[25] This is a mistake. His father died in 1835; and his mother reached
the age of seventy, dying in 1850.
[26] Turgénief says in his Recollections: “About Easter, 1843, in
Petersburg, an event took place, in itself indeed of small importance,
and long ere this swallowed up in perfect oblivion. It was this: A
short poem entitled Parasha, by a certain T. L., was published. That T.
L. was I. With this poem I began my literary career.” He says further
that Biélinsky’s praise was so extravagant that he felt more confusion
than pleasure. “I could not believe it,” he adds; “and when in Moscow
the late I. V. Kiréyevski came to me with congratulations, I hastened
to disown my child, declaring that I was not the author.”--N. H. D.
[27] _Zapiski Okhotnika._
[28] Yet Biélinsky wrote him: “‘Khor’ gives promise that you will be a
remarkable writer--in the future.”--N. H. D.
[29] Turgénief says in his Recollections: “I should certainly never
have written The Annals of a Sportsman if I had staid in Russia. I was
in a state of mind singularly analogous to Gogol’s, who just about this
time wrote his best pages about Russia from ‘the beautiful distance.’”
The article on Gogol’s death was not passed by the Petersburg censor,
but was admitted by the Moscow censor, and appeared in the Vyédomosti
in March, 1852. Nevertheless, the article was construed as a violation
of the law: “I was put under partial arrest for a month, and then sent
into domicile in the country, where I lived two years.... But all for
the best.... My being under arrest, and in the country, proved to my
undeniable advantage: it brought me close to those sides of Russian
life which, in the ordinary course of things, would probably have
escaped my observation.”--N. H. D.
[30] A misquotation, of course, of
“How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seems to me all the uses of this world!”--N. H. D.
[31] _Dvoryánskaye Gnyezdó_, an untranslatable title. A Nest of Nobles
or Courtiers or Gentlemen fairly expresses it.
[32] “In 1863 Ivan Sergéyevitch bought a plat of land at Baden Baden,
built a house on it, and lived there until 1870.”--_Polevoï._
[33] _Nov_, the Russian title, means merely _new_,--one of the words,
by the way, showing the affinity of Russian with Latin, English, and
the other Indo-European languages,--and is suggestive not only of new
land, but of new people and new ideas.--N. H. D.
[34] His generosity was more than princely; not even the palpable
impositions of his impecunious countrymen caused him to clasp his
ever-open purse. It is related that a Russian family residing in Paris
made frequent applications to this abundant fountain. Turgénief saw
through their wiles, but let the stream still flow. The little daughter
of the family showed some musical talent, and Turgénief undertook
her education. It happened that there was a very exclusive school in
Paris; and one fine day the ambitious mother came and besought their
Mæcenas to use his influence to have the young girl admitted where no
foreigner was allowed. Turgénief was at last a little nettled, and
in epigrammatic Russian he said, “Make her either a candle for the
Lord, or an ash-scraper for the Devil” (_Bogu svyétchu ili Tchortu
katchergu_).--N. H. D.
[35] _Tchto Dyélat_, a translation of which is published by T. Y.
Crowell & Co., under the title A Vital Question.
[36] Písemsky described this same generation in his great story, _Liudi
Sorokovuikh Godof_ (People of the Forties).--N. H. D.
[37] Also under the title _Un Bulgare_.--N. H. D.
[38] It was reported, and believed by some, that the Russian government
paid Turgénief fifty thousand rubles for Virgin Soil.--N. H. D.
[39] Yuliana Betrishef in Dead Souls is not a portrait: she is a
luminous apparition.--_Author’s note._
[40] A Russian proverb says, “Alone as a finger.”--_Translator’s note,
quoted by author._
[41] It is only just to make exception in favor of Alfonse
Daudet. His talent is largely made up of sentiment, and even of
sentimentality.--_Author’s note._
[42] Nikolai Alekseyévitch Nekrásof, born in December, 1821, editor
of the _Sovremennik_ from 1847 till 1866. Afterwards, when the
_Sovremennik_ was suppressed, he edited the _Otetchestvennui Zapiski_
till his death, which took place in January, 1877. He was eminently
Russia’s popular poet.--N. H. D.
[43] Mikhaïl Yuryevitch Lermontof, the author of the great poem Demon,
and other verses inspired by the Caucasus, was born in 1814, and died
in 1841.
[44] Feódor Mikhaïlovitch Dostoyevsky was born in 1822 in Moscow, and
died in March, 1881. His life reads like a romance. For a short sketch
of it, and also for the translation of the scene from his _Zapiski iz
Mertvava Doma_, so praised by Turgénief, see appendix.--N. H. D.
[45] A brilliant Russian lady, now in this country, writes to the
translator as follows: “I am glad indeed that you escaped the
translation of ‘Crime and Punishment.’ You would never find any
readers for such a book in this country. I could never read any of
Dostoyevsky’s books through. It made me sick. My nerves could not bear
the strain on them. I don’t believe in pathology in literature. And
yet another of my American acquaintances, who is thoroughly versed
in Russian, ... tried to translate ‘Crime and Punishment,’ but had
not time to do it. He says he never read, in any language, any thing
so powerful as _Prestuplenie i Nakazanie_. Generally speaking, your
countrymen have too healthy a constitution to appreciate such a novel.
Let it turn heads among the pessimists in France and Russia, the
natives of effete Europe.”--N. H. D.
[46] This explains, perhaps, why he did not appreciate Nekrásof.
Indeed, Turgénief, though his literary judgments are always
interesting, must be taken with a grain of salt: like a true poet, he
was not a critic. On the other hand, Tchernuishevsky, whose critical
judgments Turgénief affected to despise, was a born critic, and his
literary prognostications were greatly in advance of his time. See
Appendix.--N. H. D.
[Illustration: LYOF N. TOLSTOÏ.]