The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-07-22
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TURGENEFF's MOTHER.
Female Counterpart of Ivan tho Terrible.
Her Treatment of Her scrfs.

Her Treatment of Her Scrfs.
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, who has fro
| quently confessed his great admiration fol
Ivan Turgeneff, and who has writer
charmingly Of his intimate friendship with
the novelist. gives an entertaining account
OF the latter's mother in The Century
His life was cloudcd, Mr. Boyesen believes,
by an unhappy childhood and by the tyr
amy and abuse of his mother. Turge-
neff referred to his mother but twice in
the presence of Mr.. Boyesen, once when he
declared that she was the typical noble
lady of Russia, and afterward when he
said, Tho utter responsibility of the
master in his intercourse with the serf has
the most detrimental effect upon character
as l saw exemplifled in the case of my
own mother
Mr.. Boyesen writes:
II concluded from this that his mother
had been hard and tyrannioal woman,
and that he was unable to cherish her
memory. But never did / dream, until
his sisters narration fell into my hands,
that she was the female counterpart of
Ivan the Terrible. She delighted in the
most arbitrary exercise of power, and from
sheer ennui tormented every one who
came within the reach Of her authority
She had herself been cruelty maltreated in
her childhood-nay, she had been direfully
insulted by her stepfather and compelled
in consequence to foe from home and seek
refuge with relative. By the death of
her uncle, Ivan Loutovinoff, she inherited
an immense fortune, on the receipt of
which she Enthusiastically remarked,
Now can do anything l like ('Mainte-
nant, je peux toutD. Among the many
Il. =
chose for husband Sergius Nicolaevitch
Turgene1f because of his extraordinary
beauty. She established herself in prince
ly opuleace on her estate of Spasskoe, and
as she was determined upon keeping the
reins of authority in her own hands her
husband thought 1t wiser to indulge her
caprices and refrain as far as possible |
from interfering with her wishes Prob |
ably he had by this time discovered with |
whom he had TO deal. He was too prudent |
n man to provoke quarrel with woman
Of so formidable temperament
1t was, in fact, not only he whom she
governed but she insisted upon regulat-
Ing the affairs of every one who approached
her or entered into any sort of relation
with her, however remote. Her autocratic
will did not tolerate even suspicion of
7ices she hit upon for humiliating those
who manifested what she regarded as a
pirit of INSTRUMENTATION were worthy of
Ter imperial prototype Catherine, mis-
famed the Great When her daughter
vas i'll with typhoid fever, she gave the
MUSICIAN, who was a highly educated
erf, the choice between complete cure
nd Siberia. A favorite serf, whom it
LEASED her from sheer caprice to perse-
ute, she degraded from the position of a
waiter to that Of field laborer and made
i'm exchange his fine livery for the
oarse garb of apeasant. Her major domo,
'aliakoff, she assaulted in fit of uncon.
reliable fury with a crutch and would
AVE killed him if her brother-in- law had
lot interfered She separated him from
lis wife and children, to whom he was
warmly devoted, and exercised diabolical
ingenuity in devising new fortunes for the
unhappy man. His offense was that he
lad out of love for his young master,
Turgeneff, deceived her regard
ng the latter's relation to a certain beau
iful German governess with whom Mich
'las was deeply in love and whom he had
secretly married."