CANNES, _January 3, 1863_.
DEAR FRIEND: I began the year badly enough, in my bed, with a very
painful attack of lumbago, which did not allow me even the privilege of
turning over. This is what you get in these beautiful climates, where,
so long as the sun is above the horizon, you imagine that it is summer,
but where immediately after sunset comes a quarter of an hour of damp
chilliness that penetrates to the very marrow of your bones. It is
precisely as in Rome, with the difference that here it is rheumatism,
and there fever, against which one must guard. To-day my back has
regained some of its elasticity, and I have begun to walk.
I have had a visit from my old friend M. Ellice, who spent twenty-four
hours with me and renewed my stock of news, and my ideas, which had
become strikingly shrivelled by my sojourn in Provence. Everything
considered, this is the only inconvenience of living away from Paris.
One soon comes to be a log when one does not share the tastes of my
friend, M. de Laprade, who would like to be an oak. This transformation
has in it nothing agreeable.
If I continue to improve I think of returning to Paris on the 18th or
20th, to hear the discussion of the address, which they tell me will be
warm and interesting. After having paid my respects, I shall come back
to the sunshine; for if I had to endure the sleets and winds and mud of
Paris in February, I should assuredly kick the bucket....
You are wrong not to read _Salammbô_. It is perfectly mad, it is true,
and it contains even more of anguish and more of abominations than the
_Vie de Chmielnicki_; but, after all, it has talent, and one gains an
amusing idea of the author, and one even more droll of his admirers, the
bourgeois, who wish to discuss affairs with honest folk. It is these
same bourgeois whom my friend, M. Augier, has ridiculed so well. I am
assured that no one with any self-respect will confess that he has been
to see _Le Fils de Giboyer_. For all that, the cash-box of the theatre,
and the purse of the author are filled to overflowing.
I recommend you to read in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ of the 15th, a
novel by M. de Tourguenieff, the proofs of which I am expecting here,
and which I have read in Russian. It is called _Fathers and Sons_, and
its theme is the contrast of the past generation with that of the
present. The hero of the story is the representative of the rising
generation, a socialist, materialist, and realist, but a man,
nevertheless, who is intelligent and interesting. He is a singular
character, and would please you, I hope. This novel has produced a
tremendous sensation in Russia, and there has been a strong outcry
against the author, who has been accused of impiety and immorality. When
a work excites thus the furious invective of the public, it is, in my
opinion, a sufficient proof of its success.
I think I shall have to make you read again the second part of
_Chmielnicki_, the proofs of which I corrected while I was ill on my
back. You will see in the book an enormous quantity of Cossacks impaled,
and Jews burned alive.
I shall be in Paris, not to hear the address of the crown, but only the
discussion of the address--that is, I suppose, about the 20th or the
21st; still, if it were more convenient for your personal plans, I might
hasten my arrival.
Good-bye, dear friend. I wish you health and happiness, and no lumbago.
Good-bye. Do not forget me.