 
 of them. Keep well. Much love to you. 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 Ivan Tourgueneff. 
 
 V. 
 
 Bade, Thiergarten Strasse 3, 
 
 Tuesday, July 28, 1868. 
 
 My dear Friend, — It is very kind of you to 
 have thought of me and to give me your " pro- 
 gramme " as you call it. I have been here for four 
 days, but unfortunately I have not come back from 
 Russia alone. I have brought with me a fine 
 attack of gout, which first seized me at Macon and 
 again on my arrival at Baden. Here I am on the 
 sofa with all the inevitable miseries — oil of Indian 
 chestnuts, &c.. Sec. However, it is less violent than 
 last year, and I am not without hope of getting to 
 my baths towards the middle of next month, and 
 according to the programme I shall look you up in 
 your lair. 
 
 I confess that I am quite curious to make its 
 acquaintance. I have not seen Du Camp who 
 must be here. I haven't left my room since my 
 arrival. In a couple of days I shall, perhaps, be able 
 
 46 
 
lbis ffrencb Circle 
 
 to take short drives. Keep well and work quietly 
 and with zest. It's the best way. 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 
 I. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 VI. 
 
 Bade, Thiergarten Strasse 3, 
 
 Tuesday^ August 18, 1868. 
 My dear Friend, — I have delayed till now in 
 answering your kind little note, because I was 
 always hoping to be able to announce my arrival, 
 but my fiendish gout persistently refuses to leave 
 me, and I cannot yet dream of taking this rather 
 long journey. It is a bore, but what can I do ? 
 I will come as soon as ever I can, meanwhile I send 
 you my love and I beg of you to present my com- 
 pliments to your mother, whom I shall be very 
 glad to meet. 
 
 Work hard till I come. 
 
 I. Tourgueneff. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Paris, Rue Laffitte, Hôtel Byron, 
 
 Tuesday^ November 24, 1868. 
 My dear Friend, — The cheese has just arrived, 
 and I am taking it to Baden, and at each mouthful 
 we shall think of Croisset and of the charming day 
 I spent there. Certainly I am conscious of a great 
 sympathy between us. 
 
 47 
 
XLonvQncncU au^ 
 
 If all your novel is as strong as the fragments 
 you have just sent me, you will have achieved a 
 masterpiece.^ Mark my words. 
 
 I don't know if you have read the little book 2 
 I am sending you. Anyway, put it on one of the 
 shelves of your library. 
 
 Present my compliments to your mother and my 
 best love to yourself. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 I. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — My address is Poste Restante, Carlsruhe. 
 It will be very nice of you if you would send me 
 your photograph. Here is mine, which looks very 
 — forbidding. 
 
 P. P.S. — Find another title — U Education Senti- 
 mentale is bad. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Carlsruhe, Hôtel Prince Max, 
 
 Monday^ yanuary 25, 1869. 
 I really must have news of you, my dear friend. 
 Now in two words : Where are you, and how goes 
 the novel ? I am writing to you to Croisset, and 
 very likely you are in Paris in the thick of things. 
 In any case I don't suppose you'll stay there long. 
 
 ^ This refers to U Education Sentimefitale. 
 
 ^ Probably Fumée, a novel translated into French by Prince 
 Galitzin, and published in March, 1868. 
 
 48 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 I have not yet thanked you for the photograph, 
 which looks very military and well-groomed, but it 
 is yourself, and that is always good to see. Why 
 don't you have a really good one done ? 
 
 I have often thought of Croisset and said to 
 myself that it was a good nest for the hatching 
 of singing birds. As for me I have done hardly 
 anything. I have embarked upon a piece of work 
 which I dislike, and am wading sadly through it. 
 I can't give it up, but when it is finished I shall 
 heave a real sigh of relief. 
 
 Apart from some fragmentary stuff in the shape 
 of some literary memoirs, which I promised my 
 publisher, I have never worked at this sort of 
 thing, and it's not amusing. Oh, for two hours of 
 Sainte-Beuve ! I wonder if it amuses him much. 
 
 My best regards to your mother, who sounds to 
 me the best mother imaginable, and a good and 
 hearty handshake for yourself. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 I. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Hotel Prince Max, Carlsruhe, 
 
 Sunday^ JUarch 21, 1869. 
 My dear Friend, — Your letter, addressed 
 either to Stuttgard or to Baden, has only this 
 moment reached me here. I hasten to tell you 
 
 49 ^ 
 
XTourpuéneg an^ 
 
 that I leave here for Paris on Wednesday, and 
 that I arrive there on Thursday at five o'clock 
 in the morning. I shall put up at the Hôtel 
 Byron, Rue Laffitte. I shall stay a week in 
 Paris. It is needless to say how glad I shall be 
 to see you. Meanwhile I send you my best love, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Remember me to your mother. 
 
 X. 
 
 Bade, Thiergarten Strasse 3, 
 
 Sunday^ January 30. 
 
 My dear Friend, — In the first number of a 
 Russian review which comes out at St. Petersburg, 
 and which is called the Russian Messenger'^ (it is, 
 so to speak, the Russian Revue des Deux Mondes^ 
 there is a tremendous article on your book ^ (only 
 the first part). It is analysed in the smallest detail 
 and the whole plot is told. Both the author and 
 his work are much praised. The article is called 
 "The New French Society." I tell you all this 
 because it may interest you, though your head is 
 full of something else just now. 
 
 I am leaving Baden in four or five days. I am 
 going to spend two months at Weimar. My 
 address is Hôtel de Russie, Grand Duchy of Saxe- 
 
 * The real title of this periodical is the European Messenger. 
 ' This refers to U Education Sentimentale. 
 
 50 
 
Ibis jftrencb Circle 
 
 Weimar. And I shall pass through Paris before 
 going back to Russia in the month of April. Give 
 me news of yourself. Are you working hard ? 
 Your Antoine often comes back to my mind. Last 
 night, as I was going to bed, I re-read the scene of 
 "Le Club de Tintelligence," and the Spaniard made 
 me laugh out loud.^ 
 
 Say a thousand things for me to Madame Sand, 
 to Du Camp, and to everybody else. 
 
 Yours most affectionately, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XI. 
 
 HÔTEL DE Russie, Weimar, 
 
 February 20, 1 8 70. 
 My dear Friend, — The article that M. Juhan 
 Schmidt 2 has written on U Education Sentimentale 
 has not yet appeared in the Preussiche TahrbUcher ; 
 as soon as it is published I will send it you. If you 
 care about it I will ask him to send you his article 
 on Madame Bovary, It appeared last year. The 
 second number of the European Messenger^ which 
 I have just received, contains the second and last 
 half of the article which I told you about, and which 
 is really more a detailed resume of the novel than 
 anything else. 
 
 ^ Another allusion to U Education Sentimentale. 
 ^ A celebrated German critic. 
 
 51 
 
XTourguéneft anb 
 
 Most people think that " woman " played too 
 great a part in Frederic's life, and wonder if all 
 young Frenchmen are like him. Yes, people 
 have certainly been unfair to you, but now is the 
 time to brace yourself up and to fling a masterpiece 
 at your readers' heads. Your Antoine^ may perhaps 
 prove to be that very missile. Don't be too long over 
 it, is the burden of my song. You mustn't forget, 
 moreover, that men are measured according to the 
 measure they have given of themselves, and you are 
 bearing the burden of your past. You have plenty 
 of energy, and " El hombre debe ser feroXy^ says a 
 Spanish proverb — artists especially. If your book 
 had carried away only ten people of a certain worth, 
 that would have been enough in itself. You'll 
 understand that I am telling you all this, not to 
 comfort you, but to stimulate you. 
 
 I have been here ten days and my one thought has 
 been how to keep warm. The houses here are badly 
 built, and the iron stoves are useless. You'll see 
 a tiny thing of mine in the March number of the 
 Revue des Deux Mondes. It's a mere trifle. I am 
 working at something more "important," at least 
 I am getting ready to work. 
 
 I shall go to Paris before returning to Russia — it 
 will be towards the end of April. We shall see a 
 lot of each other. If you see Madame Sand, give 
 
 ^ This refers to La Tentation de Sainte Antoine, which came out 
 four years later, in 1874. 
 
 5^ 
 
1bts jFtencb Circle 
 
 her a thousand kind messages from me. Remember 
 me to Du Camp and to the Husson family. 
 
 Best love, and cheer up ! After all you are 
 Flaubert ! Yours, 
 
 I. T. 
 
 XII. 
 
 1 6, Beaumont Street, Marylebone, London, 
 
 May i6, 1 87 1. 
 
 Happily, my dear friend, the news is absolutely 
 untrue. Madame V., whom I see every day, is no 
 more dead than she is 54 years old. If the news 
 had been true I don't think I could have answered 
 you. As it is I can tell you that your letter deeply 
 touched me. It is very good to feel that one has 
 a real friend, and I am grateful to you for having 
 proved it to me. 
 
 I have been here three weeks. I spent the end 
 of winter and the beginning of spring in Russia. I 
 am staying here till the ist of August, and then I 
 am going to Baden. When I am crossing France 
 I shall stop in Paris, if there is any Paris left by 
 then, and I hope I shall see you. Perhaps you 
 will come to Baden where we shall be living for a 
 short time like moles hidden in their holes. And 
 you could hide yourself there with us ; but first of 
 all give me news of yourself. 
 
 Did you ever receive a letter I wrote you at the 
 beginning of the year ? What did you do with 
 yourself during that awful tumult ? Did you stay 
 
 53 
 
UoxwQwcncU ant) 
 
 at Croisset ? Was it possible even for you, I 
 wonder, with all your power of isolation and con- 
 centration, not to be tossed to and fro like those 
 little pieces of straw one sees blown about in so 
 dreary and aimless a fashion at the open doorway 
 of a barn ? Did you work, or were you content to 
 drag out an empty and weary existence from hour 
 to hour, eh ? We have hard times to go through, 
 we, who are born onlookers. What about Antoine? 
 It has rooted itself in my mind. 
 
 I am in England, not for the pleasure of being 
 there, but because my friends,^ who have been 
 pretty well ruined by the war, have come here to 
 try and make a little money. Nevertheless, there 
 is some good in the English people ; but they all 
 of them, even the cleverest, lead such a hard life. 
 One has to get accustomed to it, as one has to their 
 climate, and besides where else is there to go ? 
 
 What is Madame Flaubert doing ? Remember 
 me very kindly to her. Have you any news of Du 
 Camp ? He has disappeared in the tumult like so 
 many others. Write me a few lines. Once more 
 I thank you for the affection you show me and send 
 you my best love. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — It is needless to tell you that I only re- 
 ceived your letter this very day. 
 
 ^ The Viardot family. 
 
 54 
 
Ibis ffreiicb Circle 
 
 XIII. 
 
 1 6, Beaumont Street, Marylebone, London, 
 
 June 13, 1871. 
 
 My dear Friend, — If I have not answered your 
 letter sooner it is because I have not had the courage 
 to do so — the events in Paris have stupefied me. I 
 was silent, as one is silent in a train when it is going 
 through a tunnel — the fearful noise fills one's ears 
 and deadens one's brain. Now that it has almost 
 ceased I can tell you that most certainly I will come 
 to you and hear Antoine^ in August, about the . . . 
 well between the 15th and the 20th. I have had 
 an invitation to Scotland for " le Grouse " at the 
 beginning of August ; but I shall be free on the 
 15th, and on my way back to Baden I will stop in 
 Paris or at Rouen, I mean at Croisset, if you are 
 there. 
 
 I am so glad to hear you are half-way through 
 your book ; you would never risk anything by hurry- 
 ing yourself a little — quite the other way. I shall 
 listen with wide open ears, eyes, and brain. I am 
 pretty certain it will be very fine. 
 
 I shall not ask you again to come to Germany. 
 I well understand your dislike to putting your foot 
 inside it. I shall not tell you either all that is pass- 
 ing through my mind on the subject of France. I 
 should have to sum it all up in a few words, and 
 that I find impossible. When we meet we will 
 
 55 
 
(iiefiffBSsttiit maateer cflutttiy-aanii lat fin^^ti — ts^ -am- 
 dfciisJion '^;»¥Îll riwit tfee lir^èiT^, -tQat'.s -srrsam. .1 -HOTitt 
 î^îiaïw wiKtiKi, ass ^,Taii ^aa?^, itt -.es .îuasss:: .s ^piaee -tx) 
 
 ^?wîe:tDkaà,.aaind -ttKi. . . tfiat .$ts£ vm^ tasac. ils 
 tthâs^HMer? n -FStiÊcmiftr. -tûJtrii:y\'SSwniimiiçg^TDaSÊ^ 
 ( j^ïç, roao, rnsè ^ ^ russajr.y. «add rt» sttaxutt ^t iine: : 
 
 iacaaiafie^TJHiHaeiAeer^feern-'yWtyiatn^:; ttw:^ aastcr 
 
 m ^ia'^ ï2/ 'Tsjfr i is: 
 
 Hv. TTiMjacsi.. . 
 
 Ai' îJSrvtf. .?*=RT~'rr — ^^cir rv.'. ... nïe 
 
 riïÇEe^itr'tet "Êatr .-kjiîtriïg 
 
 ^*1èe(S"niijae'* wtttaa ftristitf;. [iaam .èsavic^ -teeEC'tiie 
 ààsvv^sHerr tcu-tinyrnwi; , ttfee jôitii, -on > : lir 
 
 ^» . ■ \tt- 
 
 
Ibis jfrencb Circle 
 
 not go to Croisset, for my time is horribly short. 
 I shall stay in Paris at the Hôtel Byron, Rue 
 Laffitte. Please manage so that I nnay find a note 
 from you on my arrival. For greater safety I shall 
 copy this letter, and send the copy to Croisset. 
 
 My love to you all till our next meeting. Get 
 your Antoine ready ' 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. TourguIneff. 
 
 XV. 
 
 48, Rue Douai, 
 
 Sunday^ 10 a.m. 
 My dear Friend, — I hoped to be able to 
 look in on you to-day, but I find it impossible. 
 I shall be with you to-morrow punctually at one 
 o'clock. 
 
 It is not that existence itself gets more difficult, 
 but it becomes more and more difficult to get any- 
 thing done. Life seems to grow over our heads 
 like grass. Goodbye till to-morrow. 
 
 Your faithful old friend, 
 
 Iv. Tourgue.veff. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 JVednesday Morning. 
 My dear Friend, — I spoke to Madame V. 
 yesterday about the wish expressed by Madame E. 
 
 57 
 
Grisi I — unfortunately it is impossible. Madame V. 
 has had to make a rule never to sing at private 
 houses. 
 
 She is asked so often, that if she consented once 
 there would be no reason to refuse other people. 
 She is very sorry not to be able to do anything in 
 this particular instance. When she w^as younger 
 she could do it, but now she is obliged to take 
 great care of herself. There, my dear friend, now 
 you have the exact truth. 
 
 I shall certainly come on Sunday, perhaps sooner. 
 I shall probably go to-night to Princess Mathilde's. 
 
 Much love from yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Paris, 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 November^ 1 87 1. 
 
 My dear Friend, — This is what has happened : 
 
 an uncle of mine, M. Nicolas TourguéneiF,^ an 
 
 exceedingly good and worthy man, has died lately 
 
 in Paris, and I have just received a telegram from 
 
 ' a cousin of the famous Grisi, and a friend of Théophile Gautier's. 
 
 ^ Nicolas Ivanovitch Tourgueneff, who is referred to in this letter, 
 was the well-known author of a book written in French, La Russie 
 et les Russes, and several other remarkable works. He was one of 
 the confidential advisers of the Emperor Alexander I., and did much 
 towards improving the lot of the peasants under that sovereign. But 
 being falsely accused of taking part in the rebellion of 182^ against 
 the Emperor Nicolas, he died, an exile, in France on the loth of 
 November, liji. 
 
 58 
 
Ibtg jfrencb atrcle 
 
 St. Petersburg asking me to write an obituary- 
 notice, which notice must be sent off to-morrow 
 night. I consented, and here I am tied to this 
 task. The good Antoine will therefore have to 
 wait till the day after to-morrow, as I must take 
 my article to the family at Bougival to-morrow, to 
 get various bits of information, &c. So goodbye 
 till Thursday. 
 
 Your note of the day before yesterday was not 
 left by your servant. He probably went to the 
 wrong house. No. 48, Rue de Douai is at the 
 corner of the Place Vintimille. 
 
 Much love, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Paris, 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Friday^ January 19, 1872. 
 My gout has left me again, my dear friend. I am 
 greatly distressed at all these obstacles, and to have 
 given so much needless trouble; but, gracious Heaven, 
 it must come to an end sometime. Tell me, what 
 day would suit you ? Tuesday, Wednesday, or 
 Saturday ? and if I am not dead (as the Times 
 declares) I'll have myself carried to your house 
 rather than — oh, well, I await your reply. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 59 
 
UouvGuénetC auD 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Moscow, June 26, 1872. 
 
 My dear Friend, — You have sent me your 
 plans for the summer — here are mine. 
 
 N.B. — For the time being I am in Moscow, seized 
 by a horrid attack of gout, which ties me to my sofa. 
 I was scarcely prepared for it after the violent seizure 
 of last October. It's getting too common, and people 
 congratulate me too much (giving me thereon a 
 certificate of long life, &c.) ; mercifully the attack 
 is not too severe, and I may hope to leave the capital 
 of all the Russias on Sunday or Monday — to-day is 
 Wednesday. 
 
 I shall go straight as an arrow to Paris, then 
 from there to my daughter in Touraine, who is on 
 the point of making me a grandfather ; then from 
 there to Valery-sur-Somme, where I shall rejoin my 
 old friends the Viardots. I shall idle and I shall 
 work if I can. Then I shall go to Paris, in order 
 to meet there one Flaubert, whom I love much, 
 and with whom I shall go to his home at Croisset, 
 or to Madame Sand, at Nohant, as it appears she 
 wants to have us there. And then from October 
 onwards, Paris. There you are ! 
 
 My dear friend, old age is a great sinister cloud 
 hovering over the future, the present, and even 
 over the past, which it saddens by blurring one's 
 memories. (I'm afraid this is very bad French, 
 
 60 
 
fbis jFvencb Circle 
 
 but no matter.) We have got to protect ourselves 
 from this cloud. It seems to me you are not doing 
 it enough. 
 
 I believe, as you do, that a visit to Russia alone 
 with me would do you good, but it should be 
 spent wandering about the paths of an old country 
 garden, steeped in rustic scents, and filled with 
 strawberries, birds, sunshine and shadow, all equally 
 sunk in sleep, and two hundred acres of waving 
 rye all around us. It used to be delicious. One 
 finds inertia stealing over one, together with a 
 sense of solemnity, vastness, and monotony ; a sense 
 which has something animal in it and something 
 divine. One comes out of it as if one had had 
 some strengthening bath, and takes up again the 
 ordinary mill of existence. 
 
 You must not let the author in you get dis- 
 couraged. He must go bravely on to the end. I 
 hear that you were at a delightful musical party at 
 Madame Viardot's ; people seem to have liked it. 
 
 You don't say anything about my picture, do 
 you dislike it, or have you not seen it ? Goodbye, 
 and au revoir^ my dear friend. Let us hold our 
 heads high before the waves break over them. 
 
 Much love to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 6i 
 
XX. 
 
 St. Valery-sur-Somme, Maison Ruhaut. 
 Tuesday^ July 30, 1872. 
 
 Where are you just now, my dear friend, and 
 what are you going to do between now and the 
 winter ? Please write me just one line. As for 
 me I have been a fortnight in this little den from 
 which I am writing, and I should be perfectly 
 happy here if it were not for this accursed gout 
 which has got me by the leg more tenaciously than 
 ever. It seized me six weeks ago at Moscow, and 
 won't leave me. I have had three or four relapses. 
 
 I had begun to walk with the help of crutches, 
 then with two sticks, then with one, and now 
 here I am again almost unable to move at all. 
 Old age is a horrible thing, pace Mr. Cicero. 
 
 I am here with the Viardots. I have a charming 
 room where nothing hinders me from working, but 
 of course^ nothing comes ; the fact is, the springs 
 have got rusty. How is Antoirie getting on ? Tell 
 me all about it. 
 
 This loan of 9, 12, even 15 milliards impresses 
 me like a great salvo of artillery. You are born 
 to astonish the world, you French, one way or 
 another. 
 
 I have been a grandfather since the i8th. My 
 daughter has just had a little girl who's been called 
 Jeanne, and to whose christening I am going 
 
 62 
 
Ms 3FtencF3 Cttcle 
 
 towards the end of August. I shall have to pass 
 through Paris on my way there and back. If you 
 are at Croisset then, I shall go as far as that to 
 look you up. 
 
 Well, keep in good health, and au revoir. Much 
 love. Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XXI. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Monday^ October 7, 1872. 
 
 My dear Friend, — Woe to him who should 
 venture to congratulate me on my gout, on the 
 score of its being a certificate of long life. He 
 would run serious risk of hearing bad language. 
 
 Only think ! I have been more than a fortnight 
 in Paris, and the very day of my arrival behold 
 me seized with a relapse (the 8th or 9th, I can't 
 count them any longer !) I have been a week in 
 bed unable to budge ! Last Thursday I made a 
 superhuman effort. I went to Nohant. The 
 whole Viardot family was there. I stayed one day 
 there, came back, and now here I am again, con- 
 fined to my room, limping like the poor devil that 
 I am, and seeing no end to it. Never mind ; I 
 am glad to have been to Nohant, and to have met 
 there Madame Sand, who is really the most agreeable 
 woman it's possible to imagine ; all her surroundings 
 too are charming. 
 
And now I must go to Croisset ^ — but when ? 
 That is precisely what I can't fix with any cer- 
 tainty. All I know is that I shall go as soon as I 
 have rested a little, very likely at the beginning of 
 next week. You shall be warned beforehand. I 
 am longing to see you, to talk to you, and to hear 
 the end of Antoine. And then we must chat and 
 gossip — that is an absolute necessity. 
 
 Meanwhile my love to you, and au revoir. 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Wednesday^ Dece?nber li, 1872. 
 Well, here we are at the middle of December, 
 and no Flaubert ! Unfortunately I am not like 
 Mahomet. I can't go to the mountain. I can't 
 go anywhere, for it's now a fortnight since I left 
 my room, and Heaven knows how long it will 
 last. My gout is, at least, as obstinate as the 
 Versailles Assembly, and I believe it'll still be 
 going on when the other has either dissolved itselt 
 or been dissolved. Come, now, make a little effort, 
 and come to Paris. In any case, write and tell 
 me if you think of doing so, and when. No one 
 comes, and it's wretched. Madame Sand, too, 
 
 * Flaubert's place near Rouen. 
 
 64 
 
Ibis ffrencb Cttcle 
 
 remains at Nohant, but I have not given up hope 
 and shall still say au revoir, 
 I send you my love. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XXIII. 
 
 Paris. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I have been here since 
 Monday, but I was again seized on the very day 
 of my arrival with an attack of gout. I hope that 
 it is the last, and I am going out to-day for the 
 first time, but I can't yet get up your stairs. I 
 shall come to-morrow punctually, and I shall 
 manage somehow to get up to you. I thought of 
 writing to tell you to come to me, but I am staying 
 in the Viardots' house, which is still a veritable 
 chaos. And, moreover, I was furious at being in 
 bed. Till to-morrow then. I shall be very glad 
 to see you. 
 
 I am staying at 48, Rue de Douai, but don't 
 come to me, I'll come to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 XXIV. 
 
 Paris, 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Wednesday^ y une 7, 1 873. 
 My dear Friend, — You're much mistaken if 
 you think I am not as proud as a peacock at all the 
 
 65 F 
 
things you say to me in your letter. It's a letter I 
 shall always treasure ; seriously, I must tell you you 
 have given me a very great pleasure, and I am glad 
 to see I have done the same to you. 
 
 I am very grateful. You are right in finding 
 the first story (Etrange Histoire) too short. It 
 wanted much more developing. It contains psy- 
 chological conditions which it is not sufficient 
 merely to indicate ; but alas for my idleness ! 
 
 I am still here, but I am leaving to-morrow. I 
 will write to you from Vienna, and certainly from 
 Carlsbad. Go on working. No, there is no need 
 to tell you that. You are as industrious as an ant. 
 But keep well and expect me at Croisset at the 
 beginning of August. All the family is well and 
 sends you many messages. 
 
 I send you my best love and am always. 
 Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — They will send you my other volume as 
 soon as it appears. I am rather nervous about it.i 
 
 XXV. 
 
 BouGivAL, Seine-et-Oise, Maison Halgan, 
 
 JVednesday^ August 6, 1873. 
 You say too kind things to me, my dear friend. 
 They make me blush with pleasure and confusion. 
 
 ^ This evidently refers to Les Eaux Printanières, which was pub- 
 lished in Russia in 1871, and translated into French some time after. 
 
 66 
 
Ibis fvcnch Circle 
 
 All the same it was very nice, and those old Latin 
 authors were right when they spoke of laudate a 
 laudante viro, 
 
 I am glad and very proud to have given pleasure 
 to my dear old Flaubert and to the author of 
 Antoine; and it was very nice of him to say all 
 he did to me. Perhaps my letter will not find you 
 at Croisset, but never mind, it must go. On the 
 1 0th of September I shall arrive, and we sha'n't be 
 dull — far from it. 
 
 Do you know that all our party (I mean my 
 friends here, who send you many kind messages) 
 are going at the end of September to spend at least 
 a week at Nohant ? If you would come too that 
 would indeed be a triumph. 
 
 It's abominably hot here, and in spite of closed 
 shutters I am simply streaming with heat. Writing 
 is really heroic under such conditions. Therefore 
 you must let me send you my best love and wish 
 you au revoir^ and once more many thanks. 
 Your faithful old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 BouGivAL, Seine-et-Oise, Maison Halgan, 
 
 Thursday^ August 28, 1873. 
 My dear Friend, — Dead or alive I shall come 
 to you at Croisset — but this is how I am situated. 
 
 67 
 
Two years ago, in England, I made the acquaint- 
 ance of a very pleasant fellow called Bullock, who 
 had an extremely rich uncle, an old retired General 
 called Hall. 
 
 General Hall possessed — the finest partridge 
 shooting in the whole of England ! ! ! 
 
 No less than that. But he was an original kind 
 of man who used to shoot quite alone, and only 
 invited his nephew from time to time, and now he's 
 dead and has left all his fortune, his name, and his 
 shooting to his nephew. Now, lo and behold, the 
 nephew has remembered me, and invited me to go 
 and stay with him, and kill mountains of partridges, 
 between the 9th and the 14th of September. In 
 spite of my boundless passion for sport, the only 
 pleasure which is left to me, I remembered my 
 promise and gave an evasive answer, all the more so 
 because I don't know if my gout will allow me such 
 escapades. And indeed there is something shocking 
 in an old greybeard like myself crossing the sea 
 twice in order to pour a lot of lead into a lot of 
 partridges ! 
 
 The fact is I am undecided and this is why : I 
 may as well make a clean breast of it ! I want you 
 to let me put off my arrival at Croisset for five 
 days, that is to say, to let me come on the 15th 
 instead of the loth. It is more than probable I 
 shall not go to England, but in that way I shall be 
 easy in my mind. And now that is settled, isn't 
 
 68 
 
Ibis fvcncb Circle 
 
 it ? I must go to Paris on Saturday on business — 
 punctually at 12 o'clock I shall be at the Café 
 Riche for lunch. If you could be there too, that 
 would be splendid. If not, I shall know that you 
 agree to this little delay and are not too much 
 annoyed. 
 
 Meanwhile I wish you good health and good 
 spirits and send you my love. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XXVII. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Saturday^ December 6, 1873. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I didn't answer you at once 
 because I have been staying for three days with my 
 daughter. I am very glad to hear you have finished 
 your play,i and am not at all surprised at all Carvalho's 
 changes of front. You'll have to put up with a 
 good deal more, and from henceforward you will 
 have to wrap your nerves in steel, as the Germans 
 say, for the very reason that your play is not at all 
 like anything which has yet been done. The great 
 thing is to get through all these worries of produc- 
 tion as calmly as possible. 
 
 I am much looking forward to seeing you soon. 
 I shall not be leaving for two months or even more. 
 
 ^ Le Candidat, a comedy produced at the Vaudeville in March, 
 1874. 
 
 69 
 
XTourguéneff anb 
 
 I have not yet seen UOncle Sam^ but I have seen 
 Dumas' Monsieur Alphonse. It is a strongly-con- 
 structed thing, and on the v^^hole very remarkable 
 and striking, though there is a young girl of eleven 
 in it who sickens one, and though one comes across 
 phrases of this kind : — 
 
 " Oh human heart, deep as the Heavens, mysterious as the sea or 
 as death." 
 
 Or again : — 
 
 " Oh living, pulsating being, created by God, where thinkest thou 
 that I can find strength to punish thee ? " 
 
 Or yet again : — 
 
 "What was God's goodness doing when it created this man ? " 
 
 That's tolerably idiotic, don't you think ? 
 
 Everybody is well here. I have just been to call 
 on Mdlle. Commanville and learned that she was 
 at Stockholm. 
 
 Nevertheless you must come back to Paris ! 
 
 We shall meet soon, sha'n't we ? I send you my 
 love. Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 48, Rue de Rome, 
 
 Wednesday^ November 19, 1873. 
 And so, my dear friend, since yesterday evening, 
 you've started a Military Dictatorship. You're a 
 
 70 
 
Ibtg jftencb Circle 
 
 Macmahonnien, as they call it. It has always 
 seemed to me best to be just a Frenchman, but 
 perhaps Fm wrong. 
 
 The only good side to all this is that nothing can 
 now prevent your publishing Antoine^ since they 
 have promised us peace and the resumption of 
 business for seven years into the bargain. I went 
 the day before yesterday to Versailles and came 
 back quite disgusted and saddened. 
 
 " The devil take politics ! " I am very glad to 
 see you. are working hard, and that your play is 
 progressing by giant strides. Sardou's play (which 
 by the way I've not seen) has made more noise 
 than genuine success. I don't believe it will run 
 for two hundred nights, like Rahagas. Yours ^ is 
 more likely to do so. 
 
 I am all right again — a little bothered by a 
 nervous cough, but one must always have something. 
 
 I shall not leave Paris before the end of January, 
 and hope to see you soon. Everybody here is well. 
 
 My love to you. 
 
 Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 XXIX. 
 
 Monday .^ 9 a.m. 
 My dear Friend, — When I wrote to you that 
 there were difficulties connected with every under- 
 
 ^ he Candidat. 
 71 
 
taking I didn't know I was so near the truth. 
 During the past night the ankle of my bad foot 
 suddenly swelled up, and now I can neither wear 
 a boot nor put my foot to the ground. So now 
 Antoine is postponed. It really is bad luck, unless 
 you would care to come here yourself with the 
 MS. Or else let's wait a couple of days — this sort 
 of relapse seldom lasts more than forty-eight hours. 
 Think of me as very wretched and disappointed. 
 Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Spasskoie, Province of Orel, 
 Town of Mtsensk, 
 
 Wednesday^ ij/S yune^ 1874. 
 My dear Friend, — I am writing from the 
 depths of my lair where I arrived this morning to 
 find your letter of the ist of June. It has taken 
 some time to reach me as you may see, but it is 
 not its own fault nor M. Viardot's. I did not 
 mean to stay so long at St. Petersburg and 
 Moscow, and I gave an itinerary, or rather a time- 
 table, which turned out to be inaccurate. The 
 tiresome part of it is that you will no longer be at 
 Croisset after the 20th, i.e.^ after the day after to- 
 morrow, and that this letter will have to run after 
 
 72 
 
Ibis jftencb Circle 
 
 you. I'm quite certain it will catch you, but the 
 thought congeals my pen a little all the same. This 
 isn't the first time I've written to you from here — 
 and you know the place ; it is green, golden, 
 extensive, monotonous, peaceful, old-fashioned, and 
 there is a terrible stillness about it — a slow, patri- 
 archal, all-persuasive boredom. If I can work I 
 shall stay here some weeks, if not I shall go straight 
 as an arrow to Carlsbad, and from there to Paris. 
 My stay in Russia has not been without its use; 
 in any case, I have found pretty much what I 
 was looking for. It's true that I am less, much 
 less, exacting than you are. You're too much 
 so. 
 
 Are you pleased with Zola's novel ? I've written 
 to him and settled that piece of business for him for 
 the future. It doesn't amount to much, but it's 
 better than nothing.^ He has been greatly read 
 and translated in Russia. His Curée has just been 
 published. 
 
 Antoine is clearly not meant for the big public ; 
 ordinary readers recoil from it shocked and frightened 
 even in Russia. I did not think my fellow-country- 
 men were as prim as that. So much the worse for 
 them, for, when all's said and done, Antoine is a 
 book which will live. 
 
 ^ It was through Tourgueneff that Zola got on to the Messager de 
 l'Europe, a review published at St. Petersburg, as Paris correspondent, 
 and wrote for it for several years, starting from 1874. 
 
 73 
 
UonvQwéncU 
 
 ni tell you a lot of things which will make you 
 laugh when once I'm back again and in your dear old 
 study at Croisset. There are some very curious and 
 interesting things in my cara patria. For the time 
 being, owing to too much milk-food which I thought 
 I could indulge in, hoping that my native air would 
 render anything permissible, I am a martyr to the 
 most violent colic, so much so that I should imagine 
 it must show itself in the very form of the letters 
 I'm writing. This is neither curious nor interesting. 
 The state of my interior and the political situation 
 are equally abominable at the present moment ! 
 What do you think about it all ? Neither you nor 
 I care for talking about it, but one really can't help 
 sighing and exclaiming over it. 
 
 I am so looking forward to the time when we 
 shall resume our charming little dinners of dramatic 
 authors. 
 
 Meanwhile, if this letter should find you perched 
 on some glacier on the Righi, let me beg of you to 
 get really freshened up. As for your charming 
 niece give her my best regards. I see clearly that 
 I shall never see her in Russia.^ 
 
 * For the ending to this letter see next page, where, for the sake 
 of the drawing, it is reproduced in fac-simile. 
 
 74 
 

 'iV^t ' 
 
 /^^ /^ A- ,/^^ ///y^ 
 
 cCuy^A^^^"^ 
 
 -^- \ 
 
 
 
 //^^ 
 
 iru^t 
 
 A^ 
 
 / 
 
 ^^l\yy-^Y'^--^'-^ 
 
XLonvQwénctt anb 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 Moscow, Boulevard Pretchistenski, 
 " Au Comptoir des Apanages," 
 
 Sunday, July il, or June 30, 1874. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I received your Righi 
 letter just as, painfully propped on two crutches, 
 I was settling myself in a carriage which was 
 to take me from the country and bring me here. 
 I haven't broken any limb as you might think ; 
 but my native air, that air which does the people 
 of Marseilles so much good, has brought on an 
 attack of gout — this time in both feet — which has 
 tied me to my bed for a fortnight, and has not yet 
 left me. To say that this makes me see life 
 through rose-coloured or azure spectacles (I'm 
 thinking of your dream under a Swiss sky) would 
 be to tell a big lie. Infirmities, a steady, cold 
 disgust at things in general, a painful stirring up 
 of useless memories — there, my dear old boy, is 
 the vista which opens before a man who has 
 passed his fiftieth year, and hovering above and 
 beyond it all is resignation — hideous resignation. 
 This preparation for death — but enough of this ! 
 
 I'm going to try and fly towards Karlsbad as 
 quick as possible, not the Karlsbad where you're 
 boring yourself to death, but the Bohemian Karls- 
 bad, where I mean to spend five weeks. Later 
 on in the autumn we'll see what can be done. 
 
 76 
 
Ibis jfteitcb Circle 
 
 For the present I can't make any sort of plan, 
 especially of a pleasant nature, for fear of casting 
 the evil eye on myself. 
 
 You don't seem to me to be amusing yourself 
 on those sublime heights sung by Haller and 
 Rousseau ? It must be confessed that the people 
 who live most constantly in the presence of these 
 sublimities — I mean the Swiss — are undoubtedly 
 the most oppressively dull and the least gifted 
 people I know. A philosopher would ask, Whence 
 comes this anomaly ? Yet very likely it isn't an 
 anomaly at all. What would Bouvard and Pécuchet 
 think about it ? I'm delighted that you've found 
 a setting or rather the setting ; but the more I 
 think about it the more certain I am that it is a 
 subject which ought to be treated with immense 
 rapidity, after the manner of Swift or Voltaire. 
 That's always been my opinion, you know. 
 
 Your scheme sounds to me both charming and 
 amusing. If you dwell upon it too heavily, or wax 
 too learned. . . . Oh, well, after all, you're at 
 work upon it. Zola's Conquête de Plassans has 
 been translated in an abridged form in a Russian 
 newspaper ; later on it will be translated in full. 
 He is very popular in Russia. 
 
 Suppose you take advantage of your Righi Glacier 
 to create something passionate, torrid, glowing. 
 There's an idea for you ! But, above all, get 
 freshened up yourself. Unfortunately with certain 
 
 77 
 
temperaments boredom only stimulates and excites 
 the blood. Mind you come back to us as pale and 
 unicoloured as a verse of Lamartine's. I have good 
 nevi^s of my Paris and Bougival friends, and this fact 
 is as balm to my blood. 
 
 A propos of politics . . . you'll have a good 
 soldier of somewhat tarnished reputation to rule 
 you for seven years, and you'll see, he will end by 
 governing quite alone, without the chambers. This 
 reminds me that when I was in the country (where 
 I have a very good library) I read in the collection 
 called " A Selection from the Speeches made in the 
 French Tribune between 1789 and 1821," Robes- 
 pierre's oration on the question. Ought Louis XVI. 
 to be tried ? It struck me as extraordinarily fine ! 
 In later years, towards the end of his career, Robes- 
 pierre became spoilt ; he gave himself up to mere 
 sentiment and high-falutin', sonorous phrases, but 
 the fellow had good stuff in him, with a vengeance ! 
 
 May we meet soon, my friend. It will probably 
 be at Croisset in September, and let us hope we 
 shall both be well. 
 My love to you. 
 
 Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Are you quite sure you are at Karlsbad ? 
 You've twice written " Karltbad," but that's an 
 impossible name. I shall have to correct your 
 address ! 
 
 78 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 Les Frênes, Bougival, 
 
 Monday^ October ii, 1875. 
 
 The sight of your handwriting, my dear old 
 Flaubert, gave me the greatest possible pleasure 
 and your letter itself still more. You've come out 
 of the slough and are making — I was going to say 
 literary plans ! Anyway, you are amusing your- 
 self by thinking that you are going to work ! 
 That's good hearing, and I'm sure you'll give us 
 thirty pages. 
 
 Les Frênes, Wednesday^ October 15, 1875. 
 
 I had got thus far with my letter, my worthy 
 friend, when something occurred to interrupt me, 
 and now, to my great surprise, I've just found it 
 in my blotting-book. I thought it had gone long 
 ago. I write myself down an ass and take it up 
 again. 
 
 I say, then, that I am very much pleased at the 
 thought of those thirty pages. I, too, have just 
 promised my Russian publisher a tale of thirty 
 pages (two foHos of print) by the 26th of November — 
 at latest Î And I haven't a single word in my head, 
 so far, my long novel having been put ofF more or 
 less till the Greek Kalends — even more so than 
 B. and P.^ My pubHsher keeps circling round 
 me like an eagle, screaming for something. So here 
 
 ^ Bowvard et Pécuchet. 
 
 79 
 
ZonvQWcncU ant) 
 
 I am, pledged. Let's see which will get done 
 first. 
 
 Alas ! yes, my dear friend. We're both old. 
 There's no doubt about it. But at least let's try 
 and amuse ourselves as old folk do. ^ propos of this, 
 have you read in the République Française (of the 
 loth or nth) a feuilleton called A Child^s 
 Suicide, and signed " X " ! It impressed me a 
 good deal. Evidently the man who wrote it 
 belongs to your school. If he is young he has a 
 future before him. Try and get hold of the thing 
 and tell me what you think about it. 
 
 Everybody here is well. As for me I've had a 
 violent attack of " cystitis," as I believe it calls 
 itself; in other words, inflammation of the bladder. 
 I've had two wretched nights and spent three days 
 in bed. However, it's nearly gone now. These 
 are the little mementoes, the visiting cards as it 
 were, that Dame Death sends us to prevent our 
 forgetting her. 
 
 We shall be here till the ist of November. 
 The weather is mild, grey, and damp, but not 
 disagreeable. I can't get into my new house this 
 year, but I go there from time to time to write 
 some of my letters — this one for instance. There's 
 a good fire in the chimney and yet I've got cold 
 shivers down my back. 
 
 There has also been a charming feuilleton of 
 Madame Sand's in the Temps (it was written in 
 
 80 
 
Ibis jftencb Circle 
 
 1829, when she was twenty-five). I expect you've 
 read it. Zola has written a splendid article on the 
 Goncourts in the Revue Russe, It will lead to the 
 translation of their novels. 
 
 Tell me the probable date of your return to 
 Croisset. You won't stay long at the seaside I 
 suppose ? And you'll come to Paris whatever 
 happens, won't you ? 
 
 Your friends are going to close round you and 
 keep you warm. 
 
 Meanwhile give my best regards to Madame 
 Commanville and my love to yourself. 
 
 Your faithful old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Spasskoïé, Province of Orel, 
 Town of Mtsensk, 
 
 Sunday y y une 18, 1 876. 
 My dear Friend, — I arrived at my Patmos 
 this morning and am as dismal as an owl. Have 
 you noticed that it's at times like these that one 
 generally writes to one's best friends ? It is 32° 
 Reaumur in the shade ; and owing to this, and the 
 cold snap of 9° below zero, which we experienced on 
 the 2 1 St of May, all the greenery of the garden is 
 spotted with little dead leaves, which remind one 
 vaguely of little dead children, and my old limes 
 give a thin, miserable shade, which is distressing to 
 
 81 G 
 
Zoixvméncft ant) 
 
 see. Add to this that my brother, who was to 
 have waited for me in order to settle some money 
 matters of great importance to myself, started for 
 Carlsbad five days ago ; that I think I'm in for the 
 gout (which seized me at the same time and place 
 two years ago) ; that I've arrived at an almost 
 absolute certainty that my bailiff is robbing me, and 
 that nevertheless I can't get rid of him — and you 
 have the whole situation in a nutshell ! 
 
 Madame Sand's death has been a great, great grief 
 to me. I know you went to Nohant for the funeral, 
 and I wanted to send a telegram of condolence in 
 the name of the Russian public, but was deterred by 
 a sort of ridiculous modesty, fear of the Figaro^ and 
 of self-advertisement — every kind of stupidity in fact ! 
 
 There was no public upon which Madame Sand 
 had more influence than the Russian public, and of 
 course I ought to have said so ! Moreover, I had 
 the right to say it — but there ! Poor dear Madame 
 Sand ! She was very fond of us both — of you 
 especially, as was natural. What a heart of gold 
 she had ! What an entire absence there was in 
 her of anything small, mean, or false. What a 
 good fellow she was, and what a delightful woman ! 
 And now all that she was is buried in that horrible, 
 dull, speechless, insatiable, senseless pit, which 
 is unconscious even of what it has swallowed up. 
 Ah, well ! there's nothing to be done but to live 
 on and try to keep our heads above water. 
 
 82 
 
1big jFrencb Circle 
 
 I am addressing this to Croisset — I suppose 
 you're there. Have you begun work again ? If I 
 do nothing here it will mean that all is at an end ; 
 there is a silence here of which it's quite impossible 
 to give you any idea — not a single neighbour in a 
 radius of twenty kilomètres, and everything droop- 
 ing with inertia ! The house is rather wretched, 
 but not too hot, and the furniture is good. Among 
 other things there are an excellent writing-table and 
 a big cane arm-chair. Ah ! but there's also a 
 dangerous sofa — so dangerous that no sooner does 
 one find oneself upon it than one falls asleep. I 
 mean to shun it. I shall begin by finishing St, 
 yulien. 
 
 Standing upright in a corner of the room there is 
 an old Byzantine eikon^ quite black, and framed in 
 silver — only an immense sombre, rigid face ; it 
 bores me a little, but I can't have it taken away 
 because my servant would think me a heathen, and 
 that's no joke here. 
 
 Write me a few words of rather a more cheerful 
 kind than these of mine. My love to you. 
 
 Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Do you know that that Circassian fellow, 
 Hassan, who kills ministers by the brace as if they 
 were partridges, inspires me with a certain respect ? 
 
 P.P.S. — My best regards to your niece and to 
 her husband. 
 
 83 
 
XXXIV. 
 
 Spasskoïé, Province of Orel, 
 Town of Mtsensk. 
 
 Tuesday^ June li^—July 4, 1876. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — Fm writing to you from 
 here to Croisset — from one Patmos to another. 
 Your letter reached me yesterday, and, as you see, 
 I have not delayed in answering it. 
 
 Yes, Madame Sand's was a full life, and yet in 
 speaking of her you call her " poor Madame Sand." 
 It's an appropriate adjective for the dead, for after 
 all they are much to be pitied. Death is a hideous 
 thing. Yes, I remember little Aurore's eyes ; 
 they are astonishing in their depth and goodness, 
 and you're quite right in thinking them like her 
 grandmother's ; they're almost too good for a 
 child's eyes. Zola, it seems, has written a long 
 article on Madame Sand in the Revue Russe. The 
 article is very finely written, but a little harsh, they 
 say. Zola could not form a complete judgment of 
 Madame Sand : there was too great a gulf between 
 them. 
 
 I can see you making fierce eyes at M. A. In 
 
 a special kind of mud is required for the 
 
 cultivation of such fungi. 
 
 So you're working at Croisset. Well, now I'm 
 going to astonish you ! Never in my life have I 
 worked as I've been working here. I spend sleep- 
 
 84 ^ 
 
1bts fftcncb Circle 
 
 less nights, bent double over my writing-table. I'm 
 once more filled with the illusion that I can say, not 
 exactly something different from what has ever been 
 said before — that I don't care about — but that I can 
 say it differently. And note that, besides this, I'm 
 overwhelmed with miscellaneous work — with money 
 affairs, "administrative and farming business," and 
 Heaven knows what ! (On this head I may say 
 that things aren't quite as bad as I thought at first, 
 and, parenthetically, I am delighted to hear that 
 there is a little daylight to be seen in your nephew's 
 affairs.) But St. Julien is suffering from this excess 
 of activity. 
 
 My abominable old novel ^ has seized hold of me 
 in an overwhelming fashion. Nevertheless, you 
 may be quite easy in your mind ; the translation 
 is already promised for the October number of the 
 Messager de P Europe. It will appear then, or I 
 shall die in the attempt ! 
 
 I've not read Fromentin's articles, nor have I 
 read Renan's book. I can't read anything just 
 now, except the newspaper I get here, which tells 
 me about Eastern affairs and sets me pondering. I 
 believe it's the beginning of the end ; but oh, what 
 decapitated heads, what outraged and mutilated 
 women, girls, and children we shall see between 
 that end and now ! I believe also that we (I 
 mean Russia) can't avoid war. 
 
 ^ Terres T^îerges. 
 85 
 
UoxwQxxénctt anP 
 
 You want to know what my abode looks 
 like. It is a wooden house, very old, faced with 
 beams, and distempered a pale lilac. There is a 
 verandah in front, covered with creeping ivy ; the 
 two roofs are made of iron and painted green. This 
 little house is all that remains of a vast horseshoe- 
 shaped building which was burnt down in 1870. 
 
 Yesterday evening, with your letter in my pocket, 
 I sat myself down on my verandah steps facing 
 about sixty peasant women, almost all dressed in 
 red and very ugly (with one exception, in the shape 
 of a newly-married girl of sixteen, who had just had 
 fever, and was astonishingly Hke the Sistine Madonna 
 at Dresden). They danced like marmosettes, or 
 rather like bears, and sang with very harsh and 
 hard but true voices. It was a little fête they had 
 asked me to get up, and a very simple matter it 
 was — two buckets of brandy, some cakes and some 
 nuts, and there you are ! They kept preening them- 
 selves for my benefit, and I watched them doing it, 
 and felt horribly sad. The little Sistine Madonna 
 is called Mary, as is fitting. 
 
 Enough of this. I will write to you again before 
 leaving here. Meanwhile I send you my best love. 
 Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I find that in point of colouring the whole 
 landscape is pale here — sky, vegetation, soil — rather 
 a warm, golden paleness. It would be merely pretty 
 
 86 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 but for its big outlines and great level spaces, which 
 lend it grandeur. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 BouGiVAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Tuesday^ August 8, 1876. 
 
 N.B. — I'm writing on this dandified paper by 
 accident. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I arrived here two days 
 ago, after a breakneck journey across Russia and 
 Germany, and your letter gave me very great 
 pleasure. So you are well and at work ? I, too, 
 am well and I have been working, for, incredible as 
 it may sound, I've finished my great brute of a 
 novel, and now I can set to work again, for it must 
 be copied out and ready in two months' time, which 
 will be by no means an easy task, for you know 
 what copying means. There are some pages of 
 which not one original line remains. 
 
 Like Ulysses, I've seen many things and people, 
 and have returned to find all my circle well. I 
 have kicked out a bailiff who had robbed me to the 
 tune of something like 1 30,000 francs — a fairly large 
 slice of my fortune. Why was I such a fool ? I 
 let myself drift from idleness and blind confidence, 
 though I knew quite well, when 1 looked at his 
 smug, hairy face, that it belonged to a rogue. Well, 
 so much the worse for me, and may he digest my 
 money ! 
 
 87 
 
ZoxwQwéncU an^ 
 
 I fully intend to tear myself from my copying 
 for two or three days (about the 25th of this month), 
 and go to Croisset to hear you read Le Perroquet. 
 When I'm abreast of my copying I shall set to work 
 to finish the translation of St. yuUen^ for it must 
 come out in Russia on the ist of November. 
 
 I've just read that gentleman's article on Renan. 
 It's vile ; all that " Republic of Letters " reeks of 
 affectation and of something indefinably false and 
 degraded. 
 
 Zola has written to me. He is well and is 
 coming back to Paris towards the end of Septem- 
 ber. 
 
 I'm pleased with my chalet, and shall be more so 
 when it has lost its smell of new furniture. The 
 weather is really too lovely ; the green of the trees 
 before my window is full of soft, golden splendour. 
 It's really exceedingly pretty. 
 
 When you write to your niece give her a thou- 
 sand messages from me, and au revoir in a little 
 more than a fornight. 
 
 Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XXXVI. 
 
 BouGiVAL, Les Frênes Chalet, 
 
 Wednesday.^ August 29, 1876. 
 My dear Friend, — I didn't answer you at 
 once, because I wanted to be able to fix the day of 
 
 88 
 
1blg jFvencb Circle 
 
 my arrival at Croisset, and it wasn't easy ; but now 
 I'm in receipt of your telegram and am forced to 
 tell you that I cant come before September lO, 
 but that I'll come then for certain. 
 
 I'm delighted that you've finished your work. 
 If I find that it will be best for ^t. Julien to appear 
 in a Russian review to begin with^ I'll set to work 
 upon it, although the other is nearly finished. You 
 know we've still plenty of time before the ist of 
 November. 
 
 I'm up to my eyes in copying, and it's work that 
 bores me. 
 
 However, I'm very well, though I feel enveloped 
 in a kind of old-age fog which is very disagreeable. 
 
 On the loth then, my friend, without fail. 
 
 My love to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes Chalet, 
 
 Sunday^ September 23, 1876. 
 My fierce old Boy, — Here I am back again 
 without any misadventures. I had no time to see 
 Magny, but I saw Pelle. I submitted to him the 
 question in dispute. He replied as follows : — 
 
 " It is done, it is even often done, but it's against 
 the rules of good cooking." 
 
 89 
 
TLonvQnénctt anô 
 
 The resuit of this is that I owe you six bottles 
 of champagne ; but if I hav'n't won the ??iaterial 
 victory I have the moral ! 
 
 I have set to work at my copying again. This 
 evening I shall read over again, for the second time, 
 Le Cœur Simple. Kindest regards to all at Croisset. 
 
 I hope your niece will soon be up and about again, 
 and I send you my love, and am 
 
 He who eats hot roast chicken without ?nustard, 
 
 I. T. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes Chalet, 
 (Seine-et-Oise), 
 
 Wednesday^ October 25, 1876. 
 I wrote to you on a Wednesday and your letter 
 is dated Wednesday too, but how many weeks have 
 passed in between ? Two, three, a hundred, a thou- 
 sand ? I'm sure I don't know. What have I been 
 doing all this time ? Nothing, and I know nothing 
 whatever about it. The days have slipped by like 
 water or sand. And you ? Have you been work- 
 ing ? How is Madame Commanville ? She has 
 been up a long time, I hope. When are you 
 coming to Paris ? We shall be here for ten days 
 longer. The sky has been grey all the time. I 
 hav'n't read anything. Oh, yes, I have ! I've read 
 the second canto of Lord Byron's Don Juan^ and it 
 has been a ray of light amid all this greyness. 
 
 90 
 
1btg ffrencb Circle 
 
 I have had two or three delightful musical even- 
 ings. One night I had an attack of nephritic 
 colic. I thought I was going to die like a dog. 
 
 That's all. 
 
 Write me just two lines, and say a thousand kind 
 things to Madame and Mademoiselle Commanville 
 for me. 
 
 I feel utterly woolly, but that doesn't prevent me 
 from sending you my best love. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TouRG. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 BouGiVAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Wednesday^ 'November 8, 1876. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I'm in all the agonies of 
 packing up. We're going to Paris the day after 
 to-morrow. Oncei established there I'll write to 
 you at greater length. 
 
 The Messager de r Europe has informed me that 
 it could not allow St. yulien to be published with 
 my name, before my novels, as a promise has been 
 made to publish nothing of mine or bearing my 
 signature, before that. But as the novel is to 
 appear in the January number, St. Julien will 
 appear in February, before its publication in France. 
 I think I have found a good translator for Le Cœur 
 Simple. 
 
 I am delighted to hear that Madame Comman- 
 
 91 
 
ville is well again. Say every sort of kind thing to 
 her for me. 
 
 As for the gigantic difficulties of Hérodîade^ I 
 quite believe in them, but I'm sure you'll end by 
 overcoming them. 
 
 I hav'n't read Zola's feuilletons, but I've read 
 the first part of U Asso7nmoir. Heavens, heavens ! 
 we'll talk it over. I'm going to write to you in 
 two or three days, as soon as I'm settled in Paris. 
 My nephritic colic was only an accident — a very 
 disagreeable one, by the way — and since then I 
 hav'n't done badly. We shall meet soon. My 
 love to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XL. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday.^ December ijc)^ 1876. 
 My dear old Boy, — It's just a week ago since 
 I took up this sheet of paper to write to you, and I 
 hav'n't written one word. I'm in an odious state of 
 mind ; I feel old, grey, off-colour, useless, and stupid. 
 I've had an attack of gout, but even that came to 
 nothing ! I am correcting the proofs of my novel ^ 
 which they are sending me from St. Petersburg, 
 and I find it flat and insignificant. I see scarcely 
 anybody. It seems to me that you are staying away 
 
 ^ Terres Vierges, which was published in Russia the same year. 
 
 92 
 
Ibis fftencb Circle 
 
 from Paris far too long ; if I could have talked 
 things over with you everything would have settled 
 itself, but I should have to write at too great length. 
 In the first place it is tiring, and in the second, one 
 has to say everything on paper, even the things 
 which are understood of themselves. 
 
 We have had a dinner with Zola and Concourt. 
 Daudet couldn't come. We missed you. M. 
 Pelle gave us an abominable dinner. We really 
 mustn't go there any more. Look here — when are 
 we going to see you in Paris again ? Is the work 
 getting on ? How are you in health ? 
 
 Concourt read us a fragment of his novel ^ in 
 a voice broken with emotion. It seemed strange to 
 me to see a grey-haired man stirred by that kind of 
 feeling. What he read seemed to me good, but 
 a little too superficial. I've just dipped into 
 U Assommoir. I'm not enchanted with it. This 
 is strictly between ourselves. There's certainly 
 a great deal of talent in it, but it's heavy reading 
 and leaves too bad a taste in the mouth. 
 
 Really, when are you coming back ? Do let me 
 know — without delay — don't follow my example ! 
 And what do you think of the beautiful mess in 
 which we're wallowing here ? There will most 
 certainly be war, " whatever folk may say." 
 
 I hope to have an income of 10,000 roubles for 
 the whole year 1877. In good times this is equiva- 
 
 Ï La Fille Elise. 
 
 93 
 
ZoxwQxxémU ant ) 
 
 lent to 35,000 francs ; in middling times to 30,000 ; 
 in bad times to 25,000 ; and one must count on 
 25,000 — not more. As I have more than 10,000 
 francs' worth of charges to meet and as much in 
 the way of debts, there won't be a fat lot left. 
 Patience ! 
 
 Give my best regards to your niece and her 
 husband. I am a sleepy old pear, a worn-out 
 rag, but I'm very fond of you and send you my 
 best love. y/« revoir ! 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XLI. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Tuesday^ December 19, 1876. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — I'm just back after a 
 virtuous domestic tour which has taken me three 
 days, and in the course of which I've been con- 
 siderably bored. And now here I am answering 
 your letter. First of all let us thresh out the 
 question of the three stories. 
 
 The St. Julien is translated, is in the publishers' 
 hands, and will be paid for at my ordinary rate — 
 that's to say it will bring us in 300 roubles (the 
 rouble fluctuates between 2 francs 85, and 3 francs 
 50) per printed folio (16 pages). But here is the 
 hitch. I was obliged to make a formal promise to 
 my publisher and the public (in a note which I 
 was fool enough to allow to be published) to publish 
 
 9+ 
 
1btg ffrencb Civclc 
 
 nothing with my name before my old brute of 
 a novel. I have finished the novel and sent it off to 
 St. Petersburg, and it's being printed at the present 
 moment. Only, my snake of a publisher, instead 
 of printing it as a whole (which he expressly 
 promised me he would do), has cut it in two, 
 so that it will appear in the two numbers of the 
 1/13 January and 1/13 February, and he has so far 
 got round me, sleepy old pear that I am, that 
 I've consented to this mutilation, which puts the 
 unlucky Julien off until 1/13 March. Those 
 other two stories must therefore be published. In 
 any case Le Cœur Simple ought not to appear quite 
 by itself. This is not impossible from what you 
 tell me. I've given Le Cœur Simple to a young 
 Russian literary lady, who knows the language 
 very well. She is here in Paris, and if she acquits 
 herself of the business with credit, I shall hand over 
 the Herodiade to her. Of course I shall overhaul 
 the translation with the greatest possible care. 
 I shall copy it out again if necessary since it 
 must have my name attached to it. Otherwise 
 people would say, " As he translated the first 
 story, why doesn't he translate the others ? Aren't 
 they so good ? " This is the only way we can 
 secure a satisfactory payment. ^ But here's another 
 
 ^ As we said in the preface, Flaubert's two stories, St. 'Julien and 
 Herodiade, came out over TourguénefF's signature as translator, and 
 were included in the Russian edition of TourguénefF's Complete 
 Works. 
 
 9S 
 
difficulty ! I am going to St. Petersburg (this is 
 between ourselves) on the 15th of February, and 
 shall be there a month. Probably you won't be 
 ready between now and then (15th February), 
 or if you are I shall only be able to carry off 
 the original without having time to make a proper 
 translation. Very well, so be it then. I shall have 
 to find some one in St. Petersburg, which is not an 
 impossibility. 
 
 The outcome of all which is — try and finish 
 Hérodiade in the first days of February, and then 
 we'll see what can be done. 
 
 As for the other points mentioned in your letter 
 I'll answer them categorically, for I don't want to 
 go over the page. 
 
 1. I beg you urgently to hasten your return, 
 because I miss you to a singular degree. 
 
 2. We are of the same opinion about Zola. 
 Our dinner at the Opera-Comique restaurant came 
 off on Friday. Pelle is a pig. 
 
 3. As to Renan. His article is very interesting 
 from a personal point of view, but what a lack of 
 colour and life it shows ! I see nothing, neither 
 Brittany, nor all the saints, nor his mother, nor 
 those little girls of his who are the cause of his first 
 love coming to grief, nor himself ! and why on 
 earth does he say that God gave him a daughter ? ^ 
 
 ^ The article by Renan of which TourguenefF speaks is a chapter 
 of his Souvenirs d'Enfance which appeared in the Renjue des Deux 
 Mondes^ on the ist of December, 1876. These Souvenirs were 
 collected in a volume several years later. 
 
 96 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 4. I haven't read M. Mont, . . . because he 
 disgusts me. There will probably be no war. You 
 are indirectly concerned in the matter, because it 
 has an abominable effect on the value of the rouble. 
 The change of ministry leaves me quite cold. 
 Germiny is colossal. There's a thing calculated to 
 make one believe in a personal, ironical, jeering 
 God, if you like ! I have had a visit from Madame 
 Commanville. I was both charmed and flattered 
 thereby. I thought her looking splendidly well, 
 and now much love to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 I. T. 
 
 XLII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 January 2, 1877. 
 My dear Friend, — On the next page you'll 
 find a piece of poetry ^ which a schoolmaster dic- 
 
 ' Here is the piece of poetry referred to in this letter : — 
 
 CHERS PARENTS. 
 
 Un nouvel an commence sa carrière, 
 
 Et vous savez les vœux que mon cœur peut former. 
 
 Il en est un surtout que l'amour nous suggère : 
 
 C'est de vous voir toujours m'aimer 
 
 Autant que je cherche à vous plaire ! 
 
 Jaloux du bonheur des amants 
 
 Le temps s'amuse à détruire leur chaîne, 
 
 Ce nœud, qui leur futcher, les fatigue et les gêne. 
 
 Le vent emporte leurs serments. 
 
 Et pour l'amante infortunée 
 
 Le plus souvent la bonne année 
 
 Est celle qui vient de finir ! 
 
 97 H 
 
tated to his class (on the occasion of the New 
 Year) and which our concierge's son, a boy of 
 eight years old, has just presented to his parents. 
 His mother (who by the way doesn't know how to 
 read) came to show this beautiful production to 
 Madame Viardot. She was proud of it, and her 
 eyes were full of tears, and for my part I hastened 
 to copy out this priceless masterpiece for you. 
 Sound, if you can, the depths of this usher's soul, 
 drowned in a sea of rhetoric ! 
 
 I have an attack of gout in my knee ; I hope it 
 will not be serious, but for the time being I can't 
 move. 
 
 What about you ? are you still working hard ? 
 
 Is your health good ? 
 
 Much love to you, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XLIII. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 Wednesday Evening^ yanuary 24, 1877. 
 My dear old Boy, — I am sending you two 
 numbers of the Te?nps which contain a stupid little 
 
 Mais la tendresse filiale 
 
 N'est point sujette au repentir ; 
 
 Toujours vive, toujours égale, 
 
 Le temps ne peut arrêter ses progrès 
 
 Semblable aux feux de la Vestale, 
 
 Son ardeur ne s'éteint jamais. 
 
 98 
 
Iblg ffrencb Circle 
 
 trifle of mine. Read it when you have nothing 
 better to do. 
 
 The first part of my novel w^hich has appeared 
 in Russia seems to have pleased my friends very 
 much, and the public very little. The newspapers 
 say I am used up, and worry me to death about my 
 own past works (as they did you about Madame 
 Bovary). I am glad to hear you are working hard, 
 and Madame Commanville, whom I have seen and 
 thought in very good health and spirits, told me 
 you were coming back sooner than you had ex- 
 pected. Hurrah ! I have missed you. As for 
 me, I shall not be leaving till the first days of 
 March. Zola has sent me his Assommoir, It's a 
 fat volume. I shall set to work on it soon. 
 
 Poor Maupassant is losing all his hair ! He came 
 to see me. I gather it's owing to some gastric 
 trouble, from what he says. He is still a dear 
 fellow, but exceedingly ugly just at present. I am 
 still convinced, in spite of everything, that there 
 will be war next spring. 
 
 And now best love and aii revoir. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 99 
 
XTourguéneff an^ 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 15, Rue de Mesmer, 
 
 Tuesday^ July 24, 1877. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — I didn't answer you at 
 once because I had a faint hope of coming to 
 Croisset to bring you your dressing-gown in person, 
 but this hope has been dispelled for the time being, 
 so I am writing to you and am sending your 
 dressing-gown by train. ^ 
 
 My foot is better, but I couldn't walk much yet 
 if I tried. I think I shall end by trying the new 
 drug that the papers are praising so much, and that 
 has a name which begins with sal and ends with 
 ate. My fiendish gout is taking a semi-chronic, 
 sub-acute form which worries me. It's a pity B. 
 and P. have given up practising, or I should have 
 consulted them. 
 
 I did about a quarter of what I meant to do in 
 Russia, which is something after all ; of course, I 
 didn't do the chief thing I meant to do. I didn't 
 see my brother. All that lies in shadow. 
 
 I do wish this war would come to an end, so that 
 the value of the Russian rouble might, go up again. 
 
 ^ A present of TourguenefF's to Flaubert, consisting of a silk 
 dressing-gown, embroidered in gold and silk threads by the Tartar 
 women in the Crimea. 
 
 100 
 
Ibis jFtencb Circle 
 
 The present situation impoverishes me terribly. 
 You are working, that's all right ; and how are 
 your affairs going ? — that business which if you 
 remember promised so well ? 
 
 My literary activity is for the present at the very 
 lowest ebb. 
 
 I saw Zola's little story in the Écho Universel, 
 The beginning is particularly remarkable. 
 
 My best regards to all. 
 
 Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 I. T. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 Caen, Grand Hôtel de la Place Royale, 
 
 Friday Evening^ August 17, 1877. 
 My dear Friend, — " Caen ? Why Caen ? " 
 you will say, my dear old boy, "What on earth 
 does Caen mean ? " Ah ! that's just it ! The 
 ladies of the Viardot family have got to spend a 
 fortnight by the seaside, either at Luc or at St. 
 Aubin, and they have sent me on in front to find 
 a place for them. I took your letter with me, 
 and I hasten to tell you that your visit suits me 
 down to the ground, for I shall be back at Bougival 
 by Tuesday^ and I shall expect a letter from you at 
 Les Frênes to tell me when I am to meet you in 
 Paris at the Faubourg St. Honoré. We shall have 
 so much to talk about that we shall make the very 
 
 lOI 
 
UoxxvQwéncU attt) 
 
 walls shake ! Well, then, from Tuesday onwards 
 I shall expect a line from you. 
 Much love. Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XLVI. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Thursday^ August 30, 1877. 
 My dear Friend, — When you talk to me you 
 labour under the delusion that you are addressing a 
 human being. Undeceive yourself — I am nothing 
 but an old receptacle for the gout, all of which 
 means that it fastened on me with renewed violence 
 as far back as the month of June, when you and I 
 lunched together, and that ever since then I have 
 been tied by the leg. In the course of last night 
 it crept up from my heel to my knee, and probably 
 it's not at the end of its wanderings yet. So, it 
 you want to see me, you must do like Mahomet — 
 go to the mountain. I send you my love, and wish 
 you all kinds of good things — and no gout ! 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XLVII. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Saturday y 8 a.m., September i, 1877. 
 My dear Friend, — I am writing to stop you 
 from going to the mountain, if you were thinking 
 
 102 
 
1b!9 fftencb Circle 
 
 of so doing. I have made up my mind to drag 
 myself on crutches as far as Paris to consult Dr. 
 See. I ought to have put it off till Wednesday, as 
 he spends Sundays and Mondays at Trouville, and 
 doesn't receive on Tuesdays. I don't know w^hen 
 he'll let me out of his clutches, and I can't possibly 
 climb your five storeys. So our meeting, our dinner, 
 and everything else, have all come to grief. After 
 forty there is only one w^ord w^hich sums up the 
 basis of existence — renunciation. I send you my 
 love, and wish you good health, activity, &c., &c. 
 
 Your old friend, 
 
 I. T. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes Chalet, 
 
 Friday^ October 5. 
 
 My dear Friend, — Only one line to tell you 
 not to be surprised at my silence, for several reasons 
 which I will tell vou when we meet. All this time 
 I have been in a slough of despond and unfit for 
 human intercourse. 
 
 I'll come and see you as soon as if s possible to do 
 so ; I'll let you know beforehand. 
 
 I read nothing, I do nothing, and meantime I am 
 perfectly well, thanks to salicylate. 
 
 Mademoiselle 's ^ wedding has been put off 
 
 for a short time. 
 
 ^ The name has been omitted by special request of the people 
 concerned. 
 
 103 
 
XTontguéneff anb 
 
 Work hard enough for the two of us. Best 
 love. Your faithful friend, 
 
 I. T. 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday^ November 8, 1877. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — I really must write to you 
 if it's only to find out how long you think of staying 
 at Croisset, for I mean to go and see you there 
 whatever happens. We left the country ten days 
 ago, and are definitely settled here. 
 
 I am in very good health, thanks to salicylate of 
 soda, which seems to have put an end to my gout. 
 
 My chief distress has been the breaking off of 
 
 's engagement to a young fellow whom I was 
 
 looking after and was very fond of. It all happened 
 under my very eyes. There were certain psycho- 
 logical curiosities connected with it which I should 
 like to have come across elsewhere. 
 
 We will talk of all this and of other things too. 
 I have seen and am seeing, no one. Zola must be 
 back ; I mean to go and look him up some day 
 soon. I hope you are well and are working hard. 
 Chamerot ^ told me your three stories were being 
 reprinted. All the better. 
 
 Best love. Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TouRG. 
 
 ^ The husband of Madame Viardot's eldest daughter, and the 
 owner of large printing works. 
 
 104 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 P.S. — Politics are in a pretty state, aren't they ? 
 I always thought this ministry would last, and that 
 a wooden figurehead placed in a favourable position 
 would prove stronger than a whole people. 
 
 L. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Wednesday^ December 5, 1877. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — I am still in a horizontal 
 position. I've had a relapse since I last wrote. I 
 am in no pain, but I begin to wonder how people 
 use their legs ; folk who walk with crutches even 
 seem to me giants and heroes. I believe I am 
 in this state so as to feel in harmony with poor 
 France who, like myself, can neither move hand or 
 foot. What a situation, my dear friend ! Such a 
 state of things has never been seen before. A steam 
 engine going at full steam towards the precipice, 
 and the engineer peacefully scratching his head or 
 folding his arms ! And the lies, the unblushing 
 lies, which exude from everywhere like the sap 
 from a frozen log thrown on the fire ! I repeat, 
 such a state of things has never been seen. 
 
 Madame Commanville has been good and kind 
 enough to come and see the invalid. I thought 
 she looked splendidly well — glowing with health, 
 in fact. I have also seen Zola, who has definitely 
 settled to write a play for Sarah Bernhardt. 
 
 105 
 
TLomç^xiénctt anb 
 
 I have just finished Le Nabab. It's a book in 
 which there are many things far above Daudet's 
 ordinary level, and others far beneath it. What he 
 has observed is superb ; what he has invented is thin, 
 insipid, and not even original. But in spite of all 
 this, the good things in the book are so good that I 
 think I shall make up my mind to write him a 
 truthful letter, which will both please and pain him. 
 Perhaps, after all, I shall do nothing of the kind. 
 
 What about you — are you working ? Madame 
 Commanville tells me you are. All the better. 
 Make the most of the time you have got before 
 some infirmity takes hold of you, for, once that has 
 come, all is over. It inspires one with a submissive- 
 ness and a humility which may be excellent from a 
 Christian point of view, but are not worth a damn 
 for any one who can still do something. 
 
 You'll be back for the New Year, sha'n't you ? 
 Goodbye. I send you my love. 
 
 I am not sad, but I am not in the least happy. I 
 remind myself of one of the shades of the Elysian 
 Fields in Gliick's Orfeo. I expect I have their look 
 of " deep surprise and deep indifference," as Jules 
 Simon said when he became one of MacMahon's 
 ministers. Jules Simon a minister ! It's pretty 
 comic, isn't it ? 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 1 06 
 
1btg jFtencb Circle 
 
 The letter that Tourgueneff was thinking of 
 writing to Daudet was indeed sent to him, and 
 the author of the Nabab published it in the 
 article on TourguenefF which he wrote for the 
 New York Century Magazine in 1883. Here 
 it is : — 
 
 ^^ Monday^ May 24, 1877. 
 
 " My dear Friend, — I have not written to you 
 before about your book, because I wished to do so 
 at some length, and not to be content with a few 
 banal phrases. I am putting it all off until we 
 meet, which will be soon I hope, for Flaubert will 
 be back in a few days, and we shall begin our 
 dinners again. 
 
 " I will confine myself to saying this one thing : 
 the Nabab is the most remarkable and at the same 
 time the most unequal thing you have done yet. 
 If one were to describe Froment et Risler by a 
 
 straight line, thus : , the Nabab would 
 
 have to be described thus : •-v^-v.-^-n.-.''-^^, and the 
 highest points in the zig-zag could only be reached 
 by a talent of the first rank. 
 
 " I must apologise for expressing myself in such a 
 geometrical fashion. 
 
 " I have had a very long and violent attack of 
 gout. I only wen^ out yesterday for the first 
 time, and my legs and knees are like those of a 
 man of ninety. I am sadly afraid I have be- 
 
 107 
 
tfmte whit Kti0kh pefypie cal) * // frmfirmad 
 invalid!' 
 
 " Affcctior»atf;Iy y(/uf%^ 
 
 ffi AiphffTt^. DafKJct*^ article thi^ letter k duteâ 
 May 24, /^77, ^xy u\\%\'aV(i^ ff/f it »^ later thart that 
 written l/y Tf/ur^ttéfieff u» Flatifyert tm h^r, 5, 
 1877. After tAi^t\\mwii% Ws\h the im^sri'àS we finf) 
 that Oaodet*» letter wa« ir* re^Uty (kttd Dec. 24, 
 /^77. 
 
 LI/ 
 
 pAfr/% CO, Rr/i? r>/ï />/'/A/, 
 
 Monday J ^funp \ \^ f'K'/H. 
 
 M/ />f:/.R t RtE?U)y if k (ynffi tntc, I am nn 
 <A(\ \t*-'t>'' '. '^ ^f-^ firne le^ </i i\vAU you think. 
 
 / h^ /ou ih'At thuf hr/^e fCh;^nylf';ff ' 
 
 ftefit rrie an jn«<itati/;ri for ye^iierd-dy. / <;hof/M have 
 heer» ahle t/; )t;et </t/t ^/f h if he had ft/>t invited dhy- 
 hody ftlv; frrr the o<CH^iof), hut jf/^t thlf»Ic </f It : two 
 rrjathc:fr)>itirlHf»<; c;xpr<';'v;ly fridden ! My réputation 
 k jdlrfvf/ly <;<; had (ir» the wHtier of keeping my 
 «ngajj/ernentft) fhnt I <;hm/ld have heen l<'><;t Uft ever. 
 
 / have read Zola*s fei/illeton. I can*t help It. I 
 pify him. Yes, he really /ill<; me whh comj>a«!<;lon, 
 afjd / ^rf/Af)y fear he haft /»ever read .Hhakf^pearc. 
 
 ' An c/kl fri^r-'i '.^ '''.•rff^rr^n^ff', «rid » jij/»ogr*ph<»r fairly wcfl 
 
 16» 
 
HM Jfrcucb (livclc 
 
 I'herc is an original taint in Inni which hc*ll iic\cr 
 get rid o{\ 
 
 Very wfll, then, it shall In- SArilRDAV ! 
 
 Trust inc ior being punctual fhtit day. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. ToURCÎl'KNKFF. 
 
 in. 
 
 BoutîiVAi,, if), RuF DK Mksmkr, Lfs Franks, 
 
 SurniiiYy June 2j, 1878. 
 T too, my dear friend, expected to be in Ciermanv ; 
 but nothing of the soi t. 1 have let invselt be rv>ped 
 in by this International Congress » business which 
 will not atui mnnot have tiny rtsult ivhatnter i and 
 here I .nu making speeches and so on atul so on. 
 What a comic thiiij'. a ileliberatix e assen\blv is I'^'iv 
 Inend ' hna^\ine Hugo getting ready yesterday a 
 magnificent ilisct>mse. This discourse is received 
 with acchunation, is oulcicil to be punted as it it 
 h.id been tieliveied in the Coi^stituent Assembly, 
 and five minutes later u resolution diametiicallv 
 opposed to his speech is carrieil ' aiul he himselt 
 votes hu It ' W'e have u Committee which sits 
 every ilav (1 am it»* vice-president). W'e keep 
 marking time witliom making anv progress, as if 
 we were idiots, ami I b» r.ni t»» think we really are. 
 I've had n\oie than I can stand, and <\\\ Thuisdav I 
 
 ' lit iS'S the tM»t Intel nHlional l.ileiaiy I'vMtgif»» awenible»! m 
 I'aiii, iiiidfi the |Meii>lfiuv >>l N'i>lv>i n«g\> 
 
shall fly to Carlsbad, where I implore you to write 
 to me (C, Bohemia, poste restante). I daresay 
 the water I shall drink there is a sham too, but at 
 all events it is a less obvious one. 
 
 As for you, health and patience are what I wish 
 for you with all my heart. 
 
 I saw Zola for a moment ; he has bought a little 
 house near Maisons-Laffitte, and is just going to 
 move in. 
 
 Henri Martin is certainly not a great writer, but 
 confess that Taine in Thiers' y^w^^z^// strikes one as 
 just a little monstrous ! Personally I like Martin 
 very much, and am glad of his success. 
 
 Best love to you. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 LIII. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday^ November 9, 1878. 
 My dear old Boy, — " Apr} s tant de malheurs^ 
 Rhadamiste^ est-ce vous ! " ^ After such a long 
 silence, after excursions into Russia, England, and 
 God knows where, yes it is really I ! And I am 
 writing to tell you that I have only been settled in 
 Paris since yesterday ; that I am anxious for news 
 of you ; and that you must tell me how much longer 
 you mean to stay at Croisset, for I suppose you are 
 there, and I want to go and see you there. 
 
 ^ a quotation from one of Crebillon's plays. 
 IIO 
 
Ibts fvcncb Circle 
 
 My health is fairly good, and I am walking quite 
 alone, like a three-year-old baby. I won't add 
 another word to-day, for I feel a good deal flustered, 
 and shall await your reply. 
 
 Much love to you. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 LIV. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 TVednesday^ November 27, 1878. 
 My dear old Boy, — In reply to your little 
 note, the sadness of which distressed me, I meant 
 to have turned up at Croisset, and if I have not 
 done so, it has been owing to circumstances over 
 which I had no control. I had to bury a forty- 
 year-old friend (I mean of forty years' standing), 
 Khanykoff, who went and died at Rambouillet, in 
 that forbidding house I saw there. It was horrible 
 at Père Lachaise — mud under foot, a sort of sleet or 
 snow overhead, and a horrid, dirty fog everywhere. 
 They had infinite trouble in letting down the 
 enormous heavy coffin into the gaping pit. I said 
 a few words of farewell at the edge of this pit, 
 standing on a heap of greasy, sHppery lumps of mud. 
 I spoke bareheaded and caught rather a bad cold, 
 which prevents my leaving my room and going to 
 Croisset. Nevertheless, I am^ better, and certainly 
 next week shall not go by without your having 
 
 III 
 
UonvQwémU ant) 
 
 seen me at your Croisset home. I can see from 
 here a sceptical smile hovering on your lips, and I 
 am bound to admit that you are justified in allowing 
 it to hover there — but you shall see ! 
 
 Zola has not yet returned to Paris, and I have not 
 seen Daudet. Concourt came to see me yesterday 
 to get a little local colour out of me. Southern 
 Russia, gypsy names, &c. He seemed well, but 
 rather thin, and with the old, deep-set, shining eyes, 
 which didn't look right at all. He spoke of you 
 with much friendliness. 
 
 I am just sixty years old, my dear old boy. It's 
 the beginning of the end of life. A Spanish pro- 
 verb says "the tail is the hardest part of all to 
 skin," and yet it is the part which promises the 
 least pleasure and the least profit. Life becomes 
 a purely personal matter, only occupied in defend- 
 ing itself from death. And this intensifying of the 
 personal note drains life of all interest even for the 
 individual concerned. But, after all, you are not 
 yourself in such good spirits that I need add this 
 touch of sorrow. Let it be as if nothing had been 
 said. When we meet I shall have much to tell 
 you about my two journeys in Russia and England. 
 So be sure and make me talk away. All are well 
 here and send you messages. As for me, I send 
 you my love. 
 
 J bientôt. — You shall hear the day before. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 112 
 
Ibis ffrencb Citcle 
 
 LV. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Tuesday^ January 7, 187g. 
 
 Well, my friend, still no letter ? However 
 perhaps it's as well, for if you had written to me 
 a fortnight or ten days ago I shouldn't have been 
 able to come, as I have been in bed with gout. 
 The attack has been sharp but short, and for the last 
 five days I have been wearing my boots and walking 
 about like a normal being. Anyway, send me news 
 of yourself, and don't forget you have promised to 
 come to Paris at the beginning of February. 
 
 Our poor dinners are collapsing dreadfully. 
 I have received a line from Daudet, who is 
 suffering greatly from rheumatism in his right arm. 
 As for Zola he has been back in Paris four days, 
 and I have just seen him. He is looking fat and 
 jolly. He has just finished building a house in the 
 country, and in ten days U Assommoir is to be given. 
 He has promised me a stall for the first night. There 
 will probably be a fine old row. But he knows 
 that, and doesn't care a fig. And he doesn't care a 
 fig either for the stir his Russian articles have made, 
 or for the violent attacks of Ulbach, Claretie, &c. 
 But I was forgetting ; you probably get no news- 
 papers where you are, and perhaps know nothing of 
 the whole business, but we'll talk about it when we 
 meet, if the whole thing isn't forgotten by that 
 
 113 I 
 
Uoutguéneff an^ 
 
 time.ï I am so distressed to see you in such a 
 Slough of Despond, and unable to struggle out of 
 it. It's no use eating one's heart out, under any 
 circumstances, and I am glad to know that you're 
 pegging away at your work. Nevertheless, there 
 are some things I don't understand. What can it 
 matter to you if Charpentier publishes Sarah Bern- 
 hardt ? and what a mere pin-prick the whole thing 
 is ! The book, which is as stupidly written as it is 
 miserably illustrated by M. Clairin, is already more 
 completely forgotten than last year's fashions. And 
 what did you think of the day before yesterday ? 
 
 Madame Viardot sends you a thousand kind 
 messages, and I send you my love. 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 ^ The articles by Zola referred to in this letter appeared first in 
 the Russian review, the Messager de VEurope^ afterwards in the 
 Figaro (December, 1877), and were finally collected in a volume 
 called Les romanciers naturalistes, which contained appreciations of 
 Stendhal, Balzac, Concourt, Flaubert, and Daudet. At the time of 
 their publication these articles were subjected to such lively criticism 
 and such violent newspaper attacks, that M. Bardoux, the Minister 
 of Public Instruction, who, at the instance of Flaubert and Daudet, 
 was on the point of bestowing upon Zola the Cross of a Knight of the 
 Legion of Honour, was obliged to abandon his intention. M. 
 Paul Alexis, in his book on Zola, goes so far as to say that when 
 M. Bardoux proposed the author of U Assommoir to the Chief of his 
 Cabinet, the latter answered him solemnly, " Impossible, my dear sir, 
 it would cost you your portfolio." 
 
 114 
 
Dis dftencb Circle 
 
 LVI. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday^ yanuary 11, 187g. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I shall come and see 
 you as soon as this cold, snowy weather stops, 
 probably towards the end of next week. Of 
 course I shall let you know beforehand. I, too, 
 have the greatest wish to see you and talk to you. 
 I didn't know Madame Commanville had returned 
 to Paris. I shall go and call upon her to-morrow. 
 
 You are in a bad way, my poor, dear old boy, but 
 you've got health, work, and true friends left. With 
 those one can get on. But don't prey upon your- 
 self ; it's the one thing one can't do with impunity. 
 
 The whole Viardot family sends you a thousand 
 kind messages. As for me, I send you my love. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TouRG. 
 
 LVII. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Tuesday^ yanuary 11^ 1879. 
 My dear old Boy, — You want to know why I 
 have given no sign of life. Alas, my friend, the 
 real truth is, I am nothing but an invalid, and can 
 no longer undertake anything. It is now a fortnight 
 ago since gout fastened upon me again, and it is 
 
 115 
 
tTourguénetf anb 
 
 only since yesterday that I have been able to walk 
 about my room again, needless to say with the help 
 of crutches. I wasn't able to go to the first night 
 of U Assommoir^ which, considerably bowdlerised 
 it seems, had a good old melodrama success. 
 I received yesterday the news of my brother's ^ 
 death. It has been a great grief to me, both 
 personally and in retrospect. We seldom saw one 
 another, and we had next to nothing in common ; 
 but a brother, though sometimes less, is always some- 
 thing different from, a friend, less dear, but more 
 intimate. My brother died worth millions, but he 
 leaves his entire fortune to his wife's relations. He 
 put me down for 250,000 francs in his will (so he 
 wrote to me), which is just about the twentieth 
 part of his fortune.^ ... I shall probably have to 
 go to the spot without delay. This legacy of my 
 brother's may quite conceivably end in smoke ! So 
 perhaps in ten days I shall be on my way to Moscow. 
 In that case, when shall we meet again ? For it 
 would be no use thinking of going to Croisset, and 
 yet I have the greatest possible wish to see you. 
 Is it really necessary for you to stay down there 
 until the end of February. What a depressing 
 winter ! No mole, even, leads a more retired life 
 than I do. To be alone, quite alone, doing nothing, 
 
 ^ His eldest brother, Nicholas. 
 
 ' Some rather strong expressions have been suppressed in this letter 
 and in two others. 
 
 116 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 gives one an overwhelming sense of one's uselessness. 
 Ah well, patience ! 
 
 Happily all the household here is well. Write 
 me two words. I hope your work is getting on 
 steadily. 
 
 My love to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 LVIII. 
 
 Paris, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Friday y yanuary 24, 1879. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — I received your letter, and 
 yesterday Madame Commanville was kind enough 
 to come and see me. We had a pretty long talk, 
 and of course you were the principal topic of our 
 chat. She seemed very well, and much inclined 
 for work. I shall return her visit as soon as I can 
 walk without the help of a stick, and, above all, as 
 soon as I can walk upstairs. 
 
 It's quite on the cards that my journey to Russia 
 may be postponed ; it all depends on the letters 
 I receive from there. In that case I should cer- 
 tainly go to Croisset. . . . Your niece tells me 
 you are well ; that's the chief thing. 
 
 You are not fond of walking, but you must force 
 yourself to do it. I was once in prison (in solitary 
 confinement) for more than a month. My room 
 
 117 
 
UonvQxxénctt aî^^ 
 
 was a small one, and the heat was intense. Twice 
 a day I carried 104 cards (two packs) one by one, 
 from one end of the room to the other. That 
 made 208 turns = 416 in the day ; each turn took 
 eight steps, which made it come to more than 
 3,300, nearly two kilomètres ! Let this ingenious 
 calculation encourage you ! If by chance I 
 missed my walk, I had all the blood in my body 
 concentrated in my head that day. 
 
 I cut out the enclosed article from a newspaper 
 for you ; it strikes me as the work of a thorough 
 pedant. 
 
 ril write to you soon, directly I know anything 
 for certain. Meanwhile I send you my love. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 LIX. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday y March 19. 
 My dear old Boy, — You must have thought 
 yesterday, " What a humbug the man is ! He 
 can't go on the spree because he has got gout, 
 and the next day he's promenading the town ! " 
 It's all very well, but Fm not really such a humbug 
 as all that. I was not at all well when I went 
 out yesterday (I was only away exactly an hour) 
 and you came five minutes too soon. 
 
 118 
 
1bi6 jFrencb Circle 
 
 As for the day before yesterday I felt so wretched, 
 both my feet hurt me so badly, I felt so weak, old, 
 gouty, used-up, that the idea of going to see what 
 they wanted to show us, filled me with a dismal 
 melancholy. I'm sure I should have been bored — 
 or even worse — even if I had been able, with the 
 two diseased things that serve me for legs, to get 
 up as far as the studio. 
 
 I decided to stay here like an old toad in his 
 damp hole. To-morrow I shall do all I can to 
 drag myself to your house. If not, goodbye. 
 
 As soon as ever I am well enough to get into 
 the train I shall start ; probably at the end of next 
 week. 
 
 Iv. TOURG. 
 
 LX. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Friday Morning. 
 My dear Invalid,! — I ^as on the point or 
 starting when your letter arrived. I won't come 
 to-day, since you wish it so, but I really must see 
 you — both for your sake and mine — and I shall 
 come on Monday. What do you say to two 
 o'clock ? I shall arrive in the morning, and shall 
 stay till the following day. If you haven't a bed 
 to give me, I shall sleep at Rouen. As it is more 
 
 ' Flaubert had broken his leg. 
 119 
 
ITourguéneff an^ 
 
 than probable that I shall start for Russia in a 
 week's time, I have set my heart on seeing you 
 beforehand. 
 
 Why didn't you answer my telegram (reply 
 paid) ? You kept me all one day in real anxiety. 
 And Madame Viardot, too, who wishes me to tell 
 you that she didn't even know herself how fond 
 she was of you. I wrote yesterday to Madame 
 Commanville, and he answer reassured me. But 
 she only spoke of a sprain, and yet I see that you 
 have broken your leg. I dreamed that you showed 
 me the place, a little below the right knee. 
 
 Well, then, Monday — te volente aut nolente ! I 
 shall have lots of things to say and to hear. 
 
 I hope you will be quite spry again when I come 
 back from Russia, which will be in six weeks. 
 Meanwhile I send you my love, 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 LXI. 
 
 BouGiVAL, Les Frênes Chalet, 
 
 Thursday^ August 7, 1879. 
 My dear Friend, — You have really left me 
 too long without news of you. Write me a line 
 and tell me what you are doing, and how you are, 
 &c. As for me I am, physically speaking, very 
 well, but as for the state of my soul. . . . All my 
 
 120 
 
1bls fvcncb Circle 
 
 little world here sends you its best regards. I do 
 too (from the bottom of my spleen) for I am very 
 fond of you, as you know, 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 LXII. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes Chalet, 
 Seine-et-Oise, 
 
 Saturday, August 30, 1879. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — All right, I shall await 
 your summons. It's true I do mean to go to Russia, 
 not to work there — save the mark ! — but just simply 
 to breathe the Marseillais' proverbial native air. 
 This decision has dragged me out of the state of 
 nervous irritability in which I was consuming 
 myself, to speak like a prig. You may laugh if 
 you like, but the thought of plunging up to my 
 neck into that stagnant pool, has somewhat calmed 
 me. So much for human nature ! the said prig 
 would exclaim. 
 
 I've had to promise Madame Adam ^ a little story 
 of ten pages, and I took the liberty of telling her 
 I intended asking you to revise this important work. 
 So you are warned ; about the end of November 
 I shall descend upon you with my MS. 
 
 I, too, am longing to become acquainted with 
 
 ^ Editress of La Nowvelle Revue. 
 121 
 
B. and P.'s philosophy. It all depends on you. I 
 am waiting, and meanwhile I send you my love. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — IVe read Daudet's first feuilletons.^ 
 
 LXIII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Sunday Morning. 
 
 My very dear Friend, — Last night my foot 
 swelled up again, and here I am once more tied to 
 my arm-chair. I am not sure of being able to start 
 the day after to-morrow, but in any case I can't go 
 out to-day. 
 
 I am sending back your MS. If you see Zola, 
 tell him I'll send him some subjects for feuilletons 
 as soon as I've seen and talked to Stassulevitch.2 
 Meanwhile I've got an idea. How would it be if 
 he wrote a psychological study of the inner work- 
 ings of Parisian journalism. It would not be very 
 " actual," but it might be very interesting ; the 
 public has a great appetite for such things. 
 
 Well, goodbye and au revoir till times are better. 
 My best love to you, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Remember me kindly to Madame Com- 
 manville and her husband. 
 
 ^ Les Rois en exil. 
 
 ^ Editor of the Messager de VEurope. 
 
 122 
 
1big jFreucb Circle 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 BouGiVAL, Les Frênes Chalet, 
 
 Thursday^ November 13, 1879. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — I will myself bring to 
 Croisset the proofs of the little trifle I am just 
 perpetrating.! It will be some time towards the 
 end of December, as the thing itself is only to be 
 published in the issue of the 15th. You shall have 
 word sent to you twenty-four hours in advance. 
 
 Do you know that for the last six days we have 
 been reading U Education Sentimentale with enchant- 
 ment and delight ? After the other things we have 
 been reading (it's true they comprised novels out of 
 La Revue des Deux Mondes^ and I needn't say 
 more), it struck us as wonderful ! There is, how- 
 ever, one blot and only one in it, and that is in 
 your account of Mademoiselle Arnoux's singing. 
 To begin with, according to your description of 
 her, she ought to sing something else and to sing it 
 quite differently ; 2nd, a contralto voice does not 
 seek its effects in high notes, in making the third 
 note even higher than the two first ; 3rd, you ought 
 to have specified from a musical point of view 
 exactly what she sang, as, without that, the im- 
 pression remains vague and even just a little comic, 
 which is not at all what you wished, is it ? But 
 you will remember the classic line : Ubi plura nihil 
 
 ^ Monsieur- Francois, a reminiscence of 1848, published in the 
 Nouvelle Revue, December 15, 1879. 
 
 123 
 
ZonvQxxénctt an^ 
 
 in carmine^ &c., and I wish for B. and P. the 
 repentance necessary for their great religious act, 
 and the more fervent it is the more vigorously 
 they'll kick over the traces afterwards. 
 
 I am well in health, my gout is quiescent, but 
 there are still invalids in the house. I have given 
 the Viardots your kind messages and they are 
 grateful. 
 
 I send you my best love. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TouRG. 
 
 LXV. 
 
 BouGiVAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Sunday^ November 23, 1879. 
 
 Certainly I will come to Croisset on the 12th 
 with two bottles of champagne under my arm with 
 which to celebrate the " how-many th " ^ year of 
 your existence ? Exactly a fortnight ago, on the 
 9th of November, I was 6 1 ! 
 
 You will have the proofs of my little story for 
 the Nouvelle Revue during the first days of Decem- 
 ber, and don't shrink from criticism if you find 
 anything in it which isn't done absolutely as it 
 should be. 
 
 I, too, am one of the patrons of the fête given for 
 the benefit of the victims of the flood at Murcia. 
 The date of this fête is fixed for the nth of 
 
 ^ Flaubert was born December 12, 182 1 ; he was therefore at this 
 time 58 years old. 
 
 124 
 
fbis jFrencb Circle 
 
 November. All we shall have to do — for I suppose 
 you will consent — will be to put on a black coat, a 
 white tie, and to honour the fête with our presence, 
 with a little distinctive decoration in our button- 
 holes. As you see it is quite easy to do. You 
 would have to send up your acceptance, and then 
 come to Paris on the nth, or the evening of the 
 1 0th, and we would set out together again for 
 Croisset on the evening of the nth, or else quite 
 early on the morning of the I2th. So much for that. 
 
 We are still reading U Education among ourselves, 
 and always with the same pleasure. 
 
 No, Nana is not having any success, and yet two 
 really charming chapters appeared a few days ago. 
 But viewed as a whole it's dull, and, what Zola 4^ 
 would mind more, it's not the least simple and fear- ? 
 fully tendewZy if one may use the word. 
 
 I have an appointment to-morrow with your 
 niece. I am coming back from the country 
 towards the end of this week. We shall meet 
 soon. My best love to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURG. 
 LXVI. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Tuesday y December 2, 1879. 
 Here I am boring you with the tiresome piece 
 of work I spoke to you about. And this is what I 
 
 125 
 
XTourguenefC anb 
 
 want you to do out of your friendship for me. 
 Read this little trifle,^ correct, change, cut it as 
 you will, and let me have it back by to-morrow 
 if you can. I shall be as grateful as it's possible 
 to be. 
 
 I came back to Paris two days ago. You have 
 never said if you approved of my plan for your 
 coming here on the nth. In any case I shall 
 spend the day of the I2th at Croisset. That's a 
 fixed thing. A thousand thanks in advance, and 
 my love to you. 
 
 Iv. TOURG. 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday Morning. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — The caviare and the 
 salmon were sent four days ago, addressed to 
 Monsieur Pilon, Quai du Havre, Rouen, to be sent 
 on to M.G.F. (This address was given me by 
 Commanville). Make the necessary inquiries. I 
 should particularly regret the loss of the salmon, 
 which was a beauty. The cold which reigns here 
 freezes and stupefies me. Nevertheless I have 
 already begun my preparations for departure. The 
 wine (such wine !) is drawn ; it must be drunk. 
 
 I shall soon send you a novel in three volumes 
 
 * Monsieur François. 
 126 
 
1btg jFtencb Circle 
 
 by Léon Tolstoï,^ whom I regard as the greatest^ 
 writer of our time. You know who, in my » 
 opinion, might dispute his rank with him. Un- 
 fortunately the translation has been done by a 
 Russian lady, and as a rule I am greatly afraid 
 of ladies who translate, especially when it is a 
 question of so virile a writer as Tolstoï. 
 Meanwhile I send you my love. 
 
 Yours, 
 I. T. 
 
 In a letter to Léon Tolstoi, dated the I2th of 
 January, 1880, TourguénefF sends to the author of 
 La Guerre et la Paix the passage in Flaubert's 
 answer which relates to this work. We think its 
 reproduction here may interest our readers : — 
 
 " Thank you for having made me read Tolsto'i'sr/ 
 novel. It belongs to the very first rank. What m 
 word-painter and what a psychologist ! The two 
 first volumes are sublime^ but the third goes off 
 terribly. He repeats himself and he philosophises ! 
 In a word, one realises the man himself, the author 
 and the Russian, while till then one had realised 
 nothing but nature and humanity. Occasionally 
 it seems to me there are things worthy of Shake- 
 speare. I kept uttering cries of admiration as I read 
 it, . . . and it's long. Yes, it's great, really great." 
 
 ' La Guerre et la Paix. 
 127 
 
XTout^uénetf anb 
 
 LXVIII. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday^ yanuary 24, 1880. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — You can't imagine how 
 much pleasure your letter gave me and all that 
 you said about Tolstoi's novel. Your approval 
 strengthens my own opinion of him. Yes, he's 
 a very great man, and yet you have put your finger 
 upon the weak spot. He has made for himself a 
 system of philosophy mystical, childish, and uncom- 
 promising all at once, which has terribly spoiled his 
 second novel, written after La Guerre et la Paix^ and 
 in which also there are absolutely first-rate things. ^ 
 I don't know what our good friends the critics will 
 say to it. (I have also sent La G. et la P., to 
 Daudet and to Zola.) But for me the thing is 
 settled : " Flauhertus dixit.'''' Nothing else matters.^ 
 
 I am delighted to see that you are getting on 
 with your two fellows. 
 
 I am leaving Paris in the course of next week, 
 but I shall remind you of my existence again before 
 going. Meanwhile, my love to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 ^ Anna Karénine. 
 
 - In a letter to Léon Tolstoï preceding this, Tourgueneff tells 
 him that he has sent copies of La Guerre et la Paix to H. Taine, 
 Ed. About, André Theuriet, &c., and in the letter dated January 
 12, 1880, he encloses the article from Le xixième Siècle (then edited 
 by Ed. About) upon Tolstoi's novel. We shall have occasion to 
 speak of the particular trouble taken by Tourgueneff to make the 
 works of his celebrated Russian confrère known in France, when we 
 publish his letter to André Theuriet. 
 
 128 
 
1bts jftencb Circle 
 
 LXIX. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Wednesday Morning. 
 
 My dear old Boy, — The sprotten won't arrive 
 for another week. Meanwhile I have sent you 
 some other Swedish fish, which, however, are not 
 as good as sprotten. 
 
 The two books are being sent off to-day, and to- 
 day I shall see your niece. 
 
 The three chapters you read me gave the 
 greatest possible pleasure, especially the second and 
 third.i Work hard, try and cheer up, and come 
 here as soon as you can. 
 
 Meanwhile, I too am going to try and work, and 
 I send you my love. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 LXX. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Wednesday^ March 14, II.30 A.M. 
 My DEAR OLD Boy, — I have just written to 
 Princess Mathilde to tell her I can't go to her 
 dinner. I am very sorry about it. It's real bad 
 luck, but there's no doubt about it, I can't yet 
 show my face out of doors. I am going out for 
 
 * This refers to three chapters of Bowvard ei Pécuchet^ Flaubert's 
 last work, which death prevented him from finishing. 
 
 129 K 
 
Uowv^néncft an^ 
 
 the first time to sec a dentist, and I shall come 
 straight back. I had violent neuralgia again last 
 ni^ht. Please tell the Princess that all this is 
 unfortunately true. 
 
 And now to change the subject. Stassulevitch 
 writes to me that after due reflection he prefers 
 inserting the two legends together in the number of 
 April 13. That's his look-out, and I daresay he's 
 right. I had written a short preface. This will 
 make no difference to its publication here. 
 Stassulevitch writes to me that as Herodiade is the 
 same length as St. Julien^ he will make his calcu- 
 lations on that basis and will send the money at 
 once. (I have hinted that you won't be sorry 
 
 thereat). 
 
 Yours rather depressedly, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 LXXI. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday Morning. 
 My dear old Boy, — This time you really will 
 call me a sleepy pear, a limp rag, a tatter, &c., and 
 I must confess that you'll be justified. But hear 
 me before you strike (here, you see, I make a dis- 
 tinction between myself and Themistocles). All 
 my people are leaving to-day, and I should have 
 been free, hut Paul Viardot ^ is giving his concert 
 
 ^ Madame Viardot's son. 
 130 
 
Ibis ffrencb Cttcle 
 
 to-morrow, which fact I had forgotten, and I 
 cannot possibly get out of going to it. Tuesday 
 evening I have got to give a reading (to our 
 " Society for the Protection of Russian Artists") 
 for a philanthropic object. I could therefore come 
 on Wednesday ; but at a Sardanapalian dinner which 
 Zola gave us yesterday, it was arranged that he, 
 Daudet, Concourt, and I should go to you on 
 Sunday (not to-morrow, but to-morrow week). 
 We shall arrive in time for lunch ; they would go 
 back the same evening, and I would stay the whole 
 of Monday. For the present, as you have every 
 right to have no more confidence in me, I must 
 good-humouredly submit to your abuse, but I 
 think that this time the plan will really hold. 
 My love to you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 LETTERS TO MADAME COM- 
 MANVILLE. 
 
 I. 
 
 BouGivAL, Seine-et-Oise, Maison Halgan, 
 
 IVednesday^ August 19, 1873. 
 
 Madame, — The first note you were kind enough 
 
 to write me only having reached me on my return 
 
 to Paris from Carlsbad, I thought it was too late to 
 
 131 
 
answer it. It is therefore with all the more eager- 
 ness that I hasten to answer the one which I have 
 just received. You evidently read me with too 
 much kind prejudice, but none the less what you 
 say to me gives me very great pleasure, and I am 
 very proud of such praise. Your criticism of Les 
 Eaux du Printemps ^ is perfectly sound ; as to the 
 second part, which is neither properly worked out 
 nor even necessary, I let myself be carried away 
 by my reminiscences. I mean to go to Croisset 
 between the loth and the 15th of September ; 
 sha'n't you be making a little journey in that 
 direction about that time ! Once back in Paris 
 I shall hope to see you very often. 
 
 Please give my best regards to M. Comman- 
 ville and accept the assurance of my warmest 
 
 friendship. 
 
 Yours cordially, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 II. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday Morning. 
 Alas ! my dear Madame Commanville, I can't go 
 to you this evening. Instead of spending a very 
 pleasant hour in your company and in that of 
 Goethe, I am obliged to go and bore myself (this 
 is between ourselves) at Madame Garvady's con- 
 
 * Translated into French under the title of Les Eaux Printanières, 
 
 132 
 
1bi5 ffrencb Ctixle 
 
 cert, which I can't get out of for unavoidable 
 reasons. 
 
 Give me any other day (except to-morrow) and 
 I shall be delighted to put myself at your disposal. 
 With affectionate regards, 
 Believe me. 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 III. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 TVednesday Morning. 
 Dear Madame Commanville, — Well, man 
 proposes — gout disposes. I had fully determined 
 to go to you to-day, as you are at home on 
 Wednesdays, and since yesterday I have been laid 
 low with a swollen knee and absolutely unable to 
 move. Please believe how disappointed I am. I 
 hope it won't last very long, and that I shall soon 
 be able to bring you my New Year's wishes and 
 also my most affectionate regards. 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 P.S. — My best regards to M. Commanville. 
 
 IV. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes Chalet, 
 
 Tuesday^ August 26, 1879. 
 Dear Madame Commanville, — You are very 
 kind to take so much interest in me and to con- 
 
 133 
 
gratulate me upon an appointment which I cer- 
 tainly didn't ask for and which I don't even quite 
 understand, for what on earth is an " Officer of 
 Public Instruction " ? It appears that it carries 
 with it the right to wear a purple ribbon — purple, 
 not red. I shall fasten it on to my Oxford Doc- 
 tor's gown, which is a very bright red ; the colours 
 will go perfectly together. 
 
 You tell me nothing of your health nor of your 
 work. I shall let myself conclude, therefore, that 
 all is well. Shall you be long at Croisset ? I owe 
 your uncle a letter, but I have not been at all in a 
 letter-writing humour all this time. Kiss him for 
 me. I think I may charge you with this commis- 
 sion, and please accept for yourself a very cordial 
 and aflPectionate " shake-hand " from 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 V. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday Morning. 
 What a shocking- accident ! ^ I immediatelv 
 telegraphed to Flaubert, reply paid, but have 
 received no answer, which worries me a great deal. 
 I shall go to Croisset to-morrow. Can you give 
 me any news r 
 
 ^ Flaubert had broken his leg, as we saw from the letters 
 addressed to him. 
 
Ibis fvcncb (Ttixle 
 
 I am addressing this to Monsieur or Madame, as 
 I suppose one of you will have gone to Croisset. 
 Excuse the incoherence of this note. 
 
 A thousand kind regards, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday. 
 Thank you a thousand times, dear Madame 
 Commanville, for your little note. I am a little 
 better ; that is to say, I am going about on 
 crutches, but I don't yet know when I shall be 
 able to leave the house. 
 
 My first visit will of course be to you. My best 
 regards to you and M. Commanville. 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 VII. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes Chalet, Seine-et-Oise, 
 
 Sunday J November 23, 1879. 
 Dear Madame, — I am still in the country, and 
 I only received your letter last night. I am much 
 afraid that " next Sunday " means to-day, and in 
 that case the information you ask of me, which I 
 should have been most happy to give Père Didon, 
 
 135 
 
will come too late. However PU come to Paris to- 
 morrow, and shall be passing your door about four 
 o'clock ; at all events I should have the pleasure 
 of seeing you even if I can't be of any use to Père 
 Didon. 
 
 Please accept my most cordial regards, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 SpasskoÏé, Prov. of Orel, Mtsensk Town, 
 Thursday, May 27/15, 1880. 
 
 Dear Madame Commanville, — I am grateful 
 to you for having thought of me in the midst of 
 your sore trouble. Your uncle's death has been 
 one of the greatest sorrows I have ever experienced 
 in my life, and I cannot get used to the thought 
 that I shall never see him again. ^ 
 
 The blow came to me in the cruellest way 
 possible ; I saw the news a few days ago on open- 
 ing the paper. I have thought of you a great deal 
 since with the deepest possible pity and the warmest 
 sympathy. It is one of those griefs for which one 
 refuses to be comforted. 
 
 I shall be back in Paris in three weeks' time, and 
 I shall come and see you immediately. I will put 
 myself entirely at your disposal, either with regard 
 to the publication of the novel which killed him — 
 
 * Flaubert died at Croisset, May 8, 1880. 
 136 
 
1biB fvcncb Circle 
 
 or anything else. I feel that Flaubert's niece is 
 already inheriting some of the affection which I 
 dedicated to him. 
 
 Ju revoir, then, we shall meet soon. Till then 
 I shall think of you with tenderest sympathy, and 
 am always. 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 IX. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Thursday, ^uly 11, 1880. 
 
 Dear Madame Commanville, — I was greatly 
 disappointed not to have seen you in Paris, but it 
 wasn't my fault. I only received your letter of 
 the 15th of July in Paris in the afternoon ; and 
 there was no means of sending you a telegram. I 
 went to the Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré on the 
 chance of finding you, and at 5 o'clock I was 
 obliged to go back to Bougival. Our meeting is 
 therefore, of necessity, postponed for a month. 
 
 As for the proposal to make me second vice- 
 president of this committee,! I not only accept it 
 but I am very glad to have been thought of. It is 
 a kind of duty to that poor, dear friend whom I 
 shall never forget. I put myself entirely at your 
 disposal in anything that has to do with Flaubert. 
 
 ' a committee organised for the erection of a monument to 
 Flaubert. 
 
Xlourgucneff at^^ 
 
 You surprised me a great deal by your question 
 about philosophy in Russia. I am bound to tell you 
 that the public takes terribly little interest in it. 
 Just lately two young writers have written two 
 books upon the subject ; it was a very long time 
 since anything of the kind had been produced. 
 Well, one of these writers has already gone liiad, 
 the other is on the point of so doing. The religious 
 questions which agitate Russia have nothing in 
 common either with philosophy or literature. 
 
 Au revoir in a month's time. Write me a line 
 and I will come to Paris at once. With my most 
 friendly regards, I am, yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 X. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Thursday^ Nove??iber ii, 1880. 
 Dear Madame Commanville,— I am very 
 sorry that my letter should have distressed you, 
 but just think for yourself : M. Commanville de- 
 cided to renew negotiations with Madame Adam ; 
 he gave me full power to act on behalf of the 
 family. I went to see her ; I arranged things the 
 best way I could, and now the whole thing is 
 treated as though it had never been, which puts 
 me in a rather false position with regard to Madame 
 Adam. Therefore I don't see why I should go 
 
 138 
 
^^^-.€££^£1^ Çj^ 
 
 back to her. Let M. Commanville tell her 
 definitely that he accepts her offer, and everything 
 will be set right. 
 
 I have received the list of the committee ; it's 
 perfect, only I'm afraid that V. Hugo will refuse 
 to sit with Zola. I have made an appointment 
 with Maupassant for Saturday in Paris ; we will 
 settle what's to be done. I shall probably go and 
 see Hugo. 
 
 I am all alone here ; I want to try if I can 
 work. After Wednesday I shall be installed in 
 Paris again — 50, Rue de Douai. 
 
 As for yourself, dear Madame Commanville, 
 please believe that I am attached to you, not only 
 because you are the niece of my poor friend, but 
 because you yourself inspire me with the most 
 cordial respect and affection. 
 
 Please give my best regards to your husband and 
 believe me to be. 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I will let you know the result of my inter- 
 view with Maupassant. 
 
 At the beginning of this letter, TourguénefF 
 alludes to a slight misunderstanding which arose 
 with regard to the publication of Gustave Flaubert's 
 posthumous work, Bouvard et Pécuchet in the 
 Nouvelle Revue. But the difference was soon 
 
 139 
 
smoothed over by TourguénefF, as is proved by 
 his note to Madame Commanville under the date 
 of November 29, 1880, in which we read : — 
 
 " Here is the agreement duly signed. The other 
 copy remains in Madame Adam's hands. She begs 
 that M. iCommanville will take her the MS. to- 
 morrow (Tuesday) at 3.30. . . . 
 
 " I am very glad the matter is settled, and I send 
 you my best regards." 
 
 LETTERS TO GEORGES SAND. 
 
 As we have already seen, it was in the year 1847 
 at the Viardot's house that Tourguéneff first made 
 the acquaintance of Georges Sand — a fact which 
 M. Charles Edmond claims, in a letter written to 
 me, to have had from the proprietress of Nohant 
 herself. Indeed, M. P.-V. Annenkov, one or 
 Tourgueneff's oldest and most intimate friends, 
 goes so far as to say, in his recollections of the 
 Russian novelist's early life, that, in this same year 
 1847, TourguénefF, deprived by his mother of all 
 pecuniary resources, accepted Georges Sand's hos- 
 pitality at a place belonging to her in the South of 
 France. In this M. Annenkov is clearly mistaken, 
 for we have already seen from Tourgueneff's own 
 statement that it was with the Viardots at Courta- 
 venel that he spent this time of privation. How- 
 
 140 
 
1big fvcncb Circle 
 
 ever this may be, Georges Sand certainly knew little 
 of Tourgueneff at this time in his private capacity, 
 and still less of him as a man of letters, his fame 
 having only just begun to be noised abroad even in 
 Russia. 
 
 On the other hand, TourguenefF had long been 
 a fervent admirer of Georges Sand, under whose 
 influence he fell at the outset of his literary career. 
 In his letters to Droujinine, a fellow Russian writer, 
 written in 1856, TourguenefF acknowledges Georges 
 Sand as his youthful " master," admitting that, 
 though he eventually freed himself from herj 
 influence, he owed to her " that incomplete trutl 
 which has found, and will always find, followers,^ 
 at an age when the whole truth is still out of 
 reach." A little later on he writes again : " Georges 
 Sand is not in Paris. And even if I had met her 
 I should have said nothing to her about the failure 
 of her play, which is, to tell the truth, a feeble 
 production. Like the respectful sons of Noah, I 
 prefer to cover up, with averted eyes, the paternal 
 nakedness." 
 
 It is interesting to note that TourguenefF, when 
 speaking of Gogol, the head of the realistic school 
 in Russia, uses the very same expression. In a 
 letter dated the 14th of November, 1853, and 
 addressed to S.-T. Aksakof, a celebrated Russian 
 writer, he says, speaking of that second part of 
 Jmes Mortes which was burned by the author, 
 
and of which only fragments have been found : 
 
 I " The ninth chaper is superb ; on the other hand 
 
 i| the fifth chapter, with its impossible unreal character 
 
 1 1 of the farmer Mouratov is. . . . No, it's best not 
 
 I to speak of it, but, like the respectful sons of Noah^ 
 
 \ cover up the nakedness of our literary father.'''' 
 
 By using the same expression three years later 
 in speaking of Georges Sand, he thus recognised 
 in her, as well as in Gogol, his immediate literary 
 precursor. 
 
 It was only some time later, when the French 
 translation of Les Récits d''un Chasseur appeared, 
 that Georges Sand was able to appreciate Tour- 
 gudnefiPs literary value, and it was a revelation 
 to her. She has described her impressions of the 
 book in the dedication of her story Pierre Bonnin 
 to Tourgueneff : — 
 
 " When I found this feeble little study of an 
 unknown person who died some years ago, lying 
 in one of my drawers, I wondered whether it was 
 worth publishing. I was under the spell of that 
 great gallery of portraits taken from life which 
 you have pubhshed under the name of Mémoires 
 \d^un Seigneur Russe [Récits d''un Chasseur^ What 
 |a master's hand the painting shows ! How well 
 one sees, and hears and knows those northern 
 peasants who were still serfs at the time you 
 write of them, and those small squires and 
 nobles, a few moments' conversation with whom 
 
 142 
 
1bis ffrencb Circle 
 
 was sufficient to enable you to draw a picture of 
 them, palpitating with life and colour. No one 
 else can do as well" [Le Temps^ October 30, 
 
 1872). 
 
 But even then she hardly knew the man himself. 
 In a letter to Gustave Flaubert, written at the 
 end of 1868, she says: "... Tourguéneff has 
 been luckier than we, since he has succeeded in 
 dragging you away from your inkstand. I hardly 
 know him at all personally, but I know his works 
 by heart. What a talent ! And how original and 
 strong it is ; I think foreigners succeed better than 
 we do. They don't pose^ and we are always either 
 acting or bowing down to something." 
 
 And in a letter dated the 2nd of April, 1869, 
 addressed to the same correspondent, she writes : — 
 
 " I should be very glad to renew acquaintance 
 with Tourguéneff, whom I knew slightly before I had 
 read him, and whom I have read since then with a 
 whole-hearted, complete admiration. You seem to 
 be very fond of him : in that case I am very fond of 
 him too, and I should like you to bring him here 
 as soon as your novel is finished." 
 
 They did, indeed, renew their acquaintance at 
 Nohant, and, thanks to Flaubert, their intercourse 
 became more frequent. And it was at this time, 
 just after the Franco- German war, thatlTourgueneff 
 and Georges Sand exchanged their first letters — a 
 correspondence which, once begun, was kept up 
 
 H3 
 
between them until 1876, the year of Georges 
 Sand's death. 
 
 We are indebted to Madame Maurice Sand for 
 the permission to publish all that TourguenefF wrote 
 to the celebrated authoress, with the exception of a 
 few unimportant notes. 
 
 We have seen in the letters to Flaubert, what a 
 painful impression Georges Sand's death made upon 
 TourguenefFs mind. In order to ernphasise once 
 more the filial respect in which the author of Les 
 Récits d''un Chasseur held the authoress oï La Petite 
 Fadette^ we will quote a few touching words that 
 Tourguéneff wrote to M. Souvorine, the editor of 
 the Novoïé Vréniia^ in 1876 : — 
 
 " As I was passing through St. Petersburg, I 
 read the following words in one of your feuilletons : 
 ' Georges Sand is dead — and I don't want to talk 
 about her.' 
 
 "You meant, I suppose, that one must either say 
 a great deal about her or nothing at all. 
 
 " I had the happiness of knowing Georges Sand 
 personally, and please do not look upon this as an 
 empty phrase, for any one who was privileged to get 
 close to that rare being may well consider himself 
 highly favoured." 
 
 Then Tourgueneff quotes a letter from a French 
 woman, who was a close friend of Georges Sand, 
 and in which she speaks of the kindness of the 
 châtelaine of Nohant, and of the affection in which 
 
 144 
 
ir3ts ffrencb Circle 
 
 she was held by all the people of the country. And 
 he adds : — 
 
 " Eight years ago, when I got to know Georges 
 Sand better, the enthusiasm which I had formerly felt 
 for her had already abated. She was no longer my 
 idol, but it was impossible to be admitted into her 
 intimacy without adoring her, in another and per- 
 haps a better sense of the word. Every one who was 
 in her presence was conscious of a nature infinitely 
 kind and generous, in which all selfishness had 
 long before been consumed by the unquenchable 
 flame of poetic enthusiasm, of faith in the ideal — a 
 nature to which everything human was wonder- 
 fully near and dear, and from which sympathy and 
 kindliness seemed to flow outwards . . . And crown- 
 ing all that, there was a kind of halo surrounding 
 her, of which she herself was unconscious, some- 
 thing lofty and free and heroic. . . . Believe me, 
 Georges Sand was one of our saints ... I know 
 you'll understand what I mean." 
 
 I. 
 
 ROUGEMONT, NEAR ClOYES, 
 
 Thursday^ Vm not sure which day of September^ 1 87 1. 
 Dear Madame Sand, — After a very large 
 dinner, where I drank a great deal of sweet 
 Madeira, Fve just enough sense left to tell you 
 that Viardot and I are sending you some of the 
 
 145 L 
 
tloitrguenetf auD 
 
 results of cur day's shooting : a deer and two 
 pheasants. You'll see they'll be very good eating. 
 I'm dead sleepy, but I love you tremendously, and 
 I love all the inhabitants of Nohant, too. 
 Till Sunday ! ! 
 
 Your faithful 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Viardot killed the deer ; in fact he killed 
 two, and yet he complained of his day's sport. 
 
 II. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 JVednesday^ October 10, 1872. 
 
 Dear Madame Sand, — The little girls are 
 writing to you, and I must add one line. I must 
 tell you how happy I am to have seen Nohant, and 
 to have seen you too. It certainly is the most 
 delightful retreat one could possibly dream of, and 
 your surroundings are deHcious. You deserve it, 
 and one is always glad when deserved things come 
 to pass. The children can talk of nothing but 
 Nohant, and as for me I have every intention of 
 returning there in the course of the winter, when 
 my gout departs. Tell our sweet Lolo that when 
 that time comes I'll tell her the most beautiful 
 stories ! They'll be ever so much better than that 
 stupid one of little Blaise. 
 
 You'll be coming to Paris in a few days, won't 
 
 146 
 
1bls ffreucb Circle 
 
 you ? I'm rejoicing at the idea of seeing you ; 
 meantime I kiss your hand affectionately, and beg 
 you to say a thousand kind things for me to all at 
 Nohant. Your devoted 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 III. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 October 30, 1 872. 
 Dear Madame Sand, — You may easily imagine 
 what my feelings were on reading Le Temps^ yester- 
 day.ï I could never express them as I should like 
 to do. My words, whether written or spoken 
 ones, are always far below what I feel, when I am 
 touching upon personal things. Is it from shyness 
 or awkwardness ? I'm sure I don't know. For 
 instance, when I went to Nohant, I quite meant 
 to tell you what an immense influence you have 
 had upon me, as a writer ; and yet, I believe I 
 hardly said a word about it. This time, however, I 
 must tell you how touched and how proud I was 
 when I read what Georges Sand said of my book, 
 and how happy I was she should have wanted to 
 say it. There are two lines of Schiller's — 
 
 " He who has lived for the best men of his time, 
 Has lived for all time " — 
 
 ^ TourguenefF refers to the preface to Pierre Bonnin, a story which 
 Georges Sand dedicated to him, and to which we referred in our 
 prefatory note*to these letters to Georges Sand, 
 
 H7 
 
XTourguénetf an^ 
 
 therefore I have nothing more to live for now, 
 and you have given me a share in your immortality ! 
 
 Thank you very, very much, and I hope I shall 
 soon see you in Paris to thank you again. 
 
 Meanwhile I kiss your hand, and am for ever 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 IV. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Sunday^ December 29, 1872. 
 Dear Madame Sand, — A thousand thanks for 
 the lovely sleeve-links, which I have been proudly 
 wearing since yesterday, and a thousand wishes 
 for a Happy New Year to you, and to all yours. 
 Though my horrible gout kept me from spending 
 Christmas Day with you, I hope it will not prevent 
 my coming to see you at Nohant before I leave 
 France in April. Meanwhile I kiss your hand, 
 and am always 
 
 Your faithful 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 V. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Saturday y April 12, 1873. 
 Dear Madame Sand, — Flaubert will have 
 told you that I could not come till Monday, and 
 
 148 
 
1btg fftencb Circle 
 
 now I'm afraid I shall not reach Nohant before 
 Wednesday. But when that day comes, either I 
 shall be dead or I shall be with you. I humbly 
 apologise for all these delays. That's what comes 
 of having a short thumb, the sign of a weak will. 
 I kiss your hand, and remain 
 
 Your devoted 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Maison Halgan, Bougival, 
 
 JVednesday^ Septefnber 3, 1873. 
 
 Dear Madame Sand, — I need scarcely tell 
 you, need I, how delighted I am that you like 
 my books ? It will be my greatest claim to fame 
 in the future, and meanwhile it gives me an un- 
 speakable pleasure. 
 
 If, as you say, you often look forward to our 
 coming, I can assure you no one in this house 
 thinks of anything but the journey to Nohant. 
 Madame Viardot wrote to you the day before 
 yesterday, and is only waiting for your answer to 
 fix the day of our arrival. It will probably be the 
 15th. I don't think Viardot will come, but Paul 
 certainly will ; they have promised to take him if 
 he works hard till then. And he'll carefully refrain 
 from laziness in consequence ! 
 
 I shall only be able to come myself three or four 
 
 149 
 
XTourguénetf anb 
 
 days later, about the i8th, for Flaubert expects 
 me at Croisset on the 15th ; it's a promise of long 
 standing. I'll try and bring him with me, but I 
 don't think I shall succeed ; he's up to the eyes in 
 dramatic and literary work, and won't want to tear 
 himself away from it. 
 
 The Carlsbad waters have done the greatest 
 possible good ; my gout is leaving me in peace at 
 present, and I hope it will not come and spoil my 
 happiness. Oh ! v/hat delightful days we shall 
 spend at Nohant ! 
 
 Meanwhile I kiss your hand, and am, as ever, 
 Your devoted 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Kindest regards to all the family. 
 
 VII. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 JVednesday^ April 15, 1874. 
 Dear Madame Sand, — As soon as I received 
 your letter I wrote to our friend Planchut, to tell 
 him I should like to make the acquaintance of M. 
 RolHnat.i I shall be glad to put myself at his 
 disposal with regard to anything he wants. I 
 have glanced through his translation, which is a 
 very good one. Planchut will probably bring him 
 
 ^ The author of Les Ne'vrosesy who was then beginning his career, 
 
 150 
 
Ibis jfrencb (Tttcle 
 
 to-morrow evening. (Madame Viardot is at home 
 on Thursday evenings, and they have music.) 
 
 What can I say of the praise you have bestowed 
 on my Reliques ? ^ It is so magnificently over- 
 whelming that I hardly dare to thank you for it, 
 but it has made me very happy, I can assure you ; 
 and whilst we are on the subject, I must tell you 
 something : 1 had meant to dedicate the little story 
 to you ; but Viardot, whom I consulted about it, 
 advised me to wait till I had written something 
 less insignificant and less unworthy of the great 
 name with which I wanted to adorn it. I am 
 sorry now that I didn't carry out my original idea, 
 for who knows what that other thing may be 
 like ? In any case, you must give me credit for 
 the intention. 
 
 Planchut told us there was a chance of your 
 coming to Paris ; but as I am starting for Russia 
 in three weeks' time, I'm afraid I shall only see you 
 next autumn at Nohant. Well, I must be patient. 
 
 Kindest regards to all your people. I kiss your 
 hand. 
 
 Devotedly, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I am sending you a little barrel of oysters ; 
 one must take advantage of the last month with 
 an " r " in it. 
 
 ^ Les Reliques Vi'vantes, the last of Les Récits d'un Chasseur, which 
 completed the series written many years before. 
 
Uourguénetf anô 
 
 VIII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Saturday^ April c^^ 1875. 
 
 I am very glad, dear, kind Madame Sand, that 
 your little granddaughters are pleased with my 
 toys and you with my stories, and I thank you 
 with all my heart for telling me so so prettily. 
 The sight of your handwriting, too, made me very 
 happy, for disquieting rumours about your health 
 have been going about Paris. " Even if there has 
 been no elephant, there is, at any rate, a fly," says 
 a Russian proverb ; and I hope even the fly has 
 flown away by now. 
 
 All here are very well, and send you their best 
 love ; as for me, as I must come to Nohant before 
 starting for Carlsbad, I want to know whether the 
 days between the 15th and 20th of April would 
 suit you ? Write and say yes, or else fix some 
 other date before the ist of May. 
 
 You will have seen our good Rollinat, who has 
 done with Buloz.^ Give my cordial regards to him, 
 and to our faithful Planchut, and to all the household. 
 Flaubert is working tremendously hard ; his face 
 is quite red from it. He loves you dearly, and I, 
 too, love you dearly, and I kiss your dear hand, 
 and am for ever Your faithful 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 ^ Buloz was at that time editor of La Revue des Deux Mondes, 
 
 152 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 IX. 
 
 BOUGIVAL, NEAR PaRIS, 
 
 Friday^ August 13, 1875. 
 
 Dear Madame Sand, — You have so much to 
 reproach me with, or rather I have so much to 
 reproach myself with on your account, that I daren't 
 even try and make excuses. I can only lay myself 
 at your feet, as the Russians used to do in old days, 
 and say, "Here is my head; cut it off!" But 
 as I suppose you will let me off this time, I will 
 get up again and tell you that I have been here 
 for the last fortnight with my old friends, who are 
 all of them, young and old, in very good health, 
 and devoted to you. 
 
 All is going on well here, but there is another 
 friend of ours who is, at present, in a very cruel 
 plight, and whose letter I am enclosing for you to 
 see — and that is, Flaubert. I blame myself all the 
 more for not having written to you long ago, 
 because I see he says in his letter that he constantly 
 thinks of you. ... A few lijies from you would do 
 him all the good in the world. And when I think 
 that I received that letter ten days ago, I really 
 am furious with myself for my laziness and selfishness. 
 
 Of course I know that in all Flaubert says there 
 is the involuntary exaggeration of a nervous, im- 
 pressionable man who has been weakened by a 
 free-and-easy life ; but yet I feel that it has been a 
 
 153 
 
XTourguénetf anb 
 
 blow to him, and perhaps even a greater blow than 
 he himself is conscious of at present. He has 
 tenacity without energy, just as he has self-love 
 without vanity. Misfortune penetrates into his soul 
 as if it were butter. I've asked him twice to let me 
 come and see him at Croisset, and he has refused. 
 
 In a note I had from him quite lately he speaks 
 of the mortal/blow he has received. 
 
 Every one here was delighted with the photo- 
 graphs of Nohant, and of the marionettes^ and of the 
 illustrious Balandard. And yet I . . . 
 
 But we'll say no more about that, and hope for 
 better times, if you'll still have me. 
 
 Best and kindest regards to everybody. I kiss 
 your hand, and am 
 
 Your devoted 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Please send me back Flaubert's letter. 
 
 X. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Tuesday^ Jpril j\.^ 1876. 
 
 Dear Madame Sand, — I received your book^ 
 
 yesterday, and found in it many things I didn't 
 
 know before, and thank you very much for it. 
 
 We shall now have something to read out loud 
 
 ' Le Chêne parlant. 
 
Ibis jfi^encb Circle 
 
 which will last us for several evenings, and we shall 
 begin to-night. 
 
 I am so glad you liked my little story in Le 
 Temps ; it's almost a child's tale. ^ I am now in 
 the throes of bringing forth a great brute of a 
 novel,- but it will only appear towards the end of 
 the year, and I shall not be able to think of much 
 else till then. 
 
 All here are well and send their best love. I kiss 
 your hand, and am now and ever 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 LETTERS TO SAINTE - BEUVE, 
 THÉOPHILE GAUTIER, CHARLES 
 EDMOND, TAINE, AND RENAN. 
 
 After publishing TourgueneflF's letters to Flau- 
 bert and to Georges Sand, we will now group 
 too-ether all we have been able to collect of those 
 addressed to the other guests of the Magny dinners. 
 
 The earliest one is to Sainte-Beuve. It is prob- 
 ably the only one to him, at least so we have been 
 told. And, indeed, it was written only a few 
 months before Sainte-Beuve's death, and it was 
 
 * La Montre (the story of an old man in 1850). 
 - Terres Vierges. 
 
only in that year (1868) that the intercourse be- 
 tween the French critic and the Russian novelist 
 became more or less constant. 
 
 The letter to Théophile Gautier is also a single 
 one. Its very tone convinces one that no others 
 were ever written. Tourguéneff is just starting 
 for a long journey to Russia, and he expresses a 
 hope that he will see more of Théophile Gautier 
 the following year, but for the latter there was to 
 be no " following year," for he died that same year 
 on the 20th of October, 1872. 
 
 The relations between Tourguéneff and both 
 Sainte-Beuve and Théophile Gautier were in fact 
 so intermittent, that a prolonged absence on the 
 part of Tourguéneff would inevitably have inter- 
 rupted all correspondence between them. 
 
 We are indebted for these two interesting 
 letters to the kindness of M. le Vicomte de 
 Spoelberch, the eminent bibliophile. 
 
 The letters to Charles Edmond date from 1872 
 to 1880. They form only a small part of the 
 correspondence which took place between the two 
 men. They first met, as we have already seen, 
 in 1843, ^^ ^^^ lectures given by the philosopher 
 Scheeling at Berlin, and became more intimate 
 when Tourguéneff settled in Paris in 1847. Only 
 trhee of these letters have been kept, and we are 
 indebted to M. Jules Claretie for being able to 
 produce them. 
 
 .56 
 
Ibis jFtencb Circle 
 
 Then follow four notes to Taine and three 
 letters to Renan, which have been sent to us by 
 the families of these two celebrated writers. 
 
 The importance of this group of letters does not 
 lie so much in the intrinsic interest of any one of 
 them as in the fact that they show us the various 
 degrees of intimacy which existed between Tour- 
 guénefF and these distinguished representatives of 
 French letters. This is the chief reason for their 
 publication, and I think they should prove an 
 interesting chapter in the history of the intel- 
 lectual relations between France and Russia. 
 
 To Sainte-Beuve. 
 
 Paris, Hôtel Byron, Rue Laffitte, 
 
 Tuesday^ Nove?nber 24, 1868. 
 Dear Sir, — Some letters I have just received 
 from Baden make it imperative for me to leave 
 Paris this very evening, and prevent me from 
 having the pleasure of dining with you. I need 
 hardly tell you how much I regret this ; such a lost 
 opportunity seldom presents itself again, nor is one 
 easily consoled for its loss. 
 
 I ventured some time ago to send you some of 
 my works ; I cannot now remember whether the 
 two volumes I am enclosing were amongst the 
 
 157 
 
UourQuéneff an^ 
 
 number. ^ As you see I am giving you the benefit 
 of the doubt ; I am so anxious for the honour 
 of being read by you as to run the risk of seeming 
 importunate. 
 
 Please accept the sincere admiration of 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — May I say that my address this winter 
 will be : Carlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, poste 
 restante. 
 
 To Théophile Gautier. 
 
 Paris, 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday, May 19, 1872. 
 My dear Monsieur Gautier, — As I am on 
 the point of starting on a rather long journey to 
 Russia, I feel I should like to tell you how sorry I 
 am that we should not have met again since that 
 delightful dinner with our friend Flaubert. I hope 
 I may have better luck next year. 
 
 And now may I speak to you about something 
 
 yelse ? In my first visit to the Salon I fell in love 
 
 Iwith a picture by Blanchard (No. 149, with the 
 
 Jexceedingly bad title of Courtisane)^ and I must say, 
 
 though I have bought it, that it seems to me the 
 
 most beautiful woman's figure in the whole Salon, 
 
 ^ One of these must have been Fumée, which was translated into 
 French that year, 1868. 
 
 158 
 
1blg fftrencb Circle 
 
 But I appear to be the only person of this opinion. 
 No one mentions it. The ladies think it ugly, &c. 
 I confess this worries me a little. I need hardly 
 tell you that I am not writing to beg you to pufF 
 it for me ; I simply want your opinion of it, for 
 with all your indulgence I realise the master in you 
 with regard to criticism as well as literature. 
 
 If you don't answer me I shall know what you 
 think of it. 1 am very fond of my poor neglected 
 picture, and shall go on being fond of it, in spite 
 of everything. But your approbation would be a 
 great encouragement to me. 
 
 I must apologise for bothering you in this way, 
 but I hope you know me well enough to feel that 
 nothing need prevent you from simply dismissing 
 this letter and my request from your mind without 
 any misgiving. If you did so it would in no wise 
 alter the very warm regard in which you are held 
 by Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 To Charles Edmond. 
 
 I. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Friday, November 22, 1872. 
 My dear Sir, — I proceed to plunge at once in 
 médias res^ and ask you without further parley 
 
 159 
 
whether you know Nubar Pasha, and whether it's 
 true that he is looking out for a governess to take 
 back to Egypt. If so, I should like to recommend 
 a fellow-countrywoman of mine, who is young, 
 well-educated, refined, and who speaks three 
 languages perfectly. 
 
 I would have come myself to see you, were it not 
 for a horrible attack of gout, which has lasted for 
 months, and confines me to my room. 
 
 If you should wish for further information about 
 the person I speak of, let me know, and I will put 
 myself entirely at your disposal. 
 
 I hope you are well and are not troubled by gout, 
 the most unbearable, intolerable, and least interesting 
 of all ailments. Believe me. 
 
 Very cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 II. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Saturday^ Nove?nber 30, 1872. 
 Dear Monsieur Charles Edmond, — Hetzel, 
 who wants to publish my productions, has asked 
 me for that little story which appeared in Le Temps. 
 I haven't got it. I've written to Hébrard, begging 
 him to send it to me ; but he has other fish to fry 
 at present, and nothing has come. Will you be 
 kind enough to come to my help ? If necessary I 
 
 160 
 
1big jFrencb Circle 
 
 would have the three feuilletons copied, but even 
 then I should require the printed copy. (It appeared 
 in the beginning of this year.^) 
 
 I most sincerely apologise for bothering you, but 
 it would be really kind of you to help me. 
 
 Meanwhile I remain, 
 
 Very cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 III. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday^ yanuary 15, 1880. 
 I am writing to you because of the difficulty of 
 getting an answer out of M. Hébrard. 
 
 Here is the matter in question : you may 
 perhaps remember a Russian story (called, if I 
 remember rightly. Souvenirs de la Ninania) which 
 was sent, through me, to the editor of Le Te?nps 
 nearly three months ago. The authoress is anxious 
 to know whether it has been accepted or not. 
 
 I am leaving Paris in five or six days on rather a 
 long journey. Would you be kind enough to have 
 
 ^ It is impossible to say what story is referred to in this letter. 
 None of Tourguenefi's works appeared in Le Temps, either in 1871 
 or 1872. Either this letter is wrongly dated, or else there was a 
 confusion in his mind and he meant Le Roi Lear de la Steppe, which 
 was published in La Revue des Deux Mondes on the 15th of March, 
 1872. Or if, as we believe, this letter was really written in 1874, then 
 he must have referred to Reliques Vivantes,, published in Le Temps 
 on the 8th of April, 1874. 
 
 161 M 
 
TLoxwQxxémtt an^ 
 
 the story sent back to the authoress if Le Temps 
 does not want it ; or if Le Temps does accept it, to 
 let her have the proofs ? She and I would both be 
 most grateful to you. 
 
 Here is her address : Madame Adelaide Loukanine^ 
 Rue Thénardy à la librairie Swèdenborgienne, 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 To HiPPOLYTE TaINE. 
 
 I. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Thursday Morning. 
 
 Dear Monsieur Taine, — I am going to appeal 
 to your kindness, and must begin by apologising for 
 so doing. Here is what I mean. We have just 
 been sent a box for to-night (for Les Misérables)^ 
 and as I am at present the only man in this house 
 who is going out in the evenings, it is my business 
 to take the ladies there. Would you be kind 
 enough to put off our meeting to some other day ? 
 I leave it absolutely to you to choose both the day 
 and the hour. 
 
 If this puts you to the slightest inconvenience I 
 most sincerely apologise. 
 
 162 
 
1bts jFrencb (Ttrcle 
 
 A bientôt^ I hope — meanwhile please accept my 
 best regards. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 II. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Friday^ March 22, 1878. 
 
 Dear Monsieur Taine, — I must begin by 
 thanking you for La Revolution^ which I have just 
 received, and which I am going to begin reading at 
 once. 
 
 As to the other subject of your letter (which I 
 have destroyed as you wished me to do), you have 
 set me thinking ! Though I am not altogether of 
 your opinion, I feel that at bottom you are quite 
 right, that you have only given expression to certain 
 ideas which were latent in me, and that our very 
 friendship for F.^ carries with it certain duties which 
 may possibly be painful ones. 
 
 I should like to have a good talk with you before 
 making up my mind. Tell me what day and at 
 what time I may come and see you after Wednesday. 
 I am entirely at your disposal, and perhaps we may 
 come to some decision. 
 
 I shall await your answer, and beg to remain, 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 ^ Flaubert. 
 163 
 
Madame Taine thinks that this letter refers 
 to some interviews which took place between 
 TourguenefF and Taine, who were both great 
 friends of Flaubert's, for the purpose of discussing 
 what means they could adopt to induce Flaubert 
 to give up his novel, Bouvard et Pécuchet. Taine, 
 as well as Tourgueneff, looked upon Madame Bovary 
 as the literary masterpiece of this century, and the 
 difficulties which Flaubert felt over his new book 
 made them fear that it would be very inferior to 
 his former works. 
 
 III. 
 
 50, Rue d£ Douai, Paris, 
 
 Friday.^ March 9. 
 
 My dear Monsieur Taine, — After a bad 
 bout of toothache, followed by neuralgic pains in 
 my head, which have almost driven me mad, I have 
 developed such a fearfully swollen face that I am 
 not fit to be seen. I am doubtful whether it will 
 have time to go down before to-morrow, and I feel 
 I ought to let you know. If I am not with you 
 punctually to-morrow it will mean that I simply 
 can't show my face. I need hardly tell you how 
 sorry I shall be. 
 
 I daren't say a demain^ but I will do my very best, 
 and meanwhile I remain. 
 
 Very cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 164 
 
Ibis f tench Circle 
 
 IV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday^ "January 20. 
 My dear Taine (I may drop the Monsieur^ 
 mayn't I ? ), — I have made the most of the enforced 
 idleness imposed upon me by an attack of gout to 
 read your book, and I hope you will accept my most 
 sincere congratulations. It is a masterpiece, and 
 even those who have attacked it will be glad to 
 make great use of it. You have done something 
 which will live and which will be useful — two 
 things which do not always go hand-in-hand. 
 
 If I can get out on Tuesday I'll look in and 
 have a talk with you. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 To Ernest Renan. 
 
 I. 
 
 Les Frênes Chalet, Bougival, 
 
 Tuesday^ November 18, 1879, 
 Dear Monsieur Renan, — I received the en- 
 closed paper a long time ago, but as you were 
 away travelling, I thought it best to await your 
 return. The questions are put by one of your 
 
 .65 
 
XTour^ueneft anb 
 
 greatest admirers, an ex-Minister of Public In- 
 struction in Russia. Would you be kind enough 
 simply to put the na?7ies in the margin — if you have 
 no objection — and to send me back the paper to 50, 
 Rue de Douai ? My correspondent would be greatly 
 obliged to you, and so should I. 
 
 I am still in the country and am finishing your 
 last volume.i You have helped to make the deli- 
 cate and difficult matters of which you treat clear 
 to my mind. I hardly know which to admire 
 most, the subtlety or the truth of your psycho- 
 logical analysis, if I may call it so, of the gradual 
 organisation of the Church. 
 
 Please accept my respectful admiration, and 
 believe me, dear Monsieur Renan, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Under the paper cover you will find some 
 guesses, which I believe are correct — such as Victor 
 Hugo, for instance, with regard to the first extract 
 — but we want to be certain. 
 
 II. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 March 24, 1882. 
 My dear Master, — You were kind enough to 
 send me a ticket for the sitting of the Academy ; 
 
 ^ U Eglise Chrétienne. 
 166 
 
Ibis fvcnch Circle 
 
 unfortunately, I was not able to make use of it, for 
 I had a dreadful toothache which is still very bad. 
 But I must thank you for so kindly thinking of me. 
 Believe me, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 III. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 [No date.] 
 Dear Monsieur Renan, — This letter will be 
 brought to you by M. E. Boyeren, a very distin- 
 guished American writer, who has come to Europe 
 in order to study the Universities of the various 
 countries, and to write a special work on the subject. 
 Leaving on one side his very natural wish to make 
 the acquaintance of a man like yourself, I ventured 
 to assure him that you would be kind enough to 
 give him some valuable advice as to his best method 
 of obtaining the necessary information — a thing he 
 finds much harder to do here than in Italy or 
 Germany. I hope you will receive him with your 
 usual kindness, and beg to remain. 
 
 Yours m.ost sincerely, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 167 
 
ZowvQwémU ant) 
 LETTERS TO EMILE ZOLA. 
 
 According to Zola's Souvenirs, it was towards 
 the beginning of 1872 that he met TourguénefiF for 
 the first time at the house of Gustave Flaubert, who 
 was then living in a flat at 4, Rue Murillo, the 
 windows of which looked out over the Pare Monceau. 
 It was at the same time and place that Alphonse 
 Daudet made the Russian author's acquaintance. 
 Although in his article on TourguenefF, which 
 appeared in the Century Magazine in the course of 
 the year 1880, the author of Le Nabab fixes this 
 meeting as having taken place somewhere about 
 1868 or 1870. It is clear that Zola and Daudet 
 could not have known Tourgueneff before the war — 
 not in fact before 1872 at the earliest. It is true 
 that Concourt, who was a regular guest at the 
 Magny dinners, mentions Touguéneff for the first 
 time on the date of February 23, 1863, but this 
 was only a first and casual meeting with Ed. de 
 Concourt only.i After that the Concourt Journal 
 only mentions Tourguéneff's name in March, 1872, 
 and then only as one of Flaubert's guests together 
 with Théophile Cautier. From other sources we 
 know that Tourgueneff, having left Paris in 1870, 
 only came back at the end of 1871. Zola and 
 
 ^ Zola and Daudet, who were both born in 1840, were only twenty- 
 two at the time, and had not yet published any of the works which 
 made them famous. 
 
 168 
 
Ibis fftencb Circle 
 
 Goncourt could, therefore, only have met him at 
 Flaubert's after his return. 
 
 But there was no regular intercourse between 
 them until the year 1874, when they first began to 
 meet at those "Diners des Cinq" ("Dinners of 
 Five"), to which I have already referred. Goncourt, 
 moreover, fixes the date of the beginning of these 
 dinners for us. " Dinner at Riche's," he writes on 
 the 14th. of April, 1874, "with Flaubert, Tour- 
 guenefF, Zola, and Alphonse Daudet — a dinner of 
 men of talent with a mutual respect for one another, 
 and which we hope to make a monthly affair in the 
 coming winter." From then onwards, in fact, they 
 met regularly, first at the Café Riche, and later on, 
 up to Tourguéneff's death in 1883, at a restaurant 
 in the Rue Favart, opposite the Opéra Comique. 
 It is true that after 1880, the year of Flaubert's 
 death, there were only four of them left. There 
 were only three, even, when Daudet wrote his 
 article in the Century Magazine ; for Tourguéneff 
 had already been seized by that implacable illness 
 which never, from that time onwards, gave him a 
 moment's respite, and which carried him off two 
 years later. Daudet, in fact, ends his article with 
 this sentence : " Alas ! for the Flaubert dinners ! 
 We began them again the other day and there were 
 only three of us left ; now, since Goncourt's death, 
 there would only be two," 
 
 H; * * ÎÎÎ 
 
 169 
 
UonvQwenctt ant) 
 
 So long as he lived TourgueneflF maintained 
 the most cordial relations with the other guests at 
 the Flaubert dinners. We have already referred to 
 the brotherly affection which bound him to Flau- 
 bert : he became an equally sincere friend of Zola's 
 from the time of their first meeting. Zola was 
 not at that time the famous author we all know 
 now ; he was passing through the hard days of his 
 early struggles ; he had just published La Fortune 
 des Rougon^ the first volume in that Rougon Macquart 
 series which was destined to mark an epoch in 
 contemporary literature. He found in TourgueneflF 
 an indefatigable admirer and propagandist of his 
 work, and it was owing to him that he won fame in 
 Russia before winning it in France. 
 
 In an interview with M. Jules Huret, which 
 appeared in the Figaro^ Zola recalls the fact that it 
 wasTourgueneffwho introduced him to the Russian 
 public at the most critical moment of his literary 
 career. ^^Le Corsaire^'' he says, "for which I'd been 
 writing, had just been suppressed by the Due de 
 Broglie on account, if you please, of an article of 
 mine called 'The Day after the Crisis.' Not a single 
 newspaper opened its columns to me ; I was starving 
 with hunger ; mud was being thrown at me from 
 all sides. It was then that he introduced me to 
 that great Russian public with whom I've ever 
 since been very popular." ^ We may add that La 
 
 ^ See the Figaro of November 5, 1893. 
 170 
 
1F3tg ffrettcb Circle 
 
 Faute de C Abbé Mouret was published in Russian 
 before it appeared in French. 
 
 TourguenefF showed what he thought of the 
 talent of his other friends belono-ino- to the realistic 
 school — Concourt, Daudet, and Maupassant — by 
 recommending their books and by his personal 
 efforts to place them in Russian newspapers and 
 reviews. 
 
 So much for him, then, as a literary comrade. 
 Here is what Zola says of him as a man in the 
 interview quoted above. " I had a great affection 
 for Tourguéneff, and he had the same for me. He 
 was a being of great rarity, with a mind distin- 
 guished for fairness and honesty, but not without a^ 
 touch of caprice." 
 
 Concourt, in his journal, and Daudet, in his 
 article, speak sympathetically of Tourguéneff in 
 their turn, the former calling him "the gentle giant, 
 the kind barbarian," the latter recalling the sincerity 
 of the friendship between them. " He was one of f 
 the most remarkable writers of the century, and at 
 the same time the most honest, straightforward, V 
 universally sincere and affectionate man one could 
 possibly meet," — such is the beginning of the 
 article which Tourguéneff's death drew from Mau- 
 passant. And further on he says again : "He 
 was simplicity itself, kind and honest to excess, 
 more good-natured than any one in the world, 
 affectionate as men rarely are, and loyal to his friends, 
 
 171 
 
TLoxxvgvicnctt anb 
 
 whether living or dead." And he ends by saying, 
 " No more candid, cultivated, penetrating spirit, no 
 more charming talent, no more loyal, generous 
 heart than his, ever existed." 
 
 This was how TourguenefF was regarded by 
 those who came into closest contact with him, and 
 even those who, like myself, only had rare oppor- 
 tunities of meeting him, could not fail to be struck 
 by the candour of his face and the gentleness of 
 his expression. 
 
 But now some so-called " revelations," published 
 several years after TourguenefiPs death, have thrown 
 a disagreeable shadow over his memory. 
 
 We have several times quoted from the friendly 
 pages devoted by Daudet to TourguenefF. The 
 time has now come to quote the postscript which 
 he added when the article came to be published in 
 book form. 
 
 "Just as I was correcting the proofs of this 
 article, which appeared some years ago, some one 
 handed me a volume of Souvenirs, in which Tour- 
 gueneff, from the depths of the grave, attacks me 
 in fine fashion. As an author I am beneath con- 
 tempt, as a man the worst of men. And my 
 friends, moreover, know this quite well and tell 
 beautiful tales at my expense ! What friends can 
 Tourguénefî be speaking of, and how is it they've 
 
 172 
 
1bis fvcncb Circle 
 
 remained my friends since they know me so 
 well ? And who forced him, the worthy Slav 
 himself, into this pretence of friendship for me? 
 I can see him now as he used to be, in my house 
 and at my table — gentle, affectionate, caressing my 
 children. I have letters from him of a cordial and 
 exquisite kind, and this is what was underneath 
 that pleasant smile of his all the time ! Heavens ! 
 What a singular thing life is, and how true is that 
 charming Greek word Erpovua ! 
 
 This postscript gave rise at the time of its pub- 
 lication (in 1888) to lengthy comments and much 
 animated discussion, not only in the French and 
 Russian press, but in all those countries where both 
 TourguenefF and Daudet possess numerous friends 
 and admirers. Russians were astonished that the 
 author of Le Nabab should have given any credence 
 to the so-called revelations of an unknown indi- 
 vidual who had endeavoured to attain an unenviable 
 notoriety by calumniating the great Russian writer. 
 This calumny was all the more odious from the 
 fact that it was the work of one of TourguenefF's 
 numerous protégés^ and that it appeared at a time 
 when its object could no longer expose its falsity. 
 This fact alone should have put Alphonse Daudet 
 on his guard against the " revelations " of the author 
 of these Recollections of Tourguéneff, And besides 
 this, if the long years of friendship which had bound 
 the Russian author and himself to one another, and 
 
 173 
 
Uourgueneff anb 
 
 the many tokens of sincerity he had received in 
 their course, had no weight with him, ought he not 
 at least to have listened to the irreproachable testi- 
 mony of the many men who had known Tourgué- 
 nefF intimately in France, in Russia, in Germany, 
 and in England ? What motive could TourguenefF 
 have had for playing the hypocrite to such an 
 extent as to draw from Zola, Concourt, Maupassant, 
 and even Daudet himself, those posthumous eulo- 
 giums upon his loyalty and straightforwardness 
 from which we have just quoted ? 
 
 Zola, who was also attacked in these same Re- 
 collections of Tourgumeff^ has shown less sensitiveness, 
 though he too appears to have paid some credence 
 to the remarks put into the mouth of the dead 
 writer. In his conversation with M. Jules Huret, 
 from which we quoted above, he says : — 
 
 " He has been accused of — well, of having 
 criticised us rather severely in some letters written 
 to his friends in Russia. He certainly expressed 
 himself rather crudely with regard to Concourt 
 and Daudet, declaring himself unable to understand 
 anything of Goncourt's great refinement of style, 
 and holding Daudet's art to be somewhat limited. 
 He even repeated a good deal of common gossip 
 and some disagreeable stories. Daudet was much 
 distressed by these revelations. Clearly Tourgueneff 
 did wrong to concern himself with people's private 
 lives in order to criticise their work, still it must be 
 
 174 
 
1big jFrencb Circle 
 
 admitted that an author always has the right, what- 
 ever may be the closeness of his literary friendships, to 
 keep his private opinion untouched thereby. One's 
 book comes out and one's friends say to one, ' It's 
 very good.' Surely one isn't so simple as to think 
 that is their final opinion ? and, really, is one justified 
 in feeling aggrieved with them if, afterwards, in 
 their talk or in their letters, they express their 
 exact, critical — in a word, genuine — opinion ot your 
 work ? Can one call that treachery ? " 
 
 This large-minded, peaceable point of view on 
 the part of Zola is all the more remarkable because 
 he believes not only in certain hearsay tales, which 
 after all are always disputable, but also in an 
 opinion expressed by TourguénefiF himself in some 
 letters written to his Russian friends. We find 
 this conviction equally present with Daudet in the 
 conversation he had with M. Jules Huret, and 
 which was the foundation of the Figaro article. 
 
 " Yes, I regarded myself as that man's friend. I 
 was very fond of him, I even wrote, after his death, 
 a sketch of him for an American review, and I was 
 just going to insert it in Trente Ans de Paris when 
 I was handed some letters of his abusing me as one 
 would not even abuse a murderer." 
 
 I am compelled to believe that here M. Jules 
 Huret's memory has failed him. The eminent sub- 
 ject of his interview may very likely have referred 
 to these letters, but he could not have spoken of 
 
 175 
 
ZonvQwéncft anb 
 
 having actually seen them. I have myself had 
 several talks with Alphonse Daudet on this head, 
 and one of them I reported in a Russian new^s- 
 paper ^ at the time when the incident occurred. 
 There was certainly a good deal of talk about these 
 letters of Tourgueneff's, and Daudet even named 
 to me the person to whom the one containing the 
 incriminating remarks was addressed ; but he never 
 told me he had seen them himself. Here — to quote 
 from my article in the Novosti — are Daudet's own 
 words, which I noted down almost immediately after 
 he had uttered them : — 
 
 " My indignation would be unaccountable if I 
 only knew of Tourgueneff's disloyalty through his 
 protégé'* s Souvenirs ; but those revelations have been 
 confirmed for me by Robert Caze, who has read 
 Tourgueneff's letters to Sacher-Mazoch, in which 
 he spoke of me in a far from friendly way." 
 
 It is, therefore, Robert Caze and not Daudet 
 himself, as M. Jules Huret believed, who has seen 
 the famous letters. Daudet was even assured they 
 were on the point of being published in a Russian 
 newspaper. 
 
 Years have passed, and this publication has not 
 yet taken place. There is an excellent reason for 
 this fact, which is that these letters never existed. 
 Quite recently I had occasion to go to Germany 
 and talk over this subject with Tourgueneff's oldest 
 
 Ï The Novosti of the i-i3th of March, 1889. 
 
 176 
 
Ibxe ffreucb Circle 
 
 and most intimate friends, such as the eminent 
 critic Pietsch and his learned confrere Zabel. And 
 what was the result ? They assured me that not 
 only did Tourguéneff never write to Sacher- 
 Mazoch, not only had he never known him, but 
 that he always vehemently refused to have any- 
 thing to do with him. And this is confirmed by a 
 letter written to M. Souvorine, editor of the Novo'ic 
 Frémia^ in which he says, speaking of Sacher- 
 Mazoch : — 
 
 " I don't know him personally, and I must 
 confess I am no great admirer of his novels. I 
 have never been able to understand wherein I could 
 be compared with him." 
 
 Here, then, is the very foundation of the whole 
 matter in ruins. It never rested, in fact, upon 
 anything but a lie, and it is really impossible to 
 understand what can be the motive of certain 
 people in thus sullying the memory of a great and 
 good man in the eyes of his most intimate friends. 
 
 This, then, is the history of these imaginary 
 letters, which have given to Les Souvenirs sur Tour- 
 guéneff an importance that, granted the personality 
 of their author, they could never have attained by 
 themselves. 
 
 But, it may be said, if these letters were not 
 written to Sacher-Mazoch, might they not have 
 been written to some one else — to his Russian 
 friends, for instance, as Zola supposes ? Emphati- 
 
 177 N 
 
XTourcuenetf an^ 
 
 cally No. Amongst the thousands of letters of 
 Tourgueneff to his Russian friends, published or 
 unpublished, which I had occasion to go through 
 with a view to my present publication, I found 
 nothing which covild justify the assertions of his 
 enemies, except, perhaps, this one passage in a 
 letter addressed on November 25, 1875, to M. 
 Saltykov ^: — 
 
 " It is said that whenever Peter the Great met 
 with an intelligent man he used to kiss him on the 
 forehead. Although I am neither Peter nor Great, 
 I longed to embrace you, my dear friend, after 
 having read your letter of the i8th of November, 
 so struck was I by the truth of all you said about 
 Goncourt's and Zola's novels. I have been feeling it 
 vaguely myself; it was a kind of indefinable dis- 
 comfort, and it is only this very day that I have been 
 able to understand and say, ' Of course ; that's it ! ' 
 It is not talent that they lack, especially Zola ; but 
 they are not on the right track, and their imagina- 
 tion runs away with them. Their work reeks of 
 the lamp. There Hes its defect. But it is clear 
 that at the present moment this is what our Russian 
 public like, and although one oughtn't blindly to 
 encourage this taste, neither ought one to forget 
 that novels are not written for us, and that what 
 
 ^ A celebrated Russian satirist, known by the pseudonym Stche- 
 dr'me, who was at this time editor-in-chief of the St. Petersburg 
 review Les Annaht de la Patrie. 
 
 178 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 may seem to us too highly spiced seems to the public 
 as fresh as newlv fallen snow. So let's wait for the 
 opinion of the editors of Les Annales de la Patrie. 
 
 " The subject of Goncourt's novel is a sufficiently 
 bold one. It is a conscientious and exhaustive study 
 of the life of a street- walker.^ Anyway, it doesn't 
 equal Dostoievsky's Adolescent. On receipt of the 
 last number of Les Annales de la Patrie^ I plunged 
 into that chaos of a book. Heavens ! what mud, 
 what hospital stench, what futile repetition, what a 
 mania for sickly psychology ! ! That's the sort of 
 book to which all that you say in your letter about 
 this style of literature applies word for word." 
 
 The reader will see, to begin with, that there is 
 here no question of Daudet ; moreover, Tourgue- 
 nefF seems rather to be defending his quite new 
 French friends against the criticisms of his corre- 
 spondent. I use the words "quite new" because 
 this letter belongs to the year 1875, and, as we 
 have seen, the meetings of " the Five " had only 
 just been arranged. Besides, the expression "smell- 
 ing, reeking of the lamp " is a familiar expression 
 of Tourguéneff's, and we find him elsewhere apply- 
 ing it to his own works. For instance, take this 
 passage from his letter to Annenkov : — 
 
 "I have read Avdeiev's^ novel in the Revue 
 
 ' La Fille Elise. 
 
 - Avdeïev is a novelist who has had in his day a certain vogue in 
 Russia. The novel of which he speaks is called Entre Jeux feux, and 
 appeared in the Re'vue Moderne at St. Petersburg in 1868. 
 
UowvQXxéncU an^ 
 
 Moderne. It's bad, very bad, and I have been all 
 the more disagreeably impressed by it from the fact 
 that I cannot help recognising in it a certain imita- 
 tion of my own manner, so much so as to make 
 me more conscious of my own imperfections. I 
 think if I had to read many of Avde'iev's works I 
 should throw away my pen in disgust. O/2, this 
 literature that s?nells of the la?np ! The principal 
 quality of Tolstoi's work is precisely that it breathes 
 of life itself." 
 
 I must confess, however, that if in the course ot 
 my long investigations I had come across some ill- 
 natured phrase of Tourgueneff's at the expense of 
 his French friends, I should not have been alto- 
 gether surprised, considering his highly impression- 
 able temperament and the exceedingly precarious 
 state of his health, especially during the last ten years 
 of his life. Generally speaking, the remarks made 
 among an intimate circle of friends, or in the course 
 of an entirely private correspondence, are nothing 
 but the spontaneous expression of an opinion which 
 is often liable to change. For instance, in this same 
 letter, we have seen what Tourguéneff says of 
 Dostoievsky's Adolescent. And yet when M. 
 Durand-Greville, charged by the Revue des Deux 
 Mondes with the study of the principal representa- 
 tives of Russian Hterature, betook himself to Russia 
 with this end in view, Tourguéneff, on being con- 
 sulted by him, pointed out to him before all others 
 
 180 
 
1bts jFtencb (Ttrcle 
 
 Tolstoi, Pisemsky, and Dostoievsky, in spite of the 
 fact that the latter had made a violent attack upon 
 him in his novel Les Possédés. Moreover, he gave 
 M. Durand-Greville a letter of introduction to 
 Dostoievsky in which he said : — 
 
 " I have made up my mind to write to you in 
 spite of the circumstances which caused the cessa- 
 tion of all intercourse between us. You must, I 
 feel sure, be aware that those circumstances could 
 not in any way influence my opinion of your great 
 talent, nor of the high place which you rightly 
 occupy in our literature." 
 
 In another letter to M. Annenkov, one of his 
 most intimate friends, dated ist of April, 1865, he 
 says, speaking of La Guerre et la Paix : — 
 
 " I have read Leon Tolstoi's novel . . . no, no, 
 that's not the way, that's not the way ! However, 
 we'll talk it over." 
 
 It is true that at that time he had only read the 
 first part of the novel, and everywhere else, in all 
 his writings, private or public, Tourgueneff shows 
 himself always as Tolstoi's passionate admirer. 
 Here, for instance, is an opinion upon the same 
 novel, La Guerre et la Paix^ in a letter to his friend 
 Polonsky : — 
 
 " Tolstoi's novel is an admirable piece of work, 
 but what the public admires in it is precisely what 
 is weakest in it, viz., the historical part and the 
 psychology. His history is a sham, an ostentatious 
 
 181 
 
display of learning by dint of introducing the 
 smallest details ; his psychology nothing but mono- 
 tonous repetition. On the other hand, everything 
 that has to do with manners, description, war, is 
 quite first-rate, and we have no master comparable 
 to Tolstoï." 
 
 We have also seen that in one of his letters to 
 Flaubert (see page 93) TourguenefF does not seem 
 " enchanted " with U Assommoir. Yet, at this 
 same period, he proposed to M. Souvorine, editor 
 of Le Nouveau Temps^ that he should publish this 
 novel, saying to him : " So far as I can judge of it, 
 it is a remarkable novel. It paints the manners 
 of the Parisian workman, whom Zola knows as no 
 one else knows him." 
 
 This variety of impressions, this contradictoriness 
 of opinion, is admirably explained by M. Polonsky, 
 the friend of Tourgueneff's youth, himself a cele- 
 brated writer and keen observer. In a letter which 
 he wrote to me, at the time of the incident with 
 which we are dealing, he says : — 
 
 " As to your wish to quote some passages from my 
 letters in your article,^ you may certainly do so, 
 especially those in which I state that TourguenefF, 
 so far as I can judge from our conversations, not 
 only never calumniated those French tvriters zuith 
 whom he was acquainted^ but always appeared proud 
 of their friendship and their esteem^ 
 
 ^ For my article n the Ncvosti. 
 182 
 
1f3ts jFtencb Circle 
 
 Nevertheless, Tourgueneff's nature was a com- 
 plex one. His temperament was alternately that 
 of a man, of a woman, and of a child. Sometimes, 
 manlike, he turned a deaf ear both to scandal and 
 to tittle-tattle, sometimes, on the other hand, woman- 
 like, he was irritated and enraged by any sort of 
 calumny, believed in it, and was capable at those 
 times of being unjust even to those who were 
 dearest to him. It was not for nothing that he 
 refused to woman all sense of justice. If at one of 
 these times X.^ had told him anything to the dis- 
 advantage of Daudet or any one else, TourgueneflF 
 might easily have believed in the calumny for the 
 moment, and said, in consequence, any sort of ill- 
 natured thing about his friends. 
 
 For the rest, I cannot help wondering if Tour- 
 guénefF often saw X., and if this X. were not the 
 " false friend " to whom the author of Tourguéneff 
 Inconnu'^ refers. 
 
 Indeed, M. Michel Dehnes, the author of 
 Tourguéneff' Inconnu^ indicates this " false friend " 
 with sufficient clearness. He even quotes Tour- 
 gueneff's opinion of this personage, an opinion of 
 scarcely a flattering kind, together with a kind of 
 presentiment on Tourgueneff's part, of these future 
 " revelations." But I shall not reproduce it here, 
 not wishing to follow the example of the author of 
 
 ^ The author of The Sowvenirs sur Tourguéneff. 
 - Published in Paris. 
 
 183 
 
the Souvenirs sur Tourguéneff in making statements 
 which I cannot verify. 
 
 As for the letters from which Polonsky authorised 
 me to quote in my article in the Novostiy it does not 
 seem to me worth while to make use of them again 
 now, having since then received a letter, written in 
 French, which sums up all that he said to me in his 
 former correspondence. Here it is : — 
 
 "St. Petersburg, [fK"^\^' 1, 1896. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — During my stay at Spassko'ie 
 Tourguéneff's Russian property) I had, as usual, 
 long talks with my \old friend Ivan Sergueivitch, 
 who was always perfectly frank with me and con- 
 cealed nothing. I can therefore state with absolute 
 certainty that TourguenefF, even in the course of 
 the most intimate and confidential talk, never spoke 
 with anything but the greatest possible esteem of his 
 French literary friends, Flaubert, Zola, Daudet, 
 Maupassant, Concourt, and others, to all of whom 
 he was most attached. He was proud of his cordial 
 relations with famous French authors, and never 
 concealed the fact. 
 
 " I well remember Tourguéneff's proposing on 
 the death of Gustave Flaubert, for whom he had a 
 peculiar veneration, that the Russian public should 
 subscribe towards erecting a monument to the great 
 dead author. Whereupon, a certain section of the 
 press promptly fell upon him, ironically pointing out 
 
 184 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 how entirely unnecessary it was to subscribe towards 
 a monument to a foreign writer when so many 
 Russian celebrities, such as Gogol, GriboïedofF, 
 Lermontoff, were cither kept waiting a long time 
 for their monuments or else had none at all. 
 " Yours most sincerely, 
 
 " Jacques Polonsky." 
 
 Finally, let me reproduce a letter written to me 
 on the 14th of November, 1887, by Saltykov 
 (Stchcdrine), to whom Tourgueneff had addressed 
 the letter quoted above in which he expressed his 
 opinion of Concourt and Zola : — 
 
 " I see nothing offensive, and nothing treacherous 
 with regard to his friends, in Tourgucneff's 
 criticism of contemporary French realists. It is 
 quite possible to remain on friendly terms with one's 
 friends without admiring everything about them. 
 Tourgueneff expressed himself somewhat harshly 
 when he said that Concourt and Zola's works 
 ' reeked of the lamp,' but that's all there is to be 
 said. This criticism was written in reply to a 
 letter of mine in which I said that these writers 
 were not realists in the sense that Cogol, Dickens, 
 &c., were, but psychologists who had assumed the 
 name of realists." 
 
 And further on he adds : — 
 
 " However that may be, I never noticed in 
 Tourguenefï's character the slightest trace of 
 
 hypocrisy." 
 
 185 
 
And now to sum up. In the v/hole of Tour- 
 guénefï's correspondence we have only been able 
 to find one single very innocent passage hostile to 
 his French literary friends — a passage which in no 
 way reflects upon the sincerity of his friendships, 
 but shows simply the independence of his judgment. 
 As Saltykov says, in fact, it is possible to be a true 
 friend to a person without admiring everything 
 about him. This is also Zola's opinion. Moreover, 
 he could in no sense be accused of hypocrisy, since 
 we have seen already from his letter to Daudet, ^ on 
 the subject of Le Nabab^ that he did not hesitate to 
 mingle criticism with praise. 
 
 'i' ^* 'I^ -T* 
 
 Up to this point we have only dealt with words. 
 Let us see now what the facts are. 
 
 From the letters to Zola which I am now 
 publishing we shall see with what devotion, sparing 
 neither time nor trouble, Tourguéneff endeavoured 
 to make his friend's books knov/n in Russia. What 
 he did for Zola he had already done for Gustave 
 Flaubert ; afterwards came Goncourt's turn and that 
 of Guy de Maupassant. Never did he take such 
 minute pains to safeguard his own interests, as those 
 he took in the service of his friends. It was he who 
 made all their business arrangements for them ; it 
 was he who asked Zola to s;ive him the ric^ht to act 
 
 o o 
 
 ^ See p. 107. 
 
 186 
 
Ifpts f tencb Circle 
 
 for him in Russia as he was already acting for 
 Tolstoï in France. Of this transaction Zola has 
 found the following minute among his papers, written 
 in Tourguéneft's own hand : — 
 
 " I, the undersigned, declare that I have given 
 full powers to M. Ivan TourguéneflP to act for me 
 with regard to my rights as author arising out of 
 any translations which may be made of my works 
 into Russian. Moreover, I authorise M.Tourgueneff 
 to enter into neg-otiations with translators and 
 publishers on the question of terms." 
 
 And if any one should care to know how he 
 recommended the works of his friends, what self- 
 abnegation he showed in order to get them placed, let 
 them read the following lines from a letter of 
 Charles Edmond's : — 
 
 "... The Temps had already published some 
 of his books, when chancing to meet him one day I 
 remarked to him that our common friend Hébrard 
 would be very glad to offer him again the hospitality 
 of the Temps. 
 
 " ' Let's go to my rooms,' replied Tourgueneft, 
 after a moment's thought, ' and I can promise both 
 you and Hcbrard a surprise with which you will be 
 more than satisfied.' 
 
 " This was the first time that I had ever heard 
 Ivan Sergueivitch speak in such a flattering way of 
 his own merits. 
 
 "On arriving at his rooms, Tourguéneff took from 
 
 187 
 
his writing-table a roll of paper. I give what he 
 said word for word : — 
 
 " ' Listen,' he said, ' here is " copy " for your 
 paper of an absolutely first-rate kind. This means 
 that I am not its author. The master — for he is a 
 real master — is almost unknown in France, but I 
 assure you, on my soul and conscience, that I do not 
 consider myself worthy to unloose the latchet of his 
 shoes.' 
 
 " Two days afterwards there appeared in the 
 Te?npSy Les Souvenirs de Sebastopol by Léon Tolstoï." 
 
 This was in April, 1876. 
 
 This was the sort of thing TourguenefF could do 
 for his friends, and I think one would have to search 
 the literary world for a long time before finding a 
 writer capable of such modesty and such self-efFace- 
 ment. 
 
 If I persist thus in showing Tourguénefî's loyal 
 and sincere character in its true lie^ht, it is due to mv 
 recollection of a later conversation with Alphonse 
 Daudet, in which there was no further question 
 either of the Souvenirs sur Tourguéneff or of the 
 famous letters to Sacher-Mazoch, but simply of the 
 personal impressions of TourguenefF preserved by 
 the author of Nabab. 
 
 "You may have heard," he said to me, "of the 
 action brought against me a few years ago by an 
 actor whom I had taken under my protection, and 
 
 188 
 
1F3ls ffrenc b Circle 
 
 who rewarded me in this fashion because I had 
 refused to collaborate with him in an idiotic adapta- 
 tion of one of my novels for the stage. His work 
 was beneath contempt and even showed a complete 
 ignorance of spelling. Nevertheless he asserted 
 that I had appropriated this production, and intended 
 to make use of it. Needless to say the true state 
 of affairs came out in the trial, and he lost his case, 
 but I had a great deal of worry over it. One day, 
 before the judge's decision was given, I met Tour- 
 guéneff. ' Look here, Daudet,' he said to me, ' I 
 hear that your case is by no means plain sailing ; 
 people say that you may very likely get the worst 
 of it.' From the way in which this was said, I saw 
 clearly that those by whom Tourgueneff was sur- 
 rounded and from whom he got his information 
 were no friends of mine. Probablv, too, he owed 
 me a grudge for never having been to see him in 
 spite of his invitations. Being a married man I 
 could not visit a family without my wife, and as his 
 invitations were addressed to me alone, I stayed at 
 home." 
 
 However, Alphonse Daudet confessed to me that 
 he would certainly never have written the post- 
 script, which was the cause of the whole incident, 
 if he had allowed time to affect his first impression. 
 But, as he says himself, it was at the very moment 
 when he was correcting the proofs of his book that 
 some officious friends — of whom there are always 
 
 189 
 
tlourguéneff ant> 
 
 plenty in the world — drew his attention to the 
 pages concerning him in the Souvenirs sur Tour- 
 guenejff-. 
 
 Finally, after reading Toiirguéneff''s letters to 
 Flaubert, published in Cosmopolis^ the master wrote 
 to me, quite recently, as follows : — 
 
 " The letters of TourguénefF which you sent 
 me, together with your intelligent and subtle notes, 
 have indeed modified my feeling with regard to 
 the great Russian writer. Yes, you are right : 
 TourguénefF was not a hypocrite ; he was not 
 double-faced, or at least he was only so to the 
 extent necessitated by the world and society. He 
 strikes me in these letters as being, before all 
 things, a sad being, a man discontented with every- 
 thing, especially with himself; he didn't succeed 
 in controlling his life, and it led him where he 
 didn't want to go ; he was like a man sleeping in a 
 badly made bed, who turns and turns in the creases 
 in his sheets. 
 
 " I find also in this correspondence a fresh proof 
 of what I knew already — that no foreigner, however 
 great his apparent intimacy with it may be, ever 
 really knows our language ; the written judgments 
 of TourguénefF upon French literary men, as well 
 as his spoken ones, testify to the truth of this. I 
 well remember our discussions about Chateaubriand 
 and the Mémoires d"* Outre-tombe and his bewilder- 
 ment when Flaubert and I declared that the master 
 
 190 
 
•ff3i5 ffrencb Ctixlc 
 
 of French st^^Ie in the nineteenth century was 
 Chateaubriand, and Chateaubriand alone. . . . 
 
 "But I must stop ; recollections are crowding in 
 upon me, and I have no time to stay talking. . . . 
 
 \_Here follow a few lines of a purely personal 
 character J\ 
 
 "Alphonse Daudet." 
 
 This letter shows that if a certain bitterness 
 remains in Alphonse Daudet's heart, his large mind 
 at all events, is beginning to shake itself free from 
 the insinuations of interested persons, and every- 
 thing leads one to suppose that in the full light 
 of what I have just succeeded in establishing, he 
 will yet do justice to his former friend. 
 
 With regard to the opinion expressed by my 
 eminent correspondent as to TourguénefiF's know- 
 ledge of the French language, I may recall the fact 
 that, in a letter to Georges Sand, Flaubert gave vent 
 to his keen disappointment at not finding himself in 
 agreement with the Russian author and another 
 author, this time a Frenchman^ upon Chateau- 
 briand : — 
 
 " But how difficult it is to a^ree ! " he exclaims. 
 " Here are two men, both of whom I am very 
 fond of, and whom I regard as genuine artists, 
 Tourguéneff and Zola. And yet they neither of 
 them admire Chateaubriand's prose, and still less 
 that of Gautier. Phrases which delight me strike 
 
 191 
 
UouvQuénett auD 
 
 them as hollow. Which of us is wrong ? And 
 how can one hope to please the public when those 
 nearest to one differ from one so widely ? All this 
 depresses me a great deal. Don't laugh at me." 
 I have reason to believe that Zola has since 
 changed his mind. Nevertheless, this whole dis- 
 cussion surely proves that a man does not neces- 
 sarily stamp himself as ignorant of the fine shades 
 of a language by his inability to admire unre- 
 servedly the style of a great author. To discuss 
 questions of style with a foreign writer is in itself 
 to recognise him as a competent judge, and hard- 
 and-fast rules seem particularly impossible when 
 one finds even such a master of literary form as 
 Flaubert asking in such a connection as the above, 
 " Which of us is wrong ? " 
 
 The fact is that TourguénefF, having been edu- 
 cated by parents who knew French v/ell, trained in 
 the language from the earliest age by French tutors, 
 and having spent the greater part of his after-life in 
 French literary circles, contrived to master so 
 thoroughly the beautiful features which distin- 
 guished the limpid style of his friends that Taine 
 was able to say of him that " his French was that 
 of the salons of the eighteenth century." 
 
 Nevertheless, it is one thing to understand the 
 language so as to feel its beauties and its subtleties, 
 and quite another thing to be able to use it as an 
 artistic instrument. For this reason TourguénefF 
 
 192 
 
1bis jfrencb Circle 
 
 never allowed himself to write even the smallest 
 of his works in any other language but Russian. 
 One of his biographers, M. Venguerov, having said 
 that some of his stories were written in French or 
 in German, TourguenefF protested vehemently : 
 " I have never published a single line in anything 
 but Russian ; if I had I should not be an artist, but 
 a scribbler beneath contempt. How can one 
 possibly write in a foreign language when, as it is, 
 one finds it so difficult to express adequately, in 
 one's native tongue even, all the thoughts and 
 images which come crowding in upon one ? " 
 
 And as a matter of fact when he wanted to pro- 
 duce one of his works for the French public, 
 Tourgueneff — although these letters of his we are 
 now publishing prove how graceful was his power 
 of French phrase — always had recourse to the kind 
 offices of his friends, M. and Madame Viardot, or 
 to those of Mérimée or Flaubert. This we have 
 seen from the correspondence addressed to the latter 
 on the subject of Monsieur François^ a story which 
 first appeared in La Nouvelle Revue. On this head, 
 therefore, Daudet and TourguenefF are entirely 
 agreed. 
 
 In conclusion, then, whatever may be thought 
 of the numerous questions suggested by the incident 
 which I have related, it has, at any rate, proved 
 a favourable opportunity for me to throw into relief 
 the real nature of TourguenefF's relations with his 
 French friends. 
 
 193 o 
 
tTout^uéneff anb 
 I. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Friday Evening [beginning ^1874). 
 " My dear Zola, — I am greatly distressed at 
 your having had a useless journey. I thought I 
 had told you that I should be at home until two 
 o'clock. I must apologise for my want of memory. 
 Will you come to-morrow, or Sunday, or Monday, 
 before two o'clock, or Tuesday between four and 
 six ? I will be sure to be there. Let me know 
 the day and hour, if you will. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 II. 
 
 Spasskoïé, Prov. of Orel, Mtsensk Town, 
 
 Thursday^ ij/S ^une^ 1874. 
 My dear Zola, — If you have an atlas turn to 
 the map of Russia, and with Moscow for your 
 starting-point, pass your finger in the direction of 
 the Black Sea. On your way you will come across 
 — a little to the north of Orel — the town of 
 Mtsensk. Very well — my village is ten kilomètres 
 from this latter place, with its somewhat unpro- 
 nounceable name. It is an absolutely lonely place, 
 full of peace, verdure, and sadness. If I can work 
 in it I shall stay here some time ; if not, I shall be 
 
 194 
 
Ibis ftcncb Circle 
 
 off, and after a stay of six weeks at Carlsbad I 
 shall be back in Paris, where I shall certainly see 
 you. 
 
 And now to business ! 
 
 I became convinced in St. Petersburg that, given 
 the actual state of international legislation, there 
 was nothing to hinder the first-comer from trans- 
 lating and publishing your works, and that's why 
 I couldn't find a place for Lu Conquête de Plassans. 
 No translation has yet appeared, but the editor of 
 the review of which I spoke to you ^ didn't care to 
 take the risk of ordering a translation when he has 
 no certainty of being first in the field. (At the 
 very moment of my leaving St. Petersburg La 
 Curée had just appeared at a bookseller's under the 
 title OÏ Dobytcha Brochenna'ia Sobaka7n^'w\\\z\\ is, liter- 
 ally. The Prey Thrown to the Dogs.) But as the 
 editor in question sets great store by the publication 
 of your works in his review, he proposes this, through 
 me : to pay you 30 roubles (105 francs) per printed 
 folio for everything you may send him in MS. and in 
 proof ; and as he will have to pay almost as much to 
 the translator, this seems to me a fair price, and I 
 think you ought to accept it. Send me a line, in 
 answer, to the following address : M. I. T., Hôtel 
 Demouth, Grande Rue des Ecuries, St. Peters- 
 burg. I shall be there in three weeks at latest, 
 
 ^ The editor is undoubtedly M. Stassulevitch, editor of the 
 Messager de l'Europe. 
 
and I will send on your reply to its proper desti- 
 nation. 
 
 The editor has read your Conquête and is delighted 
 with it. 
 
 The novel you are at work upon rouses my 
 curiosity greatly. I believe it will be excellent. 
 Its subject is at once very simple and very 
 original. I 
 
 I have just written to Flaubert, but I am much 
 afraid my letter will no longer find him at Croisset. 
 He meant to go and seek rest and refreshment in 
 Switzerland, at the Righi. The Russian public 
 wouldn't have anything to say to his Antoine^ 
 which was not even forbidden by the Censor ! 
 He mustn't be told of this unusual fact. 
 
 Au revoir ; I wish you health and good spirits, 
 and I am, with cordial regards. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Politics are taking a queer turn with you. 
 
 III. 
 
 KôNiG VON England, Carlsbad, 
 
 Monday^ August ii, 1874. 
 My dear Zola, — Some one must have cast the 
 evil eye upon me ! For the last three months I 
 have been going from bad to worse. After having 
 
 ^ La Faute de ï Abbé Mouret , 
 196 
 
Ibis ffreucb Circle 
 
 suffered martyrdom in my " cara patria," here I am 
 at Carlsbad more completely tied by the leg than 
 ever. I have had about enough of it, and as 
 soon as I can move I shall fly to Paris, and from 
 there to Bougival. If I have got to suffer, there, 
 at least I shall be at home. 
 
 I have not forgotten your interests and my 
 promises. I have had exhaustive conversations 
 with M. Stassulevitch, the editor of the Russian 
 review (the Messager de P Europe). I could send 
 you a list of his proposals, which are well worth 
 accepting, but as he is bound to be in Paris in the 
 month of September (about the loth or 15th), 
 I would rather make you acquainted with one 
 another, and then we'll deal with the whole matter 
 like wise and fair-minded men.^ You will be in 
 Paris then, won't you ? Write me one line to 
 Maison Halgan, Bougival, Seine-et-Oise, close to 
 the church. I hope to be there in a week's time if 
 the devil (for the gout is nothing else) does not 
 interfere. 
 
 I am bringing you back a translation of La Curée 
 horribly mutilated by the Censorship. La Conquête 
 de Plassans has been published in an abridged form 
 by a newspaper — the (Russian) Journal de St, 
 
 ^ We have seen in my preface that Tourgueneff was actively 
 engaged in getting for Zola a regular and remunerative post on a 
 Russian periodical. This letter, as well as the following ones, 
 refers to his negotiations with the editor of a review for which he 
 wrote himself. 
 
 197 
 
UoxxvQixéncU anb 
 
 Pétersbourg ; another newspaper [La Gazette de 
 Moscou) gives the translation in its entirety, as a 
 feuilleton. 
 
 I wish you good health and plenty of work. 
 The subject of your new novel ^ is doubtful — I 
 mean difficult ; but you will succeed in mastering 
 it. You're a doggedly hard worker, and you 
 haven't got the gout. 
 
 A thousand kind regards and au revoir. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I have heard from Flaubert. He is at 
 Croisset, and is getting ready to tackle his novel. ^ 
 
 IV. 
 
 BouGivAL, Maison Halgan (Seine-et-Oise), 
 IVednesday^ September 23, 1874. 
 My dear Friend, — I came back here three 
 weeks ago, still suffering from the gout (now I 
 am better). I waited to write to you until the 
 arrival of Stassulevitch (the editor of the review of 
 which I spoke to you), and now I am in receipt of 
 a letter in which he informs me that he has been 
 obliged to return with the utmost speed to St. 
 Petersburg, in order to rescue his review, which 
 was about to be suppressed. He was successful in 
 this, but he can't come to Paris till December. \ 
 
 Meanwhile he is very anxious that I should arrange 
 
 ^ La Faute de VAbbe Mouret. " Bowvard et Pécuchet. 
 
 198 
 
1big jFrencb Circle 
 
 matters with you, and he has sent me his condi- 
 tions. We must therefore see one another as soon 
 as possible. Unfortunately I have lost my little 
 book of addresses, and I can't remember yours. I 
 am obliged to write to you to Charpentier's care. 
 To-morrow I must go to Paris, but very likely you 
 won't yet have received my letter, and on Saturday 
 — although still quite crippled — I am going to my 
 daughter's (near Chàteaudun), where I shall stay 
 till Tuesday. 
 
 I hardly like to ask you to come to Bougival in 
 this bad weather. But, look here, this is what I 
 propose : if Charpentier forwards this letter to you 
 to-morrow morning, come to the Rue de Douai at 
 two o'clock, or else let us meet on Wednesday at 
 eleven o'clock, at the Café Riche, let us say for 
 lunch. We may regard that as settled, mayn't we? 
 To-morrow or Wednesday. 
 
 I have brought back with me a copy of the 
 translation of La Curee. La Conquête de Plassans 
 has been twice fully translated, twice in an abridged 
 form (like the kind of thing that Forgues used to do 
 in La Revue des Deux Mondes)^ three or four times 
 summarised, and has formed the subject of as many 
 critical articles. You're the only author who is 
 being read in Russia. 
 
 Au revoir^ and a thousand kind regards. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 199 
 
UouvQixénctt anî) 
 
 BouGiVAL, Maison Halgan (near the church), 
 
 Thursday J October I, 1874. 
 
 My dear Zola, — I returned the day before 
 yesterday from my expedition to Chateaudun, and 
 I did really mean to keep our appointment of 
 yesterday, but I was seized during the night with 
 a ninth attack of gout, and I wrote to you as soon 
 as morning came, to Charpentier's care, to tell you 
 of this. Young G. Chamerot, the husband of 
 Madame Viardot's eldest daughter, took it into 
 Paris for me, but the messenger to whom he gave 
 the letter declares that he couldn't find number 
 twenty-one in your street (the address was given 
 by Charpentier), so that you must have had a use- 
 less journey and waited for me at the café. I 
 apologise most sincerely. 
 
 I spent all yesterday in bed, and I sha'n't be able 
 to go out for three or four days. But I want to see 
 you and talk over our affairs. If it isn't too great 
 a bore come here to-morrow (Friday) between 
 luncheon and dinner. You must start from the 
 Saint Lazare station. The trains leave at thirty- 
 five minutes after every hour. When you get to 
 the station of Rueil, take the American omnibus, 
 which will bring you to Bougival (don't take the 
 one which only goes as far as Rueil), and then 
 
 200 
 
1btg ffrencb Circle 
 
 you'll have five minutes' walk from there to Halgan 
 House, which is behind the church. 
 
 I should be very glad to see you. Meanwhile, 
 believe me, 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I sent you a telegram yesterday evening. 
 
 VI. 
 
 BouGiVAL, Halgan House (near the church), 
 
 Saturday^ October 3, 1874. 
 
 My dear Zola, — Certainly I should be delighted 
 to see Charpentier, but here is my proposal : I am 
 better, and on Monday I shall be able to go to 
 Paris. Will you do on Monday what we were to 
 have done last Wednesday, and come, with 
 Charpentier, to the Café Riche at eleven o'clock ? 
 If some fresh abomination should turn up to 
 interfere with this I'll send you a telegram now 
 that I know your address. 
 
 We shall meet soon anyhow. Many kind 
 regards. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — If you can't come Monday, will you come 
 Wednesday ? If you don't write I shall expect 
 you on Monday. 
 
 201 
 
VII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Tuesday {^February ^ 1^75)' 
 My dear Friend,— Thank you very much for 
 sending me your article on A. DumasJ It will 
 make my relations with him rather more strained 
 than before, but I don't care the least about that. 
 I want to get you to come and dine (you and 
 Flaubert) with Saltykov. = The bouillabaisse wq had 
 the other day made such a deep impression upon me 
 that I shouldn't be sorry to try the same place again 
 on Friday. How will that suit you ? Write me 
 one line. I'll talk it over with you to-day. I 
 couldn't come on Sunday. 
 
 Very cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Of course it is understood that I am 
 giving the dinner. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday^ February 25, 1875. 
 My dear Friend, — Your parcel was sent ofF 
 the very day I received it — that is to say, on 
 
 ^ This article appeared in Le Messager de V Europe (March, 1875) 
 under the title of "A New Academician," on the occasion of the 
 reception of A. Dumas, jun., into the French Academy. 
 
 2 The celebrated Russian satirist known under the pseudonym of 
 Stchedrine. 
 
 202 
 
1f3tg jFtencb Circle 
 
 Monday. It will still get there in time, I hope. 
 Let's wait for the answer. 
 
 I have got a literary and musical matinée coming 
 off on Saturday (a Russian charitable affair), and 
 I am so busy that my head is in a whirl. 
 
 I shall come to Flaubert's on Sunday without 
 fail. You will be there too, won't you ? 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 IX. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Saturday (2'jth February^ 1875). 
 My dear Friend, — All right, then — Monday.^ 
 Thanks for your book:,^ which I have already 
 begun. I am sending you a little thing 3 of my 
 own, which came out in the Temps. A thousand 
 kind regards, and au revoir. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 X. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday, May l^th (1875). 
 My DEAR Zola, — Please write this very day 
 (May 1 3/1) to Stassulevitch that you are sending 
 
 ^ An appointment for a dinner with Flaubert, Daudet, and 
 Concourt. 
 
 2 La Faute de VAbbé Mouret. 
 
 A story called " Ça fait du bruit !" 
 
 203 
 
ZonvQxxéncU an^ 
 
 him a feuilleton on the 8/20th. Henceforward he 
 begs that you will always write to him on the i/i3th 
 of the month, to let him know whether you are 
 sending a feuilleton or not. I shall come and see 
 you the day after to-morrow, in the morning, to 
 bring you some money^ Sec. . . . To-morrow I'm too 
 busy. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XI. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Tuesday, May 25/13, 1875. 
 My dear "ZiQi^K, — If you want to see my 
 picture, come the day after to-morrow, Thursday, 
 at 12 o'clock, to HarlamofFs, 42, Rue Fontaine. I 
 shall be there. It will be the last sitting. The 
 picture is nearly finished. It will be an opportunity 
 of seeing you once more before I start for Carls- 
 bad, which I do on Friday. Au revoir, and accept 
 my most cordial regards. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 XII. 
 
 BouGiVAL, Les Frênes, September 26, 1875. 
 My dear Friend, — Your letter of the 8th 
 only reached me on the 20th. The post has been 
 playing that sort of trick on me lately. I'm 
 
 204 
 
Tbtg jFrencb Circle 
 
 writing in the hope that my letter will still find 
 you at St. Aubin. I feel sure that the sea-air has 
 done your wife the greatest possible good. I'm 
 glad to hear that you're at work and finishing 
 things. So there are still men who drive the plough ! 
 
 Poor Flaubert is in a pitiable state of mind ; as 
 you say, all his friends must gather round him 
 this winter, if he co?nes to Paris^ for that's not quite 
 certain yet. I think it's abominably cruel of Fate 
 to deal such a blow to the man of all others least 
 fitted to work for his living. 
 
 Stassulevitch, whom I saw several times during 
 his short stay in Paris, was very sorry too not to 
 have made your acquaintance ; he has settled with 
 Charpentier about the new book.i By the way, 
 should you mind if your full name were affixed to 
 the feuilletons of Le Messager de V Europe? He 
 commissioned me to ask you this. The last one 
 (on the Concourt brothers) is excellent. It will 
 bring about the translation of their novel. 
 Stassulevitch has already secured Renée Mauperin» 
 
 What ! is poor Concourt in money difficulties 
 too ? How stupid and unfair ! 
 
 I shall stay here another month or six weeks, 
 but I often go to Paris, and shall hope to see you. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 * Probably Son Excellence Eugene Rougon^ which appeared, trans- 
 lated into Russian, in the Messager de VEuropc ,• numbers January, 
 February, March, April, 1876. 
 
 205 
 
XTourguéneg anb 
 
 XIII. 
 
 5O5 Rue de Douai, 
 
 Monday {^December i, 1875). 
 
 My dear Friend, — I've this moment received 
 a letter from Stassulevitch, who entreats you to 
 send your monthly feuilleton, just this once^ not 
 later than the 5/17 of December; that is to say, 
 in four days' time, from the 23rd of December 
 {^old style) onv^^ards. All the printers, &c., in St. 
 Petersburg are dead drunk (it being Christmas- 
 time), and one can't count on them any more. 
 
 He tells me at the same time that he has 
 received the whole MS. of your novel \^ that he 
 has sent the second instalment of 400 francs to 
 Charpentier, and that he will send the third and 
 last at the beginning of January. 
 
 Till Sunday, then. Meanwhile I wish you good 
 health and good luck. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Monday^ January 24, 1876. 
 My dear Zola, — I've just received a letter from 
 Stassulevitch, which is a perfect poem of enthu- 
 
 * Son Excellence Eugene Rougon. 
 206 
 
Ibtg jftencb Circle 
 
 siasm on the subject of your article on " Marriage."! 
 It is having a sucas fou in Russia. I put you up 
 to a good thing when I turned your attention in 
 that direction. 
 
 I've had gout for the last fortnight, and this is 
 why our dinner to-night came to grief. It also 
 prevents my going to see Les Danicheff. As soon 
 as I'm a little better I shall take a box so as to be 
 able to stretch my leg at full length. Should you 
 care to come with me ? 
 
 How are you ? Well, I hope. Successful work 
 and good health to you ! 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 XV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday midday [February^ 1876). 
 My dear Friend, — It really seems as though 
 Fate had done it on purpose to annoy. I go out 
 yesterday for the first time, and of course that is 
 the very day you choose for your visit. But I count 
 on seeing you to-morrow at Flaubert's. We'll talk 
 of Les Danicheff^ 2 and all such productions. 
 Many regards. Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 ^ " Le Mariage en France," which appeared in the January 
 number (1876) of Le Messager de l^ 'Europe. 
 
 - Les Danicheff, was given for the first time at the Odéon on the 
 8th of January, 1876. 
 
 207 
 
Uourguénetf anb 
 
 XVI. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Wednesday^ March or Apr'il^ 1876. 
 
 My dear Friend, — One of these days you'll 
 receive (if you have not already done so) a letter 
 from a certain M. Ba'imakofF, the owner of 
 the (Russian) Gazette de St. Pétersbourg^ contain- 
 ing a proposal that you should contribute to his 
 paper by writing feuilletons for it. Dont bind your- 
 self to anything^ and dont answer till you have 
 discussed it with me. 
 
 Will you look in here to-morrow before two 
 o'clock ? You'll see my picture at the same time,i 
 which is going to the Exhibition to-morrow. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XVII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Friday^ April 7, 1876. 
 My dear Friend, — I waited till now to answer 
 you, in the hope of getting either a telegram or 
 a letter, but nothing has come. Probably the con- 
 ditions we were obliged to make about U Assommoir 
 were not considered admissible. 
 
 ^ This refers to a picture painted by the great Russian artist, 
 HarlamofF. In a letter written to me on the subject he says he 
 remembers quite well TourguenefF and Zola coming to his studio in 
 1876. 
 
 208 
 
Ibis fvcncb Circle 
 
 I am all the more in favour of your idea of sub- 
 stituting for your monthly letter to the Messager 
 de r Europe an extract from the novel, preceded by 
 an analytical summary of the story, especially if this 
 extract is not taken from the beginning of the 
 novel, and presents therefore the attraction of a 
 novelty. I have no doubt Stassulevitch v^^ill be 
 delighted to fall in with your idea, and I don't 
 think there is any need to tell him about it before- 
 hand. So I think you may set to work upon it 
 to-morrow, for it is plain that we must give up all 
 idea of placing the translation to advantage. 
 
 Nevertheless, if anything should turn up, I will 
 let you know at once by telegram. 
 
 Goodbye till Sunday in any case. 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Concourt tells me that Flaubert is ill with 
 shingles ; it's not dangerous, but it's horribly 
 distressing. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Hotel Demouth, St. Petersburg, 
 
 Thursday [^Z^,]. ^^1^- 
 
 My dear Friend, — I have been here three 
 
 days, and this is the first day I am able to give you 
 
 an answer. Unfortunately, it is not a satisfactory 
 
 one. After twenty-four hours' reflection, Souvorine 
 
 209 p 
 
(of the Nouveau Temps) informed me that he could 
 neither go on with U Assojnmoir^ nor ofFer you any 
 price for it, because the summary of the story which 
 you did in your last article for the Messager de 
 VEurope had destroyed both its novelty and its 
 interest. Is this his real reason, or has he some 
 other ? I don't know, but the fact remains that 
 these good gentlemen will offer you nothing. 
 
 I was misinformed about Le Dielo. The paper, 
 or rather the review (for it only comes out once 
 a month), contained nothing but a summary of the 
 novel, and it is in such a precarious way just now 
 that there is nothing to be done in that quarter 
 either. 
 
 So here we have V Asso?nmoir knocked on the 
 head ! You may imagine how sorry I am about it. 
 
 As to Stassulevitch, he is still as delighted as 
 possible with your feuilletons ; he sets great store 
 by them, and I think we might raise our price, but 
 Saltykov, whom I saw at Baden, will only be here 
 the day after to-morrow, and till then there is 
 nothing to be done. I'll write to you as soon as 
 S.I has spoken to his chief.^ 
 
 All this is not very cheerful, and please don't be 
 vexed with me about it. I will write to you before 
 leaving St. Petersburg, when I've had a talk with 
 Saltykov. 
 
 ^ Saltykov. 
 
 * The publisher of Les annales de la Patrie (M. Kraievsky). 
 
 210 
 
Ibis yrencb Circle 
 
 I am quite well, and I hope the German doctor 
 has set you to rights. Remember me to Flaubert 
 and the others. Many cordial regards. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Moscow, AT THE CoMPTOIR DES ApANAGES, 
 
 Thursday^ "June isISj 1876. 
 My DEAR Friend, — I came here yesterday, and 
 am leaving to-morrow for the country. (If you 
 want to write me a line here is my address : 
 M. I. T., Russia, Province of Orel, Mtsensk 
 Town.) Saltykov i arrived in Petersburg from 
 Baden the day before I left. I saw him and 
 talked to him twice. He was intendino; to write 
 to you to propose your sending them four feuilletons 
 a year — at the rate of 100 roubles (330 francs) per 
 printed folio. As you can easily write two and 
 a half folios each time, this would bring you in 
 800 francs a feuilleton, 3,200 francs a year. I 
 strongly advise you to accept this without dropping 
 Stassulevitch — that is to say, still sending him twelve 
 letters a year. I think you could manage this 
 without much difficulty, and Stassulevitch is a good 
 employer whom you must stick to, especially after 
 the collapse of the poor Assommoir in Russia. 
 
 ^ Saltykov was at this time the principal editor of an important 
 review, Les Atmales de la Patrie. 
 
Saltykov told me they would let you know the 
 subjects they would like you to write upon, and 
 that they would be only too pleased if you would 
 begin in October. 
 
 Let me know what comes of all this. 
 
 Madame Sand's death has been a great sorrow to 
 me. I am sure it must have grieved Flaubert. I 
 mean to write to him. 
 
 You might write a splendid letter about her.i 
 
 I send you many cordial regards, and am 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Spasskoïé, Province of Orel, Mtsensk Town, 
 
 My dear Friend, — I have just received your 
 letter here in my den, and I am answering it at 
 once. I must begin by apologising sincerely for 
 the harm I did you indirectly by recommending 
 that German doctor to you. Evidently nothing 
 German ever suits Frenchmen. I am glad to 
 know you are better, and I feel sure the sea air 
 will do you good. 
 / As for the correspondence business, it is quite 
 straightforward. Saltykov, who is at present staying 
 
 1 Zola did write an article upon Georges Sand and her works in 
 the July number of Le Messager de V Europe in 1876. 
 
 212 
 
fbtg ffrencb Circle 
 
 in a village in the suburbs of Moscow, wrote to me 
 again yesterday. You know the terms — four 
 letters a year, in January, April, July, and October ; 
 330 francs per printed folio ; from two to three 
 foHos each letter. They would like you to begin 
 next October. You are to decide what you wish 
 to write upon. I have spoken to you of the 
 political cojnplexion of the review. ^ 
 
 I shall be back in Paris by the 28th or 30th of 
 July. We'll take a day about the end of August 
 and settle all this business. Saltykov goes back to 
 St. Petersburg about the 15th of September. The 
 review comes out on the ist of October {old style) 
 that's to say, on the 13th. I suppose you'll have 
 time enough ; if not it must be put off till the ist 
 of January. It shall be broken to Stassulevitch as 
 tastefully as possible. 
 
 He too has just written to me. He has received 
 your article on Georges Sand, and seems delighted 
 with it. It's not impossible that I may write one 
 myself, suggested by yours, in which I shall start a 
 friendly discussion. I am very curious to see your 
 article. 
 
 I am working here like a galley-slave. I go to 
 bed at 2 o'clock, and to sleep at 3. I get up 
 at 9 in the daytime. I am overwhelmed with 
 business. Mercifully, up to the present, I have not 
 
 ^ Les Annales de la Patrie was the most liberal of all the Russian 
 publications. 
 
 213 
 
been troubled by gout. M. Nittershauser succeeded 
 better with me than with you. 
 
 My letter will reach you in Paris. Leave your 
 seaside address at the Rue de Douai. I will write 
 to you as soon as I get back. 
 
 jfu revoir, and many cordial regards. 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I'm afraid there's very little hope for your 
 poor little penny-a-liner. I've inquired in two or 
 three places, but have met with nothing but stony 
 faces. However, I don't yet despair. 
 
 P. P.S. — The name of your new review is 
 Otetchestvennya Lapriski, a fearfully long and diffi- 
 cult name. It means The Annals of our Country, 
 It's a very stupid title. It was bought during the 
 Emperor Nicholas's reign, when the starting of any 
 new papers was forbidden. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Monday^ August 7, 1876. 
 My dear Friend, — The paper on which I am 
 writing is absurdly smart, but I happened upon it 
 by chance. 
 
 I got back here yesterday after a week's travel- 
 ling from the very heart of Russia. I found your 
 letter here, and two others from Stassulevitch. I 
 
 214 
 
1big fftencb Circle 
 
 am very glad it was all settled in that way, and you 
 were quite right not to drop the substance for the 
 shadow ; that's not what I really mean, for the 
 other review was not a shadow, but " striving to 
 better oft we mar what's well," and the increase of 
 work would have tired you out. Anyway, you are 
 getting a rise owing to all this. I'll explain the 
 whole thing when I write to Stassulevitch in such a 
 way as not to put him against you. 
 
 I succeeded in finishing my novel when I was in 
 the country, and am now going to start copying it 
 out.i I shall not budge from here for six weeks — 
 it will take quite that to get it done — with the ex- 
 ception of two or three days which I shall spend 
 with Flaubert at Croisset. 
 
 I hope you'll soon quite regain health and spirits 
 — and finish U Assoîiunoir. Writing for the stage is 
 all very well and amusing, and the little I've read of 
 U Asso7nmoir (by bits in the feuilletons) has given 
 me a very high opinion of it. 
 
 Well, may we meet soon ! for you must be sure 
 and let me know when you will be in Paris. 
 With many cordial regards. 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 ^ Terres Vierges. The original Russian version came out in Le 
 Messager de VEiirope in the January and February numbers of the 
 year 1877. 
 
 215 
 
XXII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Wednesday (1876). 
 My dear Friend, — I am going to ask you a 
 favour. Will you be very kind and read some 
 small thing of your own (lasting from eight to ten 
 minutes) at a musical and literary matinee which we 
 are getting up for the benefit of the poor Russian 
 students in Paris, and which will take place on 
 Sunday (/.^., ten days hence) at the Rue de Douai 
 house ? Your name on the bill (not a public one) 
 would attract my fellow-countrymen as honey 
 attracts flies. I am going to read something too, 
 and Madame Viardot is going to sing. Do say 
 " yes " if you can, and let me know what piece you 
 choose, so that I may have it put on the programme. 
 If you can't manage it — well, we shall have to 
 resign ourselves to it, but with a heavy heart. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 P.S. — It will take place at 3 o'clock, before 
 going to Flaubert. 
 
 TourguenefF used to get up m.usical and literary 
 afternoons and evenings for the benefit of various 
 charities. It was for one of these afternoons that 
 he was asking Zola's co-operation. In spite of the 
 nervousness and stage-fright he then suffered from 
 
 216 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 when he appeared in public, the author of Les 
 Rougon Macqtiart consented to read the charming 
 episode of Miette and Sylvcrc at the puits- 
 mitoyen ^ [La Fortune des Rougon). A propos of 
 this the master wrote to me as follows : " The 
 reading I gave at Madame Viardot's matinée 
 was really my first public reading, and I didn't 
 sleep for three nights beforehand." How great 
 must have been Zola's wish to please his friend to 
 induce him to go through 'such a formidable 
 ordeal ! 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I expect Plaubert gave 
 you the programme yesterday (as well as Stassule- 
 vitch's enclosure). So it's settled for Saturday at 
 3 o'clock. But if you would care to have a 
 rehearsal, which I almost think will be necessary, I 
 could come to your house to-morrow (Tuesday) 
 about 4 o'clock, and we'll arrange the whole 
 matter. It'll only take a quarter of an hour at 
 most. I await vour answer. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 ^ A puits-mitoyen is a well belonging equally to two properties. — 
 Translator's Note. 
 
 217 
 
^outôuéneff an^ 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday^ yanuary 13, 1877. 
 My dear Friend, — Tuesday is impossible for 
 me. Any other day (except Tuesday) I am at your 
 disposal. 
 
 The January number of Le Messager de V Europe 
 has just been sent me. For once in a way your 
 article on Balzac takes up forty pages — your letter 
 (on the clergy), with which Flaubert is quite 
 delighted, thirty-three pages. 
 
 I'm expecting a line from you about the dinner, 
 and am, with many cordial regards, 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XXV. 
 
 My dear FpvIEND, — I've just been counting the 
 pages of your letter in the March number, which I 
 received yesterday. There are twenty-one (430- 
 451). I haven't yet had time to read it. (It is on 
 school life.) I I can't yet judge where he has cut 
 it, but I will write to him, and take a very firm 
 tone, to-day. 
 
 I expect our good Stassulevitch is a good deal 
 annoyed just now. They have cut out a whole 
 
 ' The exact title of the article is UEcole et la z/ie à l'Ecole en 
 Frawf^ (" Schools and School Life in France"). 
 
 2X8 
 
1bt6 f tench Circle 
 
 novel of his in the March number. But that's no 
 reason for what he's done. 
 
 Did you by any chance attack classics ? Under 
 the present Minister of Public Instruction in 
 Russia they are the Holy of Holies. He has 
 succeeded in persuading the Emperor that only 
 revolutionaries attack them. 
 
 You know you are dining with me and with all 
 of us I next Monday, March 26th, at the Café 
 Riche at 7.30 ? 
 
 Kindest regards. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Thursday, March 29, 1877. 
 My dear Friend, — I have just received a 
 letter from Stassulevitch in which he assures me that 
 he cut out absolutely nothing from your last letter, 
 and in proof of this he sends it to me, asking me to 
 compare it with the original. I have not been able 
 to do so to-day, for I have lent the number of Le 
 Messager de V Europe to a gentleman, who is to 
 bring it back to me to-morrow ; but I can't believe 
 St. can have meant to mislead me : it would be too 
 easy to prove the deception — he himself would have 
 given me the means to do so — and I can only 
 
 ' With Flaubert, Concourt, and Daudet. 
 219 
 
suppose you must have made a mistake as to the 
 length of your " copy." 
 
 We shall meet soon — Sunday, in any case, at 
 Flaubert's. I shall have a proposal to submit to 
 you which was made to me the other day. 
 
 Kindest regards. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Friday, May 18, 1877. 
 My dear Zola, — I am still suffering from this 
 fiendish gout, which will not leave me altogether. 
 However, I hope to be able to leave about the 
 middle of next week. 
 
 I am sending you back your two MS. feuilletons. 
 If I possibly can I shall come to Flaubert's to- 
 morrow, and shall see you there. But I want now 
 to ask you a favour : Can you send mc a photograph 
 of yourself, with this inscription (?) in your hand- 
 writing ? — 
 
 " To Mada?ne Samarski-Bykhovetz. 
 Paris, iSyj. E. 'Lola''' 
 
 She is a worthy lady who lives at Petersburg, and 
 who adores you ; you v/ould make her perfectly 
 happy by doing so, and in return she would over- 
 whelm me with gratitude. And indeed she is a 
 
 220 
 
most excellent woman and well deserves this little 
 trouble on her behalf. Please do it, and I shall be 
 very grateful. 
 
 What about your visit to Saint Berthoud — did it 
 come off ? 
 
 With kind regards, and perhaps au revoir^ 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 St. Petersburg, 
 
 June 21/9, 1877. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I have been here a fort- 
 night and I feel as though I had fallen into a 
 caldron full of water and was being boiled there 
 with every one else. You must take this phrase 
 figuratively, for from another 'point of view it is 
 so bitterly cold here that I am sorry not to have 
 brought my fur cloak. 
 
 I am staying another month in Russia, and then 
 I shall make a bee-line for Bougival, where I shall 
 shut myself up till the winter. 
 
 I have not kept my promise and sent you some 
 subjects before leaving Paris ; please forgive me. 
 But I think you had a subject for the month of 
 July. (Your article on the army was extremely 
 liked here ; you are still, as ever, the favourite, par 
 excellence,^ As for a subject for the month of August^ 
 I have had an idea since I was here. If you are not 
 
 221 
 
Uoitrouéneff an^ 
 
 thinking of making a study on the inner workings of 
 journalism in Paris, as I suggested when I wrote to 
 Flaubert — I don't know whether he showed you 
 that passage of my letter — you might perhaps send 
 us a kind of idyl on the South of France, where you 
 are now staying — a description of the southerner's 
 mode of life, &c. As a contrast it would be 
 most effective, and I fancy you would do it per- 
 fectly, and that it would amuse you to do. Think 
 it over.i 
 
 I suppose you are at work again, and I wish you 
 good health, rest, and as much peace of mind as is 
 compatible with the present state of France. 
 
 Stassulevitch sends you many kind messages, 
 and I shake you cordially by the hand. Please 
 remember me to Madame Zola. I will write to 
 you as soon as I get back to P' ranee. 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I think I have settled that little matter for 
 your London friend, but rather differently from the 
 way I expected. 
 
 ^ Zola followed Tourgulneff's advice and wrote an article on 
 the French Press in the August, 1877, number of Le Messager de 
 r Europe. 
 
 222 
 
Mb ffrencb Circle 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 BouGivAL (Seine-et-Oise), Les Frênes, 
 
 TVednesday^ September 5, 1877. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I wouldn't write to you 
 till I had seen Stassulevitch ; he was to have come 
 to see me here at the beginning of August, but he 
 has delayed till now. I have at length seen him, 
 and we talked of your novel. ^ He would be de- 
 lighted to publish it, but it is impossible for him to 
 do so before the year 1878, and you tell me that its 
 publication in France is to begin on the 20th of 
 November. If this date cannot be altered it will 
 make the Russian translation out of the question. 
 He has already had such expenses this year that he 
 cannot provide your novel for the subscribers of 
 1877. He also seemed rather alarmed lest this 
 new book should be like U Assommoir (from the 
 point of view of the censorships censura morum). I 
 assured him that what you are doing at present 
 belonged altogether to a different order of ideas. 
 Think over all this, and send me an answer as soon 
 as you can. I'm very much afraid we sha'n't be 
 able to arrange the affair. 
 
 I suppose you are still at L'Estaque. 
 
 I shall stay here another month. I have been 
 horribly pulled down by this infernal gout. (As 
 
 ' Une page d'Amour. 
 223 
 
UouvguénefC an^ 
 
 for yourself and wife, to whom I wish to be 
 remembered, I suppose you are both in splendid 
 health.) 
 
 I have seen no one. I dined once with Flaubert 
 who is quite well, and who has gone back to 
 Croisset. 
 
 When are you coming back to Paris ? 
 
 Accept my best regards and believe me, 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Adonday {end of November^ 1877). 
 
 My dear Friend, — Here is the first volume of 
 your Parisian letters published by Stassulevitch. It 
 contains your literary appreciations (of Balzac, 
 Flaubert, Concourt, Daudet, Musset, Taine, Ré- 
 musat. Theirs, G. Sand, V. Hugo, Dumas fils). 
 The second volume will soon be out. 
 
 As soon as Stassulevitch has covered the costs of 
 publication, all the profits] will be yours, and you 
 can make your mind quite easy about it, for he 
 is scrupulously honest. It's a handsome edition, 
 as you'll see for yourself. 
 
 I am still reading Le Nabab. There is no doubt 
 the book shows a great deal of talent. I shall 
 write a line to Daudet. 
 
 224 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 I am still in bed, but I have been better for the 
 last two days. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — The book comes from Stassulevitch. 
 
 Our readers will remember that M. Stassulevitch 
 was the editor of the St. Petersburg review, Le 
 Messager de V Europe^ in which Zola had been 
 publishing a monthly article of literary criticism 
 since 1875. The volumes referred to in this letter 
 contained these articles collected and translated 
 into Russian. 
 
 As for Le Nabab^ we may compare what is said 
 about the book in this letter with what TourgucnefF 
 wrote to Flaubert and to Daudet on the subject. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday Morning^ 1878. 
 My dear Friend, — 1 went to your house the 
 day before yesterday, but was told you were still in 
 the country. I hope you'll not be staying there 
 much longer, and that we shall begin seeing some- 
 thins of each other a2:ain. Meanwhile this is what 
 I wanted to say to you : In your last article you 
 said you should shortly speak of La Princesse 
 Borowski. At the same time the article in Les 
 
 225 <^ 
 
Uourguéneff an^ 
 
 Débats^ describing the fiasco of this play, goes on 
 something in this style : " It is to be hoped that 
 in future we shall not borrow any more from the 
 Russian drama." This is really too bad ! The 
 author of La Princesse Borowski is a mere non- 
 entity in Russia. His first play, Les Danicheff^ 
 couldn't have been produced in Russia without 
 being hissed off the stage amid shouts of ridicule— 
 and yet here he is made out to represent the 
 Russian drama in France. It is quite possible that 
 our drama may not suit the taste of the Parisian 
 public, but for quite other reasons than those for 
 which La Princesse Borowski was hissed — the 
 latter piece being, as a matter of fact, simply a bad 
 French play. 
 
 As you know, I mean to make you acquainted 
 with our real drama — and I shall certainly do 
 so as soon as you are back in Paris — but mean- 
 while every Russian would owe you a debt of 
 gratitude if you would at once, in your next 
 feuilleton, point out the real truth of the case. It 
 is really too wretched to see M. de Kronkovskoï 
 (!!!) treated as the representative of Russian 
 dramatic literature in France. 
 
 We shall meet soon, sha'n't we ? Manv cordial 
 regards. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 226 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday [January 11, 1879). 
 My dear Zola, — The business with Sta...ssu 
 ...Ic.vitch is settled. He writes to me that he 
 has telegraphed to Charpentier about it, and has 
 sent him a letter in which he has laid down the 
 following conditions : ( i ) The first half of the 
 text is to be handed in on the ist of December, 
 and he will send 150 roubles in silver (they are to 
 send at once all that they can spare) ; (2) your 
 novel is not to be published here before the 2o/8th 
 of February, and Stassulevitch is to receive the 
 second half on the 2o/8th of January, and he will 
 then send the other 150 roubles. 
 
 I think this is all right. As to Stassulevitch's 
 solvency and punctuality, they leave nothing to be 
 desired and I will answer for them. 
 
 Many thanks for your note, and I shall count on 
 a ticket, and, if it can possibly be managed, on being 
 present at the dress rehearsal. My evenings are 
 free, and for the present my gout is leaving me in 
 peace. 
 
 Very affectionately yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 227 
 
Uour^iiéneff anb 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Tuesday Morning {January 14, 1879). 
 My dear Zola, — I am writing to you from 
 my bed after a sleepless night, during which I 
 thought I should suffocate two or three times. I 
 have a marvellous kind of cold, such as I have never 
 even heard of. I am desperately sorry about 
 it, but I simply can't move. I must send you back 
 your ticket. If you have any one to give it to, 
 that's all right ; if not, send it back to me and I 
 can easily find a recipient for it. I'll give it to a 
 friend of mine who will applaud just as much as I 
 should have done myself. I've every hope that all 
 will go well this evening, but all the same it's 
 excessively annoying. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Sunaay Morning {^January 19, 1879). 
 My dear Friend, — My most hearty congratu- 
 lations upon yesterday's great success. I was not 
 able to judge of it de visu^ as I have been in bed for 
 the last six days, thanks to a fresh attack of gout ; 
 but I gave my ticket to one of your great admirers, 
 Madame Viardot's son. I can assure you he ap- 
 
 228 
 
Ibis fvcnch Circle 
 
 plauded you most vigorously. Could you possibly 
 get me a box for four people (which I should pay 
 for, of course) for one of the next representations 
 of L'A. ? I If you could I should be much 
 obliged to you. 
 
 Very cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai 
 
 (Saturday, ^^79)* 
 My dear Friend, — What you have just told 
 me is confoundedly unpleasant. I shall try to go 
 to Flaubert's ; but as I am starting at 7 p.m. I 
 shall ask you for greater safety to come to me to- 
 morrow about 11.30. We must see what there is 
 to be done. 2 
 
 Till to-morrow, then. 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Monday, 5 clock (1879). 
 My dear Friend, — I've this moment come 
 back from Flaubert's and hasten to tell you that he 
 
 ^ U AssommoW. 
 
 * This letter refers to the state of Flaubert's finances. 
 
 229 
 
is as well as he can be under the circumstances. 
 He is very calm and philosophical and will be able to 
 get up in ten days' time. 
 
 I spoke to him of the great matter. He is very 
 grateful, and, I think, shaken in his decision ; but 
 he would like to know the exact amount of his 
 salary. I was obliged to promise him that I would 
 telegraph the amount to-morrow. Isn't it from 7 
 to 8,000 francs (with rooms) ? If you know 
 exactly send me just one word in answer to this, 
 this very evening ; if not I must ask Charpentier. 
 
 A thousand kind regards. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday Morning (1879). 
 My dear Friend, — I have just received a letter 
 from Flaubert, accepting^ and wishing to know if he 
 can count upon it with certainty. I shall come to 
 you about 2 o'clock (if that suits you ?), and we'll 
 plan out our method of procedure. If you prefer 
 any other hour let me know. I'm free till dinner. 
 A thousand kind re2;ards. 
 
 I v. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 This refers to the post of Custodian at the 
 Mazarin Library. On this head we find the fol- 
 
 230 
 
f3ls ffrencb Circle 
 
 lowing entry in the Concourt Journal under the 
 (late of June 8, 1879: "He (Haubert) tells me 
 that his affair is settled. He is appointed Custodian 
 {ex-officio) at the Mazarin, at a salary of 3,000 francs, 
 which will be raised in a few months' time. He 
 added that he had genuinely suffered through 
 accepting the money, and that, moreover, he had 
 already made arrangements for its repayment to the 
 State some day. His brother, who is very rich, and 
 dying into the bargain, is to give him an allowance 
 of 3,000 francs; with that and his appointment, and 
 what he makes by his literary work, he'll be almost 
 on his feet again." 
 
 Elsewhere M. Kovalevsky relates that Flaubert's 
 friends, having learnt that Gambetta had openly 
 espoused the candidature of the author of Madame 
 Bovary^ begged Tourguéneff to go to Rouen in 
 order to persuade the latter to accept the offer. 
 Flaubert agreed to do so. 
 
 "Nevertheless," adds M. Kovalevsky, "if I am 
 not mistaken, the same post of custodian was 
 promised, on personal grounds, by Gambetta's friends 
 to M. Isnard. Tourguéneff wrote to Gambetta in 
 order to inform him of the result of his interview 
 with Flaubert, but received no answer. He wrote 
 aeain — the same silence. He then decided to have 
 recourse to the good offices of Madame Adam, to 
 whose house Gambetta often went of an evening. 
 The newspapers described at the time the scarcely 
 
 231 
 
Uourguéneff anb 
 
 amiable manner in which this step was received by 
 the famous tribune. But, judging from Tourgue- 
 nefF's own words, things did not take place alto- 
 gether as the Figaro stated. Knowing that the 
 post was already promised, Gambetta impatiently 
 replied to Madame Adam, * Pray do not press 
 the matter any further — it is impossible.' And 
 when the ladv of the house, as if seeking for 
 some one to support her, brought TourgueneflF up 
 to him, Gambetta did not get up from his chair, for 
 the simple reason that the Russian author approached 
 him on the side of his glass eye, and could not there- 
 fore be seen ! " ( Souvenirs sur Tourguéyieff^ bv Maxime 
 Kovalevsky. Russian Gazette^ ^^83.) 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai. 
 
 Monday.^ 
 My dear Friend, — So be it, then — Monday ! 
 It is still the Opéra Comique, isn't it ? 
 
 I am sending you a pound of very good Caravan 
 tea and a little box to put it in. You can take 
 
 * It was probably at the end of 1879, before Flaubert's death, that 
 Tûurguéneff, on his return from Russia, sent Zola this tea and this 
 box, the latter of which Zola kept always. In this way one can fix 
 the date of this letter. In the first sentence he is not referring to the 
 Opéra Comique theatre, but rather to the tavern at the corner of the 
 Rue Favart, where the little set of "the Five " (Flaubert, Concourt 
 Zola, Daudet, and TourguenefF) used, at this time, to meet. 
 
 232 
 
Ibis ffrencb Ctrcle 
 
 some of it from time to time, in spite of the pro- 
 hibition of your doctor. 
 
 This is my New Year's gift, and it will be very 
 nice of you to accept it. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday ["January^ 1880). 
 My dear Friend, — I am here for the moment, 
 and cannot go and see you. But I know you saw 
 Stassulevitch yesterday, and I conclude you were 
 satisfied with the interview. Flaubert said some- 
 thing about the dress rehearsal of Daudet's play ^ 
 (which was to have taken place to-day), and wanted 
 to take me to it, but I've seen nothing about it, 
 so I suppose it has been put off. I feel sure you 
 were going to it too. Write to me at Bougival, 
 so that I may come up here (for that and for the 
 first performance). In any case write and tell me 
 what you know, and doubtless we shall meet soon. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. Tourguhneff. 
 
 ' Le Nahab. 
 
 233 
 
UonxQxxcncU aît& 
 
 XL. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Mojiday Morning {January 26, 1880). 
 My dear Friend, — Daudet hasn't yet answered, 
 but Concourt writes to me to accept, only he is 
 afraid he mav not be able to come, because he's 2:ot 
 an influenza cold. As I set great store on having 
 him at this farewell dinner I'm giving, I propose 
 to put off the dinner until Friday (the eve of 
 my departure). It will be at the Cafe Riche at 
 7 o'clock. If you see nothing inconvenient in 
 this I'll telegraph at once to Concourt, and let 
 Maupassant and Daudet know. Send me one 
 word in answer to this. 
 
 Cordial regards. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 SpasskoÏé, Town of Mtsensk, 
 
 Sunday, May 11/23, 1880. 
 My dear Zola, — Many thanks for having 
 thought of me. It was like the pressure of a 
 friendly hand. I received the blow in the most 
 brutal way imaginable, three days ago, here, while 
 reading a feuilleton in the Golosh There is no 
 
 ^ a St. Petersburg newspaper. 
 
Me jfrencb Circle 
 
 need to tell you of my grief. Flaubert was one of 
 the men I loved best on earth. It is not only a 
 great talent which has passed away, but a being 
 of infinite rarity, who formed a centre for us all. 
 
 I shall arrive in Paris in three weeks at latest. I 
 shall see you there, and we will talk over the 
 publication of his novel, which he was unable to 
 finish, and which is to be published.^ Meanwhile 
 I send you my most cordial regards, and am. 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XLII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Friday^ November 28, 1880. 
 My dear Friend, — I went yesterday and 
 knocked at your door and found you were still in 
 the country, and were only coming back in a 
 month's time. This is a good sign that you are 
 working and will present us this winter with a 
 beautiful new work. At the same time I wanted 
 to ask you to give me (in my capacity of vice- 
 president of the Flaubert committee) your written 
 consent to be a member of it. I have acceptances 
 from all the others already in my possession. Do 
 please send me yours. You know this committee 
 will never have to meet ; we have appointed an 
 
 ^ Bowvard et Pécuchet. 
 235 
 
tlourouéneff anb 
 
 executive sub-committee (consisting of the two 
 vice-presidents, the two secretaries, Concourt, and 
 Meyer of the Gaulois^ whom we should like to 
 make our treasurer), who will take all the necessary 
 steps and then submit them for the approval of the 
 whole committee. The sub-committee is to meet 
 to-day, for the first time, at my house. 
 
 My compliments to Madame Zola and cordial 
 regards to yourself. We shall meet as soon as 
 you're back, sha'n't we ? 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 Wednesday Morning {January^ 1881). 
 
 My dear Zola, — I've only just this moment 
 learnt from the papers that your play ^ is to come 
 out on Friday, the 30th, /.£•., the day after to- 
 morrow. 
 
 I've been kept indoors all these last few days by 
 a very bad cold, but I greatly hope to be able to go 
 out the day after to-morrow. You've kept a ticket 
 for me, haven't you ? Ought I to send to fetch it ? 
 I am still waiting for a word from you about the 
 rehearsal. Stassulevitch was going to telegraph to 
 Charpentier. Has he done so ? 
 
 ^ Nana. 
 236 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 We shall meet the day after to-morrow. In 
 any case I am, 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 Monday Evening {JJanuary^ l88l). 
 My dear Friend, — I am very nearly well, but 
 however ill I'd been I wouldn't have missed the 
 first night of Nana. Thank you very much for 
 having thought of me. You can give the book to 
 the bearer of this. 
 
 A thousand cordial regards, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 May 14.11, 1881. 
 You are very kind, my dear friend, to ask after 
 my health. I've been rather seriously ill. I'm a 
 little better now, but am still unable to leave my 
 bed. My doctor declares I shall be able to sit up 
 in an arm-chair next week, which will be a great 
 pleasure I can assure you. 
 
 Ever cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 P.S.— You're all well at Medan, I hope ? 
 
 237 
 
Uourôuéneft anb 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Thursday^ December 12, 1 881. 
 My dear Friend, — Are you meaning to stay 
 much longer at Medan, and aren't you thinking of 
 coming to Paris one of these days ? I should be 
 very glad to see you, and, moreover, my friend 
 Verestchagin, whom you've certainly heard spoken 
 of, M^ould be glad to show you a few of his pictures, 
 which are at present being exhibited at the office of 
 the Gaulois. 
 
 Write me one word if you do mean to come to 
 Paris, and let me know what day and hour I can 
 go and look you up at your house, so that we may 
 lunch together and then go and see the pictures. 
 Many kind regards to Madame Zola. 
 Ever cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. Tourguéneff. 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 BouGivAL (Seine-et-Oise), Les Frênes, 
 
 November ^^ 1882. 
 My dear Friend, — This letter will be brought 
 to you by our friend P., with a view to trying 
 to come to some definite arrangement. The 
 
 238 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 Moscow publisher only agrees to 3,000 francs, 
 payable on the delivery of the MS. It seems 
 to me that you might consent to this, but here 
 is a difficulty which I had not heard of: you 
 can't deliver the whole MS. at present (which 
 would be necessary so as to order the illustrations). 
 You propose to deliver it in three instalments, 
 between now and March. This makes the 
 Moscow publisher's undertaking more difficult ; 
 he could quite well publish the translation simul- 
 taneously with the original, but there would 
 be competition on the part of translators from 
 the printed form. It would therefore perhaps 
 be necessary to deliver the third part of the MS. 
 a month earlier. And what would the dates of 
 delivery be ? Let us suppose the first to be 
 November 15th. What about the two others? 
 Explain all this to P. ; he will telegraph it to 
 Moscow immediately. If the matter can't be 
 arranged this is what might be done : you might 
 send the three parts of the MS. to P., one after 
 the other, for him to make not a translation, 
 but a detailed summary (such as was done with 
 us for Dickens's novels and others), which should 
 appear in the first three numbers (January, 
 February, March) of the Messager de F Europe. 
 Naturally this need not come out before the 
 original, only it would bring you in much less. 
 However, it is still quite possible that the Moscow 
 
 239 
 
publisher may consent to receive the MS. in parts. 
 Only tell P. the exact dates. 
 Many kind regards from 
 
 Yours most faithfully, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — If the MS. has to be delivered in three 
 parts you can't ask more than 3,000 francs. Only 
 insist upon everything being paid in advance on 
 the delivery of the first instalment. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 December i, 1882. 
 My dear Friend, — They've informed me 
 several times from Moscow that the money (for 
 your novel) was on the point of being sent to 
 me, and in spite of all this I've received nothing 
 as yet. It appears there have been difficulties in 
 connection with the Censorship. Nevertheless I've 
 reason to think the money can't be delayed much 
 longer. On the other hand, the translators are 
 anxious to have the beginning of the MS. so that 
 they can set to work. So this is what I propose 
 to you : give P., when he comes to see you, 
 the first chapter. If the money really doesn't 
 come the MS. and the translation shall be sent 
 back to you. PU answer for that. If the money 
 comes — well, then the work will be that much 
 
 240 
 
1big ffrencb Circle 
 
 more advanced. You may be quite easy in your 
 mind that I sha'n't let you be diddled. Send me 
 a yes or no by telegraph, and I'll let P. know 
 at once. 
 
 Are you going to stay much longer at Mcdan ? 
 I have been here for six days. 
 
 Many kind regards. 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 XLIX. 
 
 Paris, 50, Rue de. Douai, 
 
 Sunday^ December 10 (1882). 
 My dear Friend, — I'm in receipt of your 
 note, and P. has just told me that he is sending 
 you a draft for 1,500 francs, which has arrived 
 from Moscow. Is this right ? Write me just 
 one word. 
 
 Ever so many kind regards. 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 LETTERS TO GUY DE 
 MAUPASSANT. 
 
 It was through Flaubert that Tourgueneff made 
 the acquaintance of Guy de Maupassant. 
 
 " The first time I saw Tourgueneff was at 
 
 241 R 
 
Gustave Flaubert's," says Maupassant in the 
 obituary article he wrote upon the Russian writer. 
 " A door opened. A giant came in — a giant with 
 a silver head, as they would say in a fairy tale." 
 This first meeting must have dated as far back 
 as 1876, before Maupassant had begun his literary 
 career — at all events, under his own name ; for the 
 famous story, Boule de Suif^ which made his 
 reputation, and his first volume, Des Vers^ only 
 appeared in 1880. But in a letter dated the 
 24th of January, 1877, TourguenefF already speaks 
 of Maupassant as of an intimate friend. 
 
 " Poor Maupassant," he says, " is losing all his 
 hair. He came to see me. . . . He is as 
 nice as ever, but very ugly just at present." 
 
 It is certain that Maupassant from the very first 
 had a great affection for the man and a great 
 respect for the writer. We must not forget that 
 Tourgueneff was the literary companion and the 
 intimate confidential friend of Flaubert, whose 
 influence upon the author of Boule de Suif is 
 well known. Maupassant listened as attentively 
 to the advice and counsels of the Russian as to 
 those of the French master. In the article we 
 quoted from just now he seems to have discerned 
 in him one of the forerunners of modern 
 realism : — 
 
 "In spite of his age and of the fact that his 
 career was almost at an end, he had the most 
 
 242 
 
1big ffrencb Circle 
 
 modern and advanced literary ideas, rejecting all \ 
 forms of the old, obviously mechanical, novel, with 
 its dramatic, ingenious plot, and only asking for 
 life, nothing but life — ' slices of life ' — without 
 complications or wonderful adventures." 
 
 " The novel," he used to say, " is the most 
 recent development of literary art. It is now 
 gradually freeing itself from the stage tricks upon 
 which it relied at first, and by which, owing to 
 a certain romantic charm of its own, it succeeded 
 in capturing the imaginations of simple folk. But 
 now that taste is growing purer it is for us to 
 reject all such inferior and artificial methods, while 
 at the same time simplifying and elevating an 
 art which is in its essence the art of life, and which 
 should rightly consist in the portrayal of life and of 
 life alone." 
 
 TourguenefF, on his side, was full of a sincere 
 affection for Maupassant, and even in those early 
 days foresaw in him the incomparable artist which 
 he afterwards became. Léon Tolstoï tells us in 
 his article upon Guy de Maupassant how he first 
 met with one of the French writer's earliest 
 works : — 
 
 " TourguenefF, in one of the visits he paid 
 me (I think in 1881), took from his portmanteau 
 a small French book called La Maison Tellier 
 and handed it to me. 
 
 " ' Read that when you've time,' he said to 
 
 3+2 
 
UoiXVQnénctt ant» 
 
 me in the same apparently indifferent tone which 
 he had used the year before, when he gave me the 
 number of the review, La Richesse Russe, which 
 contained an article by Garchine, who was then 
 only just beginning to write. 
 
 " It was evident that now, as then, he was anxious 
 not to influence me one way or another, and that 
 he wished to have my own independent opinion. 
 
 " ' It's by a young French writer,' he said. 
 ' You'll see it's not at all bad ; he knows your 
 works and appreciates you to the full,' he added, 
 as though he wished to dispose me favourably 
 towards him. 'As a man he reminds me of 
 Droujinine : like him he is an excellent son, an 
 excellent friend, a man to be trusted, and, more- 
 over, he is in touch with working men — advises 
 them and helps them.' " 
 
 The friendship between the two writers lasted 
 till Tourguéneff's death, and of all the articles 
 which were written when that event occurred, 
 Maupassant's was the most enthusiastic. 
 
 As to their correspondence, which must have 
 been a fairly lengthy one, I have only been able 
 to collect the six following letters. These I 
 owe to M. Lavareille, Maupassant's executor, who 
 was kind enough to get permission from Madame 
 Maupassant (senior) to send them to me. 
 
 244 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 I. 
 
 BouGivAL, Les Frênes, 
 
 Monday^ November 15, 1880. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I want to speak to you 
 upon rather a delicate matter, but which I am sure 
 you will quite understand. Do you know, all 
 things considered, I would rather you didn't write 
 that article upon me. You would do it admir- 
 ably, with great tact and moderation ; but I'm 
 afraid people would think it — forgive me the 
 expression — a kind of friendly log-rolling. Seriously 
 speaking, I am not enough read in France for a 
 special article on me to be necessary. At all 
 events, if you want to publish a series of articles in 
 the Gaulois upon great foreign writers — an idea 
 which meets with my entire approbation, and for 
 which I put myself entirely at your disposal in the 
 matter of getting information, &c. — I must beg 
 you to let me take my proper place and pass in my 
 proper turn. 
 
 Begin, for instance, in the case of Russia, by 
 Pouschkine and Gogol ; in that of England, by 
 Dickens ; in that of Germany, by Goethe, at whom 
 Barbey d'Aurevilly has stupidly been throwing 
 mud just lately ; and then, if you find it takes, you 
 can pass on to the dit minorum gentium. I am sure 
 
 245 
 
tTourGuéneff ant» 
 
 you will take what I have said in good part, and 
 will understand my reasons for it. 
 
 Au revoir soon, I hope. Meanwhile believe 
 
 me, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 Guy de Maupassant did not carry out his inten- 
 tion of writing a series of articles upon the chief 
 representatives of foreign literature. Indeed, I am 
 inclined to think this was only a pretext for obtain- 
 ing TourgucnefF's consent to an article being 
 written upon him and his work. The refusal 
 which we have just read determined Maupassant to 
 relinquish his idea, and it was certainly to his 
 friend's dislike to any kind of " advertisement ' 
 that he alludes in the following paragraph of his 
 article : — 
 
 " Carrying modesty almost to the pitch of 
 humility, he did not wish to be talked about in the 
 newspapers ; and more than once he was as much 
 hurt by articles full of praise as he would have been 
 by insults, for he would not allow that anything 
 ought to be written except literature pure and 
 simple. Even the criticism of works of art struck 
 him as mere useless verbiage ; and if ever any details 
 about him and his private life were published by a 
 journalist à propos of one of his books, he was 
 sensible of a genuine irritation mingled with a 
 
 246 
 
1btg fvcncb (Ttrcle 
 
 sense of shame peculiar to authors whose modesty 
 was ahnost like that of a young girl." 
 
 Maupassant was only able therefore to write his 
 article after Tourgueneff's death. "Now that this 
 great man has disappeared from amongst us, let 
 us try in a few words to define what he was," we 
 read in it. In the last letter which Maupassant 
 wrote to his publisher, he speaks of a series of 
 literary studies, which he wished to make into a 
 volume, upon Flaubert, Zola, and Bouilhet, I think, 
 and, amongst foreign writers, upon TourguenefF 
 and Stevenson only. 
 
 II. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Monday Morning ( 1 88 1 ). 
 My dear Friend, — I am very sorry to hear 
 you are not well. I too am kept to my room as 
 you are ; my gout has fastened upon me again, and 
 I had to let Madame Adam know yesterday that 
 I should not be able to be present at the banquet. 
 I'll write again to-day to explain your absence 
 yesterday, and to ask for an invitation for M. Paul 
 Déleâge. I much enjoyed reading your story in 
 La Nouvelle Revue^ and our friends in the Rue de 
 Douai (who are very difficult to please) quite agree 
 with me. I 
 
 ' En Famille, a story published in La Nou-velle Revue on the 151)1 
 of February, 1881. 
 
I have not yet written to M. R., not wishing 
 to engage in a useless task, but as soon as I can get 
 out and see the lady of whom I spoke to you, it 
 shall be done. This illness has come at a very 
 awkward time. . . . Ah, well, we must be 
 patient. Very cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 III. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Sunday Morning. 
 My dear Friend, — Come — all is well and Fm 
 very glad of it. 
 
 English sailors sing " Rule Britannia ! Britannia 
 Rules the Waves." We can be content with the 
 first two words. 
 
 As soon as there is an answer from St. Peters- 
 burg you shall be informed of it. 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 IV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Sunday^ April ^^ 1881. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I am leaving to-night, and 
 
 shall only be able to see you on my return in the 
 
 month of August. Meanwhile this is what I have 
 
 done. I have seen Du Camp, and have asked him 
 
 248 
 
Ibis f tench Cttcle 
 
 to send his 500 francs to L. at Rouen. If you 
 have not found the MS. again, go, in my name, to 
 Mdlle. G., the Parisian lady-doctor, who made 
 the translation. Tell her the state of the case, and 
 arrange with her to have the translation done again, 
 and be kind enough to send it to Yung for La 
 Revue Politique et Litth'ûire. Give my card, 
 which I am enclosing, to Mdlle. G. She is a very 
 clever woman, who could cure you of any illness 
 you might be suffering from, and who will receive 
 you very graciously. 
 
 I am sending you back your play.^ 
 
 I wish you health, happiness, plenty of work and 
 good luck. Your friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 V. 
 
 Les Frênes Chalet, Bougival, 
 
 Monday^ September 26, 1881. 
 My dear Friend, — I have been back nearly a 
 fortnight. I went to sec you ; I was told you were 
 
 ^ This probably refers to that " historical (h-ania " of which 
 Flaubert also speaks in one of his letters to Maupassant. In another 
 place, when Flaubert was recommending the latter to Madame 
 Adam, he says : "The young man had a little play of liis acted last 
 winter (the letter is dated 1879) at Ballande's, which had a great 
 success : Histoire du Vieux Temps." This pby was afterwards pub- 
 lished. But no important dramatic work written at this period 
 was found amongst Maupassant's papers. It cannot have been 
 Musotte, for that was written, in collaboration with Jacques Noniand, 
 six months before it was acted (in 1S91), or La Paix du Me'nage, 
 which is also quite a recent work. 
 
 249 
 
^ourQuénetf anb 
 
 in Africa and that you were to be written to at 
 poste restante Algiers, which I am doing. Are 
 you soon coming back to Paris ? and what are you 
 doing ? Write me a line and let me know. 
 
 Your name is making a sensation in Russia ; 
 they have translated what is translatable, and I 
 have brought with me a great, thumping article on 
 you (from Le Golos) ; very well done and very 
 cordial. 
 
 I shall be here till the end of November. I have 
 as yet seen none of the others. 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 LETTERS TO AMBROISE THOMAS, 
 JULES CLARETIE, PHILIPPE 
 BURTY, ANDRÉ THEURIET, 
 JOSEPH REINACH, SCHEVYREV, 
 
 AND X***. 
 
 I am grouping together here a few letters of 
 TourguenefF's which have a special character — 
 single letters addressed to friends, acquaintances, or 
 strangers. The order I have adopted for their 
 publication is simply a chronological one. 
 
 The first in point of time is the letter to M. 
 
 250 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 Schevyrev, a celebrated Russian public man, to 
 whom Tourgueneff wished to recommend one of 
 his French friends. I found it amongst M. 
 Schevyrev's papers at the Imperial Library at St. 
 Petersburg. 
 
 The letter to Ambroise Thomas is a very 
 interesting one, and makes me regret that Madame 
 A. Thomas was not able to find amongst the 
 papers of the great composer any other traces of a 
 correspondence which must have been a copious 
 one, considering the duration and the character of 
 the relations which existed between the French 
 maestro and the Russian writer, who was himself a 
 great lover of music. 
 
 It will be seen by the tenor of the letter to 
 Jules Claretie that it was the first he ever received 
 from TourgucnefiF. Indeed he wrote to me that it 
 was the only one. But he tells me there was a 
 letter of Tourguéneff's, which was published in Le 
 Temps, in which the Russian writer " defended 
 himself from the charge (I do not know who had 
 accused him, but it was certainly not I) of having 
 taken one of his stories from Le Père, a play which 
 I had written in collaboration with Andricn 
 Decourcelle." 
 
 The letters to Philippe Burty and to André 
 Theurict are a fresh proof of the zeal which 
 Tourgucneff displayed in making Léon TolstoTs 
 works known to the French public. 
 
 251 
 
The letter addressed to Joseph Reinach refers to 
 Gambetta, whom Tourguéneff considered the most 
 remarkable statesman of the Republic. From what 
 M. Reinach tells me, it is doubtful whether 
 Tourguéneff ever corresponded with Gambetta. 
 At all events no letter of his was found amongst 
 the great tribune's papers, of which some are in the 
 hands of M. Delpeuch, a nephew of M. Spuller, 
 and the others in the hands of M. Reinach. And 
 yet according to M. Kovalevsky, whom we have 
 already mentioned, Tourguéneff must have written 
 to Gambetta à propos of Flaubert's standing for the 
 post of custodian at the Mazarin Library. 
 
 Finally, this series is closed by a letter to an 
 unknown stranger, which I bought at a sale, and 
 which is interesting as showing us Tourgueneff's 
 views upon the vexed question of the adaptation 
 of novels for the stage. 
 
 To M. SCHEVYREV. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Allow me to introduce M. de 
 Tournefort to you — a friend of mine who 
 spent some years in Russia as a tutor. He only 
 left because the climate of St. Petersburg did not 
 suit his health. But he left behind him impres- 
 sions highly honourable to him, and has in his 
 turn carried away very pleasant recollections. He 
 
 252 
 
Ibtg jFvencb Circle 
 
 would be delighted to get a situation as professor 
 or tutor in a Russian family, and I should be very- 
 glad if I could help him to find one, all the more 
 so as I should feel I was rendering a real service 
 to the family who engaged him. 
 
 He is a distinguished man of letters ; his 
 character and his principles render him admirably 
 suited to undertake the education of the young. 
 
 I hope, dear sir, that, with your usual kindness, 
 you will be prepared to help me in this matter, 
 and that if you know of any Russian family on 
 the look - out for a tutor you will recommend 
 M. de Tournefort, which you may do with a 
 clear conscience. 
 
 I should be extremely obliged to you, and at 
 the same time I beg you to accept my best 
 regards. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 Paris, May i, 1862. 
 
 To Ambroise Thomas. 
 
 3, Thiergarten Strasse, Baden, 
 
 April 2-]^ 1868. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I am writing from my 
 
 house at Baden, where I have been settled for the 
 
 last few days, and at which, by the way, I should 
 
 be delighted to welcome you should some good 
 
 253 
 
ZoxiVQwencU ant» 
 
 wind blow you in our direction this year. I only 
 passed through Paris at the end of March, and it 
 was absolutely impossible for me to see my friends ; 
 otherwise yours would have been one of the first 
 houses to which I should have gone. 
 
 However, it is not merely the wish to recall 
 myself to your memory which has made me write 
 to you to-day ; it has to do with a matter which 
 may interest you. Viardot, the other day, when 
 he was hunting among his old papers, came across 
 a sketch for the libretto of an opera in five acts, a 
 scénario called provisionally Le Fléau cCOrchromme^ 
 which he tells me he showed you a long time agto, 
 and which you must have thought very fine, to 
 judge from a letter of yours which was found 
 amongst the pages of the MS. The libretto 
 seems to have made the same impression upon 
 Augier, who offered to put it into verse. This 
 happened in 1850; then you all went different 
 ways, and it was all forgotten. Viardot read me 
 his scénario after making a few shght changes in 
 it, and I must confess I was very much struck 
 with it. It certainly is a magnificent subject for 
 an opera. The third act especially (it takes place 
 in the forest of Dodona) seems to me quite 
 admirable. It is a bit of the classical world 
 brought to life again ; and there is such a variety 
 of tone and colour in the whole work as must 
 delight a musician of any imagination. I need 
 
 254 
 
Mb fvcncb Circle 
 
 hardly add that you are now the only master in 
 Europe equal to such a task, the only one who 
 would not be dwarfed by treatment of the antique. 
 
 You must be overwhelmed with offers of libretti ; 
 but good ones are very rare, and there is no longer 
 any mention made (mercifully, I think; for the 
 subject, reduced to stage proportions, becomes 
 merely a rather vulgar melodrama) of Françoise 
 de Rimini. Shall Viardot send you his scénario ? 
 Read it again, and see if you can't make some- 
 thing of it. 
 
 MM. Barbier and Carré would be more than 
 equal to putting it into verse. As for Viardot, he 
 would be delighted to have given you the oppor- 
 tunity of composing a new masterpiece, and that 
 would be quite sufficient for him.^ 
 
 Send me a line in answer to this, and believe in 
 the sincere affection of 
 
 Your old friend, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Do you still live in your old quarters ? 
 
 To Jules Claretie. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Friday^ May 4, 1H75. 
 Dear Sir, — I only learnt quite recently, 
 
 ^ This idea of making an opera out of Viardot's scénario was not 
 carried out. 
 
through M. Louis Depret, that you had honoured 
 me with a visit, for the concierge of the house never 
 gave me your card. I am extremely sorry about it, 
 and I hope you will excuse what must have seemed 
 a lack of civility. I should have been most happy, 
 my dear sir, to make the acquaintance of so 
 distinguished a writer as yourself, and I shall still 
 hope to do so. 
 
 Meanwhile, allow me to present you with the 
 accompanying volume,^ which has just been pub- 
 lished ; and with the highest esteem, 
 I am, yours most faithfully, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 To Andre Theuriet. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Saturday Morning (1880). 
 My dear Monsieur Theuriet, — Here is the 
 book of which I spoke to you yesterday.^ I am 
 sending with it a number of Le XIX""^ Siècle^ 
 in which I have written a few lines about it. I 
 hope that reading Léon Tolstoi's novel will make 
 you share my opinion of it, and I thank you 
 
 ^ M. Claretie thinks that this was the novel Fumee^ but the French 
 translation of that work appeared in 1868, and Tourguéneff speaks 
 of a volume which had just been published. It must have been a 
 collection of stories, for Les Eaux Printanihes, the last novel pub- 
 lished in French before the date of this letter, came out in 1871. 
 
 ' La Guerre et la Paix. 
 
 256 
 
1bi5 ^vcncb Circle 
 
 beforehand for the kind words you are sure to 
 say of it in your turn. 
 
 Please accept the cordial and affectionate re- 
 gards of 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 To Philippe Burty. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Tuesday Morning (1880). 
 My dear Monsieur Burty, — Verestchagin 
 has asked me to send you the enclosed little sketch 
 (it's from this sketch that he did his picture 
 UEspion)^^ and he hopes you will keep it in 
 remembrance of him. 
 
 You must let me profit by this occasion to thank 
 you again, and to send you my cordial regards. 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — Would you be kind enough to let me 
 know who writes the reviews of books in La 
 République Française ? Isn't it M. Arène ? Let 
 me know his address, and PU send him Comte 
 Léon Tolstoi's novel. 
 
 ' M. Claretie, who kindly sent me this letter, writes that U Espion 
 represents a man, dressed as a cii/ilian, brought before a Russian court- 
 martial. 
 
 257 5 
 
To Joseph Reinach. 
 
 It was through M. Joseph Reinach that Tour- 
 guenefF met Gambetta. M. Joseph Reinach was 
 at that time Gambetta's private secretary, and secre- 
 tary to the editors of La République Française. It 
 would seem from two notes addressed by Tour- 
 gueneff to M. Reinach, that it was Gambetta, at 
 that time President of the Chamber, who wished 
 to make TourguénefF's acquaintance ; for in one of 
 these notes TourguénefF says : " I shall be happy 
 to hold myself at M. Gambetta's disposal, and 
 shall expect you on Thursday morning after 
 10 o'clock." And in the other : "I shall be de- 
 lighted to go to M. Gambetta's dinner, and shall 
 expect you the day after to-morrow morning at 
 the hour you mention." These two notes were 
 written in 1881, probably in the month of January. 
 
 Their acquaintance never had time to develop 
 into intimacy, for Gambetta died two years after- 
 wards, at latest. It was on the occasion of his 
 death that the following letter was written : — 
 
 Monsieur Joseph Reinach, — I believe I am 
 expressing the feelings of sorrow and sympathy of 
 a large number of my fellow-countrymen when I 
 beg you to place a wreath in their name upon the 
 grave of the illustrious man whom France has 
 
 just lost, Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 358 
 
t)lg ffreiicb Circle 
 
 To Monsieur X. 
 
 Les Frênes, Bougival, i6, Rue Mesmer, 
 
 Sunday^ y une 23. 
 
 Sir, — I only received your letter yesterday, and 
 as I am leaving for Russia on Thursday, and shall 
 not be back till October, I regret to say it will be 
 impossible for me to fix a day for the interview 
 you ask for. 
 
 I cannot disguise from you, however, that on 
 principle and as a general rule I am against any 
 sort of adaptation of novels for the stage, and 
 especially in this particular case, Roudine being a 
 psychological study. 
 
 Some one has already tried to adapt it for the 
 Russian stage, but was obliged to give up the idea. 
 
 I shall be delighted to make your acquaintance 
 on my return from Russia, and meanwhile pray 
 accept my kind regards. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 LETTERS TO M. DURAND-GRE- 
 VILLE, PRINCE GALITZIN, AND 
 TO THE COMTESSE DE GUBER- 
 NATIS. 
 
 I will conclude this first part of Tourguenefi^'s 
 correspondence by the letters which he addressed 
 
 259 
 
to some of his translators. Their chief interest 
 lies in the fact of their showing how TourguenefF, 
 who knew French perfectly, left it to others to 
 take the initiative with regard to the translation of 
 his works. 
 
 Ouite recently, in an article on " Russian Litera- 
 ture in France," ^ I endorsed the view that all his 
 novels had been translated, under his own super- 
 vision, by Mérimée and Viardot. We now see by 
 Tour^uénefF's letters to his translators that M. 
 Durand-Gréville, collaborating with his wife, 
 Madame Henri Grcville, was one of the chief 
 translators of his works. In fact, it is to him that 
 we owe the first translation of Terres Vierges^ Eaux 
 PrintûniereSj Pounine et Bahourine^ Les Nôtres ni ont 
 envoyé^ Les Reliques Vivantes^ La Montre^ &c. It 
 was Prince Galitzin who translated Fum'ee^ and not 
 Mérimée, as people gathered from the fact that the 
 latter had written a preface to this particular work. 
 It is clear from the letters which we are now 
 publishing that Mérimée and Tourguéneff together 
 merely looked over the proof-sheets of the trans- 
 lation. Count Sollohoub translated Une Nichée de 
 Gentilshommes ; Delavau, several stories written 
 about i860, which appeared in La Revue des Deux 
 Mondes ; Xavier Marmier, some other stories pub- 
 lished by Hachette under the one title of Scenes de 
 la Vie Russe ; and M. Charrière the Mémoires d^un 
 
 * March number, 1 897, of the Revue Générale Internationale. 
 
 260 
 
irpts ffrencb Circle 
 
 Seigneur Russe^ of which he made such an imperfect 
 translation as deeply to distress Tourgucneff. Since 
 then two other translations of this work, one by 
 myself, have appeared under the proper title, Les 
 Récits d'un Chasseur. 
 
 It is quite true that at the very beginning of 
 Tourgucneff's career it was Louis Viardot who 
 introduced him to the PVench public, and people 
 have gone on believing him to be responsible for 
 the later translations because they were published 
 by Hctzel, whose principle it was never to allow 
 the names of TourgucnefF's translators to appear on 
 the title-page of the books. One single exception 
 was made to this rule, and this was in my favour, 
 when I translated Un Bulgare (On the Eve). 
 
 As to the books which were translated by Louis 
 Viardot with the help of TourguenefF himself, this 
 is how they were done: " TourguenefF," says M. 
 Durand-Grcville, in his excellent article on the 
 Russian writer, " used to dictate as literal a trans- 
 lation as possible to M. Viardot, who then pro- 
 ceeded to turn it into literary French under his 
 direction. Each difficult sentence, each doubtful 
 word, was discussed by them both, and the result 
 was excellent. . . . We have reason to believe," 
 adds M. Durand-Greville, ^' that Madame Viardot 
 also collaborated in these translations. She did so, 
 at all events, towards the end in the case of several 
 stories." 
 
 261 
 
As to Madame la Comtesse de Gubernatis, née 
 de BésobrasofF, she translated into Italian Eaux 
 Printan'ieres and Terres Vierges^ but the latter has 
 never been published. 
 
 To M. Durand-Greville. 
 
 I. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Saturday^ March 23, 1 872. 
 
 Sir, — I have just received your letter, and as my 
 journey has been put off a fortnight (I shall only 
 leave Paris on the 25th of April), I confess I should 
 be very much pleased to receive the sixty-five pages 
 you mention, if this will not inconvenience you. 
 
 This is what has happened since I last wrote. I 
 received from a certain M. Charles de Coutouly, a 
 brother of one of the editors of V Avenir National 
 and of Z^ Temps^ the complete MS. of a translation 
 of Veschnia Vody^^ with a request to be allowed to 
 publish it. I could only send him a refusal, or 
 rather tell him that my word was already pledged, 
 and refer him to you. Then he returned to the 
 charge, asked for your address, and intends, so it 
 appears, to make some pecuniary proposal to you. 
 I have sent him your address, but I told him again 
 that I considered myself bound to you and pledged 
 
 ' Les 'Eaux Printan'ieres. 
 262 
 
tbis fvcncb Circle 
 
 by my word. His translation is good, but as 1 
 have every possible reason to be convinced of the 
 excellence of yours, I merely state w^hat has taken 
 place, leaving you perfectly free to do as you please 
 in the matter. I look upon you as my translator. 
 
 Meanw^hile, I shall be much obliged if you v^ill 
 send me the beginning of your work, and believe 
 me, 
 
 Yours most faithfully, 
 
 Ivan Tourgueneff. 
 
 II. 
 48, Ru£ DE Douai, Paris, 
 
 o , f ^pril 6, ) o 
 
 Saturday, y March z-^,) 1^72. 
 Sir, — Your letter, dated March 26th, was quickly 
 followed by the one dated the 20th, and yesterday I 
 received the MS. you had told me to expect. M. 
 de Coutouly told me more than a week ago that 
 under the present circumstances he had given up 
 his translation, or rather that he has made up his 
 mind not to publish it. He did it very gracefully 
 and very generously, refusing, in advance, to believe 
 that your version was inferior to his. So, as far as 
 that goes, all is settled. I have scarcely had time to 
 do more than cast a glance over your MS., but I 
 have read enough to be convinced that M. de 
 Coutouly was right. 
 
 263 
 
XTourguéneg aito 
 
 I hope to have the whole MS. in my hands 
 before I leave Paris ; and I am counting on finding 
 you at Petersburg, and making your acquaint- 
 ance. I mean to make a slight alteration in the 
 end of Veschnia Vody\ to soften it a little by intro- 
 ducing a fresh scene. It won't take long, and we 
 can easily manage it in an hour's time.^ 
 
 I shall arrive in Petersburg before the end of 
 April {^old style)^ and shall return to Paris in the 
 month of June. I hope that these dates will not 
 upset your calculations. 
 
 I shall write to you again as soon as I have 
 received the rest of your translation, and I shall 
 come and see you the day after I reach Peters- 
 burg. Meanwhile, I beg to remain. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 III. 
 
 Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, Maison Ruhaut, 
 
 Sunday^ July li^ 1872. 
 Sir, — I arrived in Paris on the 8th of this month 
 and remained there a week. Unfortunately, the 
 concierge never gave me your card, and I was unable 
 to discover your address. As I was coming away 
 I left a letter at home for you, which I should 
 
 ' This alteration was not made. 
 264. 
 
fbJB fvcncb Ctrcle 
 
 be glad if you could send for. In it I referred to 
 this unpleasant Franceschi affair and to the com- 
 pensation I meant to off^er you ; for neither the 
 editors of Le Temps or of La Revue des Deux Mondes 
 will now accept a work from which the bloom has al- 
 ready-been rubbed off". These unlucky Veschnia Vody 
 have really been the sport of an evil fate. I shall 
 be coming to Paris in a week's time, and we must 
 meet, if you are agreeable, and discuss what can be 
 done. I will bring you back the MS. at the same 
 time. It goes without saying that you have my 
 full consent to publish it in book form. Hetzel 
 (the bookseller, who is my friend, and a delightful 
 man) will gladly do it. Go and see him from me. 
 He even told me that, in spite of the translation in 
 Le Nord^ it might not be impossible to find some 
 Parisian newspaper or review which would accept 
 your MS. and publish it. 
 
 Hetzel has already published several books of 
 mine. He would make a new volume with 
 Veschnia Vody\ perhaps adding Stouk ! Stouk ! Stouk ! i 
 and Le Brigadier to it, or U Aventure de Tergounoff^ 
 or Le Roi Lear^ which have only appeared in La 
 Revue des Deux Mondes^ but I repeat we can talk it 
 
 ^ Tod Toe ! Toe ! and other stories byTourguenefF. TourguenefFhad 
 intended to pviblish Tlaux Printanicres (translated by M. Durand- 
 Greville), in Le Temps or in La Renjue des Deux Mondes, but another 
 translation which appeared in Le Nord (published at Brussels) put an 
 end to this intention. M. Durand-Greville's translation appeared 
 later in a collection of Tourgueneff's works published by Hetzel. 
 
 26; 
 
all over in Paris in a few days. I'll let you know 
 the day before I leave here. 
 Meanwhile, pray believe me, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 IV. 
 
 Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, Maison Ruhaut, 
 
 Friday, July 26, 1872. 
 
 Sir, — I have never had such an obstinate attack 
 of gout as the one from which I have been suffering 
 for the last six weeks. I was only able to give up 
 my crutches yesterday, and it will be quite impos- 
 sible for me to go to Paris before the end of next 
 week ; but I hope to be able to do so then. You 
 shall have a line the day before I arrive. 
 
 I have never felt the slightest doubt as to the 
 reception you would meet with from Hetzel : he 
 is as kind as he is tactful, and I am sure you will 
 be able to arrange matters satisfactoril)^ with him. 
 
 M. Franceschi, I have heard, is at present at 
 Valéry. I have no objection to writing to him, 
 though I cannot believe he intends to publish a 
 separate edition of Feschnia Vody in Belgium. You 
 might, perhaps, inquire (at the office of Le Nord) 
 what is his exact Paris address, and send it to me. 
 
 I give you a perfectly free hand to offer Veschnia 
 Vody to any newspaper or review, and if La Revue 
 Universelle will accept it, so much the better. As 
 
 266 
 
Ms ffrencb Circle 
 
 to the cuts which Hetzel suggests, I can offer no 
 opinion on the subject, as it is impossible for me to 
 arrive at any critical appreciation of a book so 
 recently written, but I will willingly consent to 
 everything and pay no attention to my touchi- 
 ness as an author. Only I think it will be much 
 more difficult to make the cuts now that Le Nord 
 has published the whole thing. But, I repeat, I 
 must refrain from offering any opinion upon the 
 matter. 
 
 Comte Tolstoi's stories are meant for the masses 
 to read, which is not quite the same thing as if he 
 had written them expressly for children. I have 
 only read two of them. The second one, which is 
 called Kavka%ky P lient k'^ (it was inserted in La 
 Xaria^\ is charming ; I think children would 
 delight in it. 
 
 We will talk over all this at our next meeting ; 
 meanwhile I remain. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 V. 
 
 Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, Maison Ruhaut, 
 
 Monday^ August 5, 1872. 
 Sir, — I am really too unfortunate ; after six 
 v/eeks' suffering, and just as I was beginning to 
 
 ' Le Prisonnier du Caucase. - L'Aurore, a review. 
 
 267 
 
hope the gout was leaving me, it has seized me 
 again in the knee, and I am obliged to go back to 
 bed.. 
 
 I think quite three weeks must elapse before I 
 shall be able to go to Paris and bring you back 
 your MS. If you wish, however, to have it back 
 at once, I can send it off to you with the few notes 
 which I have been bold enough to add here and 
 there. 
 
 I am waiting for your answer and for M. 
 Franceschi's address if you can get it, and if you 
 really think I need write to him. 
 
 Some of my frier. ds here, whom I have consulted 
 about it, hardly think we can make the cutting 
 suggested by Hetzel ; but, I repeat, I leave you a 
 perfectly free hand in the matter. 
 
 Believe me, sincerely yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 VI. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Tuesday^ yanuary 5, 1874. 
 Dear Monsieur Durand, — Will you come and 
 see Harmaloff's two pictures (of M. and Madame 
 Viardot) ? They are at present in the gallery 
 downstairs. At the same time I could show you 
 three pictures which I have bought from a very 
 young French painter, E. Vallès, who promises 
 
 268 
 
If3tg jFrencb Ctvcle 
 
 great things. The best time to come would be 
 between 12 and 2 o'clock — to-morrow for instance. 
 Please accept all my best wishes for the New 
 Year, and believe me, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 VII. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Tuesday^ March 11 (1874). 
 
 Dear Sir, — Up to the present it's been quite 
 
 impossible for me to read the MS. you kindly sent 
 
 me,i so, to prevent your having a useless journey, I 
 
 must ask you to put ofFyour visit till Friday morning. 
 
 I am sending you back at the same time the 
 
 Leconte de Lisle^ and the feuilletons of Le Journal de 
 
 Saint Pétersbourg^ which have greatly interested me. 
 
 Believe me, dear sir. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 V^III. 
 
 Maison Halgan, Bougival, 
 
 September lO, 1874. 
 Dear Sir, — It is very kind of you to inquire 
 after my health : I can give you pretty good news 
 
 ' The translation of L'Orage — a play by Ostrovsky, which M. 
 Durand - Gréville had accomplished with the help of his wife, 
 Madame Henri Gréville. Tourguéneff looked over this work and 
 made a few corrections. 
 
 269 
 
of myself. When I got back here from Germany 
 I could only walk on crutches, now I can get 
 about with a stick. I hope this attack is over now, 
 and that I may even try and do a little shooting 
 towards the end of September. 
 
 I shall be very glad to see you before then, and 
 as I mean to come to Paris next week I shall take 
 the liberty of making an appointment with you the 
 day before. 
 
 I have brought back the MS. of U Orage with 
 several promises from Ostrovsky.^ 
 
 I have read with a great deal of pleasure the 
 bright and clever prologue that Henri Gréville 
 was kind enough to send me. As to Madame 
 Sand, I have not the slightest doubt about the 
 kindness of her reception ; but at present she is in 
 her Chateau at Nohant (in the department of 
 L'Indre), and will only be in Paris at the end of 
 the year. 
 
 I hope your little Jeanne has by now safely got 
 over the ever-anxious time of teething, and I hope 
 that both Madame Durand and yourself will accept 
 my most cordial regards. 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 * These promises related to the translation of some of Ostrovsky's 
 works, and also to the sending of some biographical notes. 
 
 270 
 
Mb fvcncb Circle 
 
 IX. 
 
 (18750 
 
 My dear Monsieur Durand, — Here is what 
 is due to you from your second feuilleton — 55 
 fr. It's not much, but you know the Russian 
 saying : " Kourotchka po ziornychkou kluoyet, 
 syta byvaét."i 
 
 Many cordial regards till next August. 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 Tuesday^ 50, Rue de Douai. 
 
 X. 
 
 Spaskoïé, Mtsensk Town, Prov. of Orel. 
 
 7^b 
 
 ^^^^d^y^\Junezo\ 
 
 1876 
 
 Dear Monsieur Durand, — Spaskoïé is the 
 name of the village (in the very heart of Russia) 
 where I have been for the last fortnight, and to 
 which the letter you addressed to Bougival has 
 been forwarded. I am much pleased by your good 
 news, and delighted to see that after so many 
 unsuccessful efforts you have at last got your foot 
 on the ladder. Give my best regards to Madame 
 Durand. I am sure her talent will be greatly 
 appreciated, and all the more so from its having 
 been kept so long in the background. 
 
 * " Grain by grain, the hen at last gets satisfied." 
 271 
 
îToitrouénetf an^ 
 
 I don't get La Revue des Deux Mondes here ; but 
 I already knew that the article on Chevtchenko 
 had appeared. I am working tremendously hard 
 here, and I hope to bring back a novel quite 
 finished. I shall only come back from the country 
 in about a fortnight's time, and hope to be back in 
 Paris about the ist of August. 
 
 Madame Sand's death was a deep grief to me ; 
 she will always remain one of the great figures of 
 modern literature. She was kind enough to be 
 fond of me, and I can truly say I was devoted to 
 her. If you see the Novoïé Vrhnla^ you'll find 
 under the number 105 a few words of mine about 
 her.i 
 
 Keep well and work hard ; and will you and 
 Madame Durand accept my kindest regards? 
 
 I\^. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 Referring to this letter, M. Durand-Greville 
 writes to me that it was in answer to the one in 
 which he told TourgueneflF that his article on 
 Chevtchenko, which had been offered for several 
 months, " together with a novel of my wife's, 
 would appear, on Tourguéneff's recommendation, 
 in the 15th of June issue of La Revue des Deux 
 Mondes^ and that two days after the news of 
 Georges Sand's death La Revue des Deux Mondes 
 
 ^ We have already given a few extracts from the letter to the 
 editor of the Ncvo'ie Vrémia. 
 
 272 
 
Ibis fvcncb Circle 
 
 accepted my wife's novel, UExpiation de Savéli 
 (which appeared on the ist and 15th of July), and 
 Le yournal des Débats accepted Dosia^ which began 
 its appearance on the 27th of June." 
 
 XI. 
 
 (1875.) 
 
 My dear Monsieur Durand, — I am sending 
 you back the first pages with a few corrections. ^ 
 You will see that they are very few in number and 
 of very little importance. It is sure to be all right 
 if you go on as you have begun. S novym (Rous- 
 skim) godom ! 2 
 
 Yours ev^er, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 Saturday^ yanuary i^l^- 
 
 XII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, 
 
 Sunday^ March il (1877). 
 My dear Monsieur Durand, — Here are two 
 tickets for Madame Durand and yourself. If you 
 
 ^ This refers to a translation of Terres Vierges by M. and Madame 
 Greville, which appeared first in Le Temps with only Durand- 
 Greville's name, and was afterwards published by Hetzel without 
 any translator's name, according to that publisher's invariable custom. 
 
 - "With my best wishes for the (Russian) New Year." 
 
 273 T 
 
XTourguéneff anb 
 
 think the programme sounds an attractive one, do 
 come. I 
 
 I must apologise for not having been able to re- 
 ceive you the other day, but I was really very unwell. 
 I have not been out since, and I am wondering 
 how I shall manage to get through to-morrow. 
 My mouth is so swollen that I can hardly open it. 
 Now is the time to exclaim, Avos /2 
 
 I have very little more copy (MS.), and the 
 printers are dunning me. 
 
 Kindest regards to you both. 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Thursday^ March 22 (1877). 
 My dear Monsieur Durand, — My friend 
 M. Viardot, to whom I gave the proofs of Terres 
 Vierges to read, suggests that we should add the 
 following note to the passage in which Mari- 
 anne's marriage to Solomine is talked of: — 
 " If M. I. T.'s novel had not been written and 
 
 ^ An invitation to the annual musical and literary matinée given 
 by M. and Madame Viardot for the benefit of the Russian students. 
 Tourgueneff always read one of his short stories at these matinées. 
 
 " An altogether untranslatable Russian word, much used by the 
 common people, and which may be rendered by, " Come what come 
 may, it may succeed ! " 
 
 274 
 
1bts fvcnch Circle 
 
 published before the political trial which is now 
 taking place before the Senate at St. Petersburg, 
 one might have thought he was reproducing it ; as 
 a matter of fact he prophesied it. For, indeed, we 
 find in this trial the same generous illusions, the 
 same absolute deceptions ; we even find impromptu 
 marriages and fictitious marriages. The novel 
 Terres Vierges has suddenly become history. — 
 Translator's Note."i 
 
 M. Viardot thinks we had better make this note, 
 so as to guard against a certain bewilderment on 
 the reader's part ; but as the note would appear in 
 your name, I thought I ought to send it to you 
 first. I hope you will agree to insert it ; but if you 
 have the slightest objection let me know to-day, 
 and I will think it over. 
 
 I shall hope to see you again before you leave 
 for Russia. Meanwhile I am. 
 
 Very cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I must thank Madame Durand for sending 
 me her book, A travers Champs^ which I am much 
 looking forward to reading, but in the too flatter- 
 ing dedication which she has addressed to me there 
 is one word which is out of place : one is no longer 
 a disciple when one has become a master, as your 
 wife has. 
 
 ^ This note appeared just as it stands in the feuilleton which was 
 published in the Temps, but was not reproduced in the Hetzel edition. 
 
 275 
 
tlourauéneff anb 
 
 XIV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Sunday^ 4-30 (i^7^)* 
 My dear Monsieur Durand, — Here is my 
 guilty head (as we say in Russia) ; I hope you will' 
 not strike it off. It has been so hopelessly muddled 
 for some time past, that I shall end by forgetting 
 my own name. I must now make this request : 
 don't come to-morrow, but come Tuesday^ at 5 
 o'clock. I shall have been to Madame Adam's in 
 the morning, and shall have arranged your business. 
 This time you can count on its being certain. 
 Meanwhile, pray forgive me, and believe me, 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XV. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Wednesday Morning (1878). 
 Dear Monsieur Durand, — I cannot quite 
 remember whether it was to-day or to-morrow 
 that I was to come and see you. I shall come 
 to-morrow about 3 o'clock, if this suits you. 
 Meanwhile I am sending you a ticket for our 
 picture exhibition, at the same time specially 
 
 276 
 
Ibis ffreucï) Circle 
 
 calling your attention to Pokitonof's very re- / 
 markable little pictures. ^ 
 
 Kindest regards, and à demain^ 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 BouGiVAL (Seine-et-Oise), 
 
 Sunday^ August lO, 187g. 
 Dear Monsieur Durand, — I must begin by 
 apologising for my delay in answering your letter, 
 but it's not my fault ; by some unheard-of mistake 
 I only received it yesterday. I hasten to let you 
 know that I accept your proposal with alacrity, and 
 that I will send you back the MS. of Les Cosaques 
 as soon as ever I have looked through it and made 
 the necessary corrections, if there are any to make. 
 I'll also add a little biographical preface. You may 
 depend on my punctuality. 
 
 I shall stay here till the end of September, and 
 go from here for a fortnight's trip to England. 
 
 Kindest regards to Madame Gréville, and a 
 cordial shake-hand to yourself from 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 Monsieur Durand-Greville says, in the notes 
 he kindly sent me in 1874, that he wrote to 
 
 ^ An exhibition of the works of Russian artists, held in the hall 
 of the Cercle Artistique Russe in Paris. 
 
 ^77 
 
UonvQxxénctt an^ 
 
 Tolstoï to ask permission to translate Les Cosaques 
 under Tourguéneff's supervision, but he received 
 no answer. Later on, in 1879, one of his friends 
 in St. Petersburg sent him a translation of Les 
 Cosaques^ " but in somewhat impossible French." 
 It would have been too great a labour to correct 
 it, and M. Durand had to give up the idea. 
 
 However, we read in this connection, in a letter 
 from Tourgueneff to Tolstoï, dated January, 1879 : 
 " There is a publisher here who wants to publish, 
 in book form, the translation which appeared in Le 
 Journal de St. Pêtersbourg. But as he knows quite 
 well that that translation is a poor one, he would 
 like the French writer, Durand (who knows the 
 Russian language perfectly), and myself to revise 
 the translation carefully, which we will gladly do. 
 (I would write a short preface.) The publisher also 
 wishes for your formal consent to this, worded 
 somewhat as follows : ' I, the undersigned, de- 
 clare, both in my name and in that of the person 
 who translated and published my story, Les Cosaques^ 
 in La %jvue de St. Pêtersbourg^ that I give my 
 full permission to Messrs. Iv. TourguenefF and 
 Emile Durand to publish the said story in France, 
 after making, in the text of the translation, such 
 corrections as they shall deem necessary.' " 
 
 " I hope," adds TourguenefF further on, '' that 
 you will see no objection to this, and I can assure 
 you that we will both do our very best to present 
 
 278 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 Les Cosaques to the French public in a form worthy 
 of the story, and at all events better than that of 
 the American translator." 
 
 This translation, revised by TourguénefF and 
 Durand-Gréville, was to have been published by 
 Plon, but M. Durand, finding that the work would 
 be too hard for the slight remuneration it would 
 bring him, did not follow up the idea. 
 
 We know that a few years later Hachette 
 published another translation of this work. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 IVednesday^ December 28, 1 881. 
 My dear Monsieur Durand, — Here is the 
 little study, which forms a sequel to Vieux Portraits^ 
 and which I have promised to La Revue Politique et 
 Littéraire. Would you undertake to translate it as 
 you did the other one ? ^ There are a few difficult 
 passages, but I shall always hold myself at your 
 disposal. La Revue wishes to insert it in the issue 
 of the 14th or of the 21st of January. I think the 
 14th is out of the question. 
 
 Kindest regards (and all good wishes for the 
 New Year) both to Madame D.-G. and to yourself. 
 
 Iv. Tourgueneff. 
 
 ' Un Désespéré, a story that Tourgueneff had written at the same 
 time as Les Récits d^in Chasseur, but had put on one side, as the 
 original of it was still alive. 
 
 279 
 
XTourguéîteff ant) 
 
 xviri. 
 
 BouGiVAL (Seine-et-Oise), Les Frênes, 
 
 Ihursdayy August 12, 1882. 
 
 My dear Monsieur Durand, — I am sending 
 you by to-day's post a little volume called Raxskazy 
 V. Gar china. '^ 
 
 M. Eug. Yung has begged me to ask you to 
 translate one of these short stories [Notch.^'^ p. 100) 
 for La Revue Politique et Littéraire. Of all our 
 young Russian writers Garchine is the one whose 
 talent has raised most hopes. If you should think 
 it necessary to show me the translation before send- 
 ing it to M. Yung, pray consider me at your 
 disposal. 3 
 
 I hope you are now in perfectly good health ; I 
 am afraid I can't say as much for myself. I am 
 still unable to walk, or even to stand for more than 
 two or three minutes. I shall only come back to 
 Paris after the 20th of November. 
 
 Give my best regards to Madame Durand-Greville. 
 I have just been looking through her Instruction 
 
 ^ Récits^ by Garchine. 
 
 2 Une Nuit. 
 
 3 M. Durand-Gréville translated Une Nuit, which appeared in La 
 Revue Bleue (December 9, 1882), and another story by Garchine, 
 called Après la Bataille, published in the same review in 1884. 
 Most of Garchine's other stories were translated by me, and appeared 
 in two volumes, called respectively La Guerre and Nadejda 
 Nicoldienina. 
 
 280 
 
1FMS jfrencb Circle 
 
 Morale et Civique. It is a first-rate book, as instruc- 
 tive as it is pleasant to read. 
 
 Ever most cordially yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 TO PRINCE A. GALITZIN. 
 I. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 Monday^ yuly 7, 1867. 
 Sir, — The request you have been kind enough to 
 make me is a very flattering one, and I should be 
 delighted to see myself in print in your admirable 
 review. I Nevertheless I must ask you for two or 
 three days' delay before giving you a final answer. 
 My friend, M. Mérimée, at one time half thought 
 of translating my novel.^ I believe he has given up 
 the idea, but I shouldn't like to give the consent 
 for which you ask without knowing for certain 
 what his intentions are. I am writing to him this 
 very day, and I will let you know what his answer 
 is as soon as ever I receive it. 
 Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 ^ Le Correspondant. ^ Fumée. 
 
 281 
 
UowvQwéncU an^ 
 
 II. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 Friday^ ^July 9, 1867. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have just received a letter from 
 M. P. Mérimée. He is too busy to undertake the 
 translation of my novel, but he has been kind enough 
 to offer to look over the proof-sheets. I am sure 
 you will readily understand, dear sir, that one is 
 bound to profit by such a piece of good luck, and if 
 you persevere in your intention I shall ask you to 
 send M. Mérimée the proof-sheets, which I shall 
 have corrected — here at Baden — before sending 
 them to be printed. I need hardly tell you that I 
 agree to all his corrections beforehand. M. Mérimée 
 will be in Paris all through July, and my knowledge 
 of his good-nature enables me to assure you that the 
 publication will be in no way delayed through this. 
 His address is 52, Rue de Lille. 
 
 It would be very kind of you, dear sir, to let me 
 know what you decide ; and meanwhile pray believe 
 me. Yours very truly, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 III. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 July 10, 1867. 
 Dear Sir, — I was waiting to answer your letter 
 of the 5th till I knew what you had decided as to 
 
 282 
 
1btg fvcncb Circle 
 
 the proposals I had made you, and I shall be glad if 
 you will let me know whether you agree to them. 
 
 I have never received any author's profits in 
 France ; the honour of being read there is enough 
 for me. The utmost I shall ask for is a subscrip- 
 tion to this year's Correspondant and ten of the 
 " specially printed " copies. I agree that the title 
 Fumée is not a possible one in French, but the one 
 you suggest, La Société russe conteinporaine would 
 be more suitable to an article in a review than to a 
 work of fiction. What should you say to Incertitude P 
 or, again, to Entre le Passé et P Avenir? or Sans 
 Rivage? or perhaps T)ans le Brouillard? M. 
 Mérimée, if you would communicate with him, 
 might perhaps hit upon something graphic. 
 
 I shall await your reply ; and meanwhile beg to 
 remain. Yours very truly, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 IV. 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 Saturday^ August 7, 1867. 
 I must apologise, dear sir, for my delay in 
 answering you. I have received the copies of Le 
 Correspondant^ and this time the translation leaves 
 nothing to be desired. I promise you not to keep 
 the proofs, which you are doubtless soon going to 
 send me, a day longer than is absolutely necessary. 
 
 283 
 
ZonvQwéncU ant) 
 
 It would be very kind of you to send me at the 
 same time a revised copy of the first part — the bit 
 that appeared in the issue of the 2ist of July. 
 Believe me, dear sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 V. 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 Wednesday^ August 14, 1867. 
 Dear Sir, — My servant forgot to give me the 
 continuation of the proofs of Dym^'^ so that I only 
 got them this morning ; but I am at work on the 
 corrections, and I shall send them to-morrow^ at latest, 
 to Raçon's Printing Works. I hope that this involun- 
 tary delay is of no consequence. Will you be so 
 very good as not to send M. Mérimée the proof- 
 sheets before having them corrected, as it will save 
 him from having to do twice the work they would 
 otherwise entail. I have been bold enough to 
 re-insert a few sentences which the editor of La 
 Revue Russe 2 saw fit to suppress, for fear of raising 
 a storm. But now the thing is done, and the storm 
 couldn't be any louder than it has been. When all 
 is said and done, I still think I am a better Russian 
 
 ' The Russian title of Fumée, 
 2 Michel KatkofF. 
 
 284 
 
Ibis jFrencb Circle 
 
 than those who accuse me of having no love for my 
 country. 
 
 Believe me, dear sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I should especially like you to adopt my 
 suggestion for the translation of that difficult 
 passage which begins on the last line of page 46 
 in the original : " Toupoié Nedooumenie^'* Sec. 
 
 VI. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 Saturday J JugusL 17, 1867. 
 Dear Sir, — I am to-day sending the last packet 
 of proofs of Fumée (which I received yesterday) to 
 the printer's, with all my corrections, and hasten to 
 let you know that I have reinserted in the text the 
 Biography of General RatmirofF, which my editor 
 saw fit to shorten and weaken in the original ver- 
 sion. I do not think you will disapprove of this. 
 
 With regards, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 VII. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 September 11, 1867. 
 Dear Sir, — I shall send back the first packet of 
 the proofs of Fumée to-morrow ; the others will 
 
 285 
 
follow the day after to-morrow. I suppose you 
 know that there are two chapters (the i6th and the 
 17th) left out ? The hardest passages are in those 
 two chapters. I should particularly like to see them 
 before they go to be printed ; in fact it is abso- 
 lutely essential that I should do so, and I promise 
 you I will respect your scruples. 
 
 I am very sorry, dear sir, that you did not wait 
 for me to return the proof-sheets before sending 
 them to M. Mérimée : it gives him twice as much 
 work and twice as much trouble. I have had to 
 correct a great many passages, and I can see from 
 M. Mérimée's letters that he often finds himself 
 struggling with difficulties which arise solely from 
 an incorrect interpretation. It would be infinitely 
 better only to send him a revised copy. 
 
 I have made bold to add a few short passages, as 
 I did in the first part. I hope, dear sir, that you 
 will agree to my corrections, and I am impatiently 
 awaiting the two chapters which were kept back. 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 Septembe?- 15, 1867. 
 My DEAR Prince, — To-day is the 15th, and I 
 have not yet received the two chapters you kept 
 
 286 
 
fbis ffrencb Circle 
 
 back. Will you kindly give orders that they should 
 be sent to me as soon as possible ? 
 
 I have translated " Samorodok " as " Rou^h 
 Diamond " ; the ironical term renders the idea 
 rather well, and Potoughine does not accuse his 
 fellow-countrymen of humbug^ but of that hatred 
 of work, that confidence in Nature's gifts which is 
 the chief characteristic of the Russian " Samoro- 
 dok." I hope you will adopt this rendering. 
 Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — The proof-sheets have this moment arrived ; 
 I will read them through carefully and send them 
 back at once. May I beg you again not to send 
 them to M. Mérimée before I have corrected them ? 
 
 IX. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 Saturday^ October 19, 1867. 
 Dear Sir, — I have received the first three 
 printed folios of Fumée^ but I don't know whether 
 you mean to go on publishing it in Le Correspon- 
 dant in the face of the difficulties which seem to 
 have arisen. But may I remind you that I have 
 not yet had all the proof-sheets ? The last instal- 
 ments have not been sent to me, and if the publi- 
 
 287 
 
UoixvQwénctt anb 
 
 cation is to be continued or to conclude in the issue 
 of the 25th of October I should be obliged if you 
 would not let anything appear without my first 
 looking through it. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 X. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 November 14, 1867. 
 Dear Sir, — I have just sent the two last instal- 
 ments of Fumée to the Raçon Printing Works. An 
 absence of several days prevented my doing so 
 before. May I call your attention to several im- 
 portant corrections ? I don't know whether M. 
 Mérimée is still in Paris ; if he has not left, I hope 
 he will continue his good offices to the end. 
 
 I have received the printed sheets of Fumée 
 (pp. 1-96), for which I am much obliged. 
 
 I must also thank you for offering to send me 
 Troustchoby.^ I already possess that novel, which I 
 think is too closely copied from Les Mystères de 
 Paris. 
 
 Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Iv. ToURGUENEFF. 
 
 ^ The real title of this novel is Le% Bougea de St. Pétershourg, and 
 the author is Krestovsky. Tourgueneff speaks of it by one Russian 
 word, which means Bouges^ or Rookeries. 
 
 288 
 
fbis f tench Circle 
 
 XI. 
 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 November 28, 1867. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I should be much obliged if you 
 would give orders to the printing-works of Le Cor- 
 respondant to send me the few " specially printed " 
 copies of Fu7nèe^ which were promised to me. I 
 have only received one copy which contahis the 
 first four sheets. 
 
 I must thank you very much for the kind manner 
 in which you adopted my corrections. In the matter 
 of the publication which Hetzel is about to make 
 your wishes shall be attended to. 
 
 I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you in 
 Paris, and meanv/hilc I beg to remain, 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 XII. 
 7, SCHILLERSTRASSE, BaDEN, 
 
 December 3, 1867. 
 Dear Sir, — I have just received the sheets that 
 were missing from the specially printed copy of 
 Fumée^ and I must thank you for your kindness in 
 fulfilling my request. May I, at the same time, 
 make another one, and ask you to send a copy to 
 J. Hetzel (18, Rue Jacob), and to let me have two 
 
 289 u 
 
XTourguéneff anb 
 
 others P That would make in all four copies, which 
 I want to keep for myself. 
 
 I should be much obliged to you if you would do 
 me this small favour, and I beg to remain. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 3, Thiergartenstrasse, Baden, 
 
 Jpril 24, 1868. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have been away for some days, 
 which prevented my answering you before. I 
 hasten to do so now, and beg you to acccept my 
 apologies for the delay. 
 
 I did not send you the Brigadir i because just as 
 I was leaving Paris I was asked for it by some one 
 who wished to translate it for the feuilleton of a 
 newspaper. I promised to send it, and as I only 
 had one copy I was unable to keep my promise to 
 you, but I'll send it to you as soon as it is no longer 
 wanted. 
 
 I will write this very day to Hetzel, and will 
 speak to him of Comte A . Tolstoi's novel 2 in such 
 terms as are fitting to employ in speaking of so 
 conscientious and remarkable a work. I should be 
 
 ^ The Russian title of Tourgueneff's story, Le Brigadier. 
 
 ^ This refers to Comte A. Tolstoï's novel, Le Prince Se're'briany^ 
 which Prince Galitzin translated, and I think published, but not 
 with Hetzel. 
 
 290 
 
1bts f tench Cttcle 
 
 very glad if your idea could be carried out, but it 
 must be confessed that as a rule publishers cannot 
 of necessity be very keen to publish foreign works. 
 No such work has ever run through more than 
 two editions, and even that is a very exceptional 
 case, whereas Monsieur^ Madame, et Bébé has reached 
 its fortieth edition. However, Hetzel is not quite 
 like other publishers. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Prince, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUÉNEFF. 
 
 P.S. — I will send you the twenty pages of the 
 Brigadir separately by post. Will you be kind 
 enough to send them back to me later on ? 
 
 XIV. 
 
 3, Thiergartenstrasse, Baden, 
 
 April 29, 1868. 
 Dear Sir, — I have just received an answer from 
 Hetzel to the letter which I wrote him about 
 Comte A. Tolstoi's novel. He wants you to send 
 him the MS. ; he has promised me to read it 
 through carefully, and I hope that this may induce 
 him to publish it. For my part, I have told him 
 how highly I think of the novel. 
 
 I must apologise for not having yet sent you the 
 
 291 
 
ZoviVQnémtt anb 
 
 sheets of the Brigadir^ but it will not be delayed 
 much longer now. 
 
 Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 To THE Comtesse Gubernatis. 
 
 I. 
 
 Saint-Valery-sur-Somme Maison Ruhaut, 
 
 September 12, 1872. 
 
 Madame, — I'm afraid it is rather late in the day 
 for me to thank you for the two numbers of La 
 Rivista Europa that you were kind enough to send 
 me, and which contain the first chapters of Les 
 Eaux Printanieres ; but the two numbers only 
 reached me quite recently. 
 
 As far as I can judge your translation is an 
 excellent one, and it will not be your fault if my 
 story fails to receive a kind welcome from the Italian 
 public. 
 
 I have looked through the other articles contained 
 in the two numbers, and am satisfied that La 
 Rivista is a publication of a very high stamp, any 
 connection with which would make me feel 
 
 292 
 
Uns fixncb Circle 
 
 highly honoured, especially under such auspices as 
 yours. 
 
 Pray accept my compliments, and believe me, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 P.S. — My permanent address is 48, Rue de 
 Douai, Paris. 
 
 II. 
 
 48, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 March 18, 1873. 
 
 Madame, — I have just received the two copies 
 of your excellent translation of Feschnia Vody which 
 you were kind enough to send me, and I am ex- 
 tremely grateful to you. 
 
 In answer to the question you asked me, I am 
 inchned to think that the character of Liza in 
 Dvorianskoié Gnezdo ^ would give a more favourable 
 idea of the Russian woman to the Italian public 
 tlian that of M. N.^ in Les Eaux Printanieres. If 
 the novel I mention should not already be in your 
 library I should be most happy to give it to you, 
 together with the rest of my works. 
 
 I do not know when I shall be fortunate enough 
 to revisit Italy, a country which has left me such 
 deep and lasting impressions and which I have 
 never seen in the enjoyment of freedom j but it 
 
 ' Une Nïchie de Gentilshommes. - Maria Nicolaïevna. 
 
 293 
 
XTourguénett an^ 
 
 ever I do go to Florence I shall go at once to your 
 house, so as to make your acquaintance and that 
 of the distinguished and friendly savant, M. de 
 Gubernatis. 
 
 I am at once sending you my pht)tograph, though 
 I am sorry not to have a better one ; your wish is 
 too flattering a one for me to delay in fulfilling it. 
 
 May I beg you to accept my compliments, 
 Madame, and to believe me, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 p. S. — I saw in La Rivista that my friend, Comte 
 Alexis Tolstoi,! is in Florence. Please remember 
 me most kindly both to him and to Madame la 
 Comtesse. 
 
 III. 
 
 50, Rue de Douai, Paris, 
 
 Tuesday, February 20, 1877. 
 Madame, — I hasten to give you my permission 
 to translate Nov^ according to your wish, being 
 fully persuaded that my novel could not be in better 
 or more competent hands.3 
 
 I am very glad, Madame, that the first part of 
 
 ^ A celebrated poet — no relation to Comte Léon Tolstoi. 
 
 ^ Terres Vierges. 
 
 3 The Italian translation of Non; was never published ; some 
 extracts of it were quoted in a lecture upon TourguenefF which M. 
 de Gubernatis gave at Florence. 
 
 294 
 
Ibis ffrencb Ctrcle 
 
 my novel should have met with your approval, and 
 only hope that the second part, which you must 
 have received by this time, will not spoil your first 
 impression. 
 
 You will find on the second sheet of this letter a 
 dedication, which I want you to have put on the 
 title-page of the volume of my works which is being 
 sent you from Moscow. 
 
 Will you be so kind as to give my best regards 
 to M. de Gubernatis and to accept my compli- 
 ments ? 
 
 Iv. TOURGUENEFF. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 TourguénefiP's French correspondence, which I 
 have collected and published here, is far from being 
 complete. It will be easily understood, when we 
 remember the hundreds of letters addressed to his 
 Russian friends which were published after his 
 death, and when we consider how many connec- 
 tions he had with the French literary world, how 
 fraught with difficulties the first attempt to collect 
 this correspondence must have been. I have already 
 notified in my Introduction some of the blanks 
 which I have been unable to fill. The letters 
 addressed to Victor Hugo, Prosper Mérimée, Jules 
 
 295 
 
Simon, Edmond de Concourt, Alphonse Daudet, 
 &c., would none of them, for various reasons, be 
 comprised in this first publication. Since then I 
 have learned that Tourguéneff's letters to Emile 
 Augier, who was one of his intimate friends, will 
 probably never be read ; for, in spite of all his 
 researches, M. Paul Déroulède has not come across 
 one of them. Madame Edmond About has suc- 
 ceeded no better with the letters addressed to the 
 author of Le R.oman (Tun brave Homme. The 
 letters to Maxime Du Camp, if there are any, 
 can only see the light in 19 lo, at the same 
 time as the other literary documents left by him. 
 Madame Adam wishes to keep the letters Tourgué- 
 nefF addressed to her, in order to give them a place 
 in her Mémoires^ &c. 
 
 It would take too long to tell all the efforts I 
 have made, all the people I have applied to. 
 
 But, such as they are, these Letters serve not only 
 to reveal to us some new characteristics of the 
 Russian writer, but also to throw light upon some 
 hitherto unknown sides of the history of the literary 
 relations between France and Russia. 
 
 Up to the present we have only been able to 
 publish Tourguéneff's letters to his friends. They 
 have already served to make him better known ; 
 they have shown his kindness, his devotion to those 
 friends, his literary abnegation ; and, above all, they 
 have shown us his literary descent, and of this I 
 
 296 
 
• fois jfrencb Circle 
 
 shall have occasion to speak later on. At present 
 I wish to give one more proof of Tourgucneff's 
 good faith — that good faith which Daudet has 
 doubted. 
 
 An old friend of Tourgucneff's, a friend ot forty 
 years' standing, M. Pietsch, has sent me a letter 
 addressed to Madame Pietsch, in which the Russian 
 novelist speaks in such terms of Sacher-Mazoch as 
 utterly to preclude the idea of any intimacy having 
 existed between the two writers. This letter is a 
 fresh proof that Tourguéneff never knew Sacher- 
 Mazoch, and, as M. Pietsch very truly says, never 
 could have written to him. 
 
 M. Durand-Gréville, on his side, writes to me 
 as follows : " The story of the letters to Sacher- 
 Mazoch has always seemed to me a very unlikely 
 one. I was careful not to mention it in my article 
 on Tourguéneff. I once asked Daudet long ago 
 where these letters were to be found ; he turned to 
 de Concourt and said, ' Robert Caze had them, 
 hadn't he ? ' ' Yes,' answered Concourt. And 
 that was all. Now at that moment Robert Caze 
 had just died. A friend of mine, a most honourable 
 and truthful man, told me that the letters had been 
 offered to Goncourt for a certaiyi sum of ?noney. I am 
 convinced, though I have no proof to that eftect, 
 that they were false letters, forged for certain inte- 
 rested purposes, and perhaps in the hope that 
 Goncourt would destroy them. If they had been 
 
 297 
 
XTourguéttetf attP 
 
 genuine they would certainly have been published, 
 for the sake of the noise they would have made and 
 the money they would have brought in." 
 
 But we will talk of this no more. I think the 
 truth has come to light, and I only mentioned the 
 incident at all because of the fresh documents which 
 I had received and which confirmed the others, and 
 also because I was speaking of the interest of Tour- 
 guénefF's correspondence as a whole. 
 
 These are only incidents in the man's life. Of 
 how much greater importance are the Letters 
 when they show us what were the springs which 
 fertilised his literary talent ! Let us take, for 
 instance, the letters to Georges Sand, which a 
 French journalist regarded as only insignificant 
 little notes. Even here there is one of the greatest 
 possible interest. When he writes to Georges 
 Sand to thank her for the dedication of her story, 
 Pierre Bonnin^ he says, amongst other things : " I 
 had meant to tell you when I came to Nohant 
 what an immense influence you have had upon me 
 as a writer." The careful reader must have noticed 
 this sentence, especially if he read the little intro- 
 duction I wrote to TourguenefF's letters to 
 Georges Sand. It fixes a most interesting point 
 in literary history, and proves once for all the 
 influence which one of the greatest of French 
 authors had upon one of the greatest of Russian 
 authors. 
 
 298 
 
t)is ffrencb Circle 
 
 It was certainly not Balzac, as M. E. M. de 
 Vogiié thought, who exercised any influence upon 
 TourguenefF's talent. In a letter to M. Weinberg, 
 a poet and a translator, who had asked him to trans- 
 late one of Balzac's works into Russian, Tourguéneff 
 tells him he cannot find time to do so. " I would 
 sooner have translated a few pages of Rabelais or of 
 Montaigne," he adds, " but nothing of Balzac, for 
 that writer is so utterly foreign and unsympathetic 
 to my nature, that I have never been able to read 
 ten pages of his on end." 
 
 Georges Sand's influence is the only one that 
 TourguenefF himself recognises. This fact, which 
 I believe has never been touched upon before in 
 France, has often been noticed in Russia. Quite 
 recently a woman-novelist of great talent, who is 
 known by the pseudonym of Karénine, mentioned 
 the influence of Georges Sand upon several Russian 
 writers : Dostoievsky, Grigorovitch, Saltykov 
 (Stchedrine), and especially TourguenefF. Karénine, 
 for instance, points out that Roudine is almost a 
 reflection of Horace. " If we except the special 
 characteristics of race and of caste which distinguish 
 Roudine from Horace, we have before us the 
 very same character, the same fine, enthusiastic 
 talker, who carries others and even himself away 
 by his flow of words, but who is incapable of 
 action. . . . And if Roudine, intoxicated with his 
 own talk, dies at one of the barricades in 1848, 
 
 299 
 
tTour^iténett an^ 
 
 while Horace carefully refrains from taking part 
 in the affair at St. Méry in 1832 — if, generally 
 speaking, Roudine is more sympathetic, more dis- 
 interested than his prototype, the cause of this is to 
 be found in those very characteristics of race and 
 of caste which have been so faithfully and so 
 skilfully drawn by Georges Sand and by Tour- 
 guénefF." 
 
 Another critic, M. Soumtsov, thinks that there 
 is an even greater likeness between Kacian in Les 
 Récits cVun Chasseur and Patience in Mauprat, 
 
 " By his intelligence, his gentleness, his love of 
 nature, and especially of birds, Kacian shows him- 
 self to be Patience's literary son," he says. . . . 
 " Patience has a hatred of work, so has Kacian. 
 . . . Patience is a natural philosopher ; Kacian, 
 thanks to his inclination to philosophy, was nick- 
 named r Innocent, They are both regarded as 
 sorcerers by the peasantry. Even in the smaller 
 details, such as their love of birds, the characters 
 of Georges Sand and Tourguéneff draw near to 
 one another. . . . Patience is shy and awkward 
 with women ; Kacian suffers in the same way, as 
 we see at the end of Tourgueneff's story. . . . 
 We even notice one unexplained detail in Tour- 
 guéneff, which is certainly not in accordance 
 with the life of the Russian peasant at that 
 time : Kacian can read and teaches his daughter 
 Annouchka to do so. Here again we feel the 
 
 300 
 
Ibis ffrencb Circle 
 
 influence of the educated Patience as contrasted 
 with the reality of Russian peasant life." 
 
 I might carry this parallel farther even than 
 Karénine and M. Soumtsov have done ; I might 
 point out that almost all the characters in Roudine 
 find their prototypes in Horace. Are not Roudine's 
 friend Lejnev and Horace's friend Théophile, one 
 and the same ? Do they not both see the faults 
 and the qualities of their friends, and are they not 
 under the charm of their enthusiasm ? Is not 
 Volyntsev the very same as the brave, kind-hearted 
 Paul Arsène ? Does he not suffer, like Paul 
 Arsène, from seeing the girl he loves taken in by 
 the high-sounding phrases of a mere humbug ? Is 
 not Nathalia's noble, generous soul the very same 
 as Marthe's ? Is she not deceived, like her, by 
 appearances ? Is not Madame Lipine exactly like 
 Eugénie ? And does she not escape from the 
 hero's seductions in the very same way, by pre- 
 ferring the man of action to the man of words ? 
 
 And not only the characters, but many of the 
 incidents in the two stories may be compared in 
 the same way. But what does this matter? 
 Horace and Roudine still differ essentially in 
 setting and in the manner in which the story is 
 treated, the conclusions naturally resulting from 
 differing racial characteristics. I will go further 
 and say that Roudine is too essentially Russian 
 to have been taken from any one but a Russian. 
 
 301 
 
Uourpuenetf artb Ibis jfrencb Circle 
 
 TourguenefF took his model from Bakouniiie, the 
 well-known anarchist, with whom he was person- 
 ally acquainted, and Roudine is even more Russian 
 than Horace is French or Werther German. 
 
 As to the likeness between Kacian and Patience, 
 it is certainly noticeable, but this does not mean 
 that there was any conscious imitation, for Tour- 
 guéneff we know took all his characters from real 
 life, and Patience and Kacian are types which are 
 to be found in all countries. 
 
 It is not really in these smaller details of 
 character, of plot, that we must look for Georges 
 Sand's influence upon TourguenefF's talent. It is 
 a far wider one. We see it in his tender pity for 
 ' the weak, and for the sufferers from the present 
 state of society, in his taste for rustic settings, in the 
 sobriety of his descriptions, in the picturesque reality 
 of his characters. But Tourgueneff is far more 
 of a realist. In this respect he comes nearer to 
 Flaubert than to Georges Sand. 
 
 But this is not the proper place to go thoroughly 
 into this piece of literary history. I simply wished 
 to state that Tourguéneff's future biographers will 
 find in these Letters, even in the least interesting 
 among them, some very useful material. 
 
 302 
 
UNWIN BROTHERS, 
 WOKING AND LONDON. 
 
DAv 
 
 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, 
 or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only: 
 
 TeL No. 642-3405 
 Renewals may be made 4 days çrior to date due. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 m ys,\ i ilt'^ ^^""^ 
 
 MAY 12 1977 i^ 
 
 cm. M 9 77 
 
 ^^ tmH 1993 ^o"^ 
 
 iSCCJRC Jiii 2V2Z . 
 
 oc 
 
 UL 
 
 (on7ai<in>i7Rl».!i9. University of Califoima 
 
CDMBlM'^îiba