New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-07-07
NERVES AND MATHEMATICS.
THEIR COMBINATION IN MORBID
WOMAN.

soNyA K9vAEvsKY Her R.coI R.r.Iam S of
ESrIet,s LnfRsr Duchess Of Caanco Trans.
lated from the swedish hy 4. N Give bayisy'
And a Blograp hical Note by LILY Wolnsohn.
octave. pp as The Century Company. 1885
A letter written from Paris toward the close Of
her career by the subject OF this volume IL headed
.qf2 boulevard lEnfer." We have no disposition
20 rino with any incident Of that career. but It IL
Irresistible 20 observe that the address Is eloquent;
moreover that with possible changes OF number II
was shnya Koyalsvsky's from beginning to end.
from her childhood In rural Russia to her lonely
death IN Sweden. She had success In ME- she en-
joyed NE. ability and fame were hers ana she
exultei In tho possession of both. Yet her bog-
raphy 8. ovcr.hadowci by that Slavic bitterness.
the bitterness OF the seventies when men and wo-
men were in a perpetual ferment. In perpetual
state OF tension which was largely mundane. but
10 Western sympsthcs seems also largely IN
formal We No not ignor. the dyllic side OF Rus
sian NE Turgencv has told us all about IT, hut
he and his contemporaries have also Interpreted Tor
us the storm and stress OF the slowly Awakening
Russia the ,hroes Of a barbara nation. mewng
It's mighty youth. and being decidedly dazzcd by
the socia!is'ir sun At which It's eyes were kndled
II was with pain that Russia cracked the crust OF
centuries under which she was lnmurei she mas
no, altogether broken through II yet. Ana the
pain she has felt has outwelghed the pleasures OF
emancipation; from noble TO scrf there has cx-
y.
accustomed mental friction to which the naturally
melancholy disposition OF tho people has lent an
added weight.
Into this period OF transition s6nya Kovalevsky
wa. born As "A child she was aware OF her e.der
sisters surreptitiously reading the forbidden "ko-
lokoi' Of Herzen and she was stil In her teens
when she met Dostocvsky and fell In love with him.
But TO alludc TO her acquaintance with the noted
novelist IL 10 anticipate What needs to be en-
phasized still further as preliminary 10 "sdy or
this memoir In the condition OF society AT IN"
time she was growing mp. She herself says that
in the period OF time included between the years
1860 ana 1870 all the educated classes OF Russian so
cic,y were occupied exclusively with one question
the family dlscord between the old and the young
Ask about whatever noble family you would at
that time YOU always heard one and the same
thing-thc parents had quarrell"l with IN" emil
dren' Thus We meet In S6nya Kovalevsky's homo
he the life that sent her forth to the worf prac-
tically settled In temperament. exactly the MIN
Cling OF aspiration with family chickering's. OF do
nes,c affection with hampcred and impatient
idealty which makes the encourage OF n typical
Slnv both cxasperatng and touching. The elc-
mental passions had and sil have free play about
the hearth OF Russian. Sonya's father grew
black In the face when anything went wrong and
MS rage stirred him TO his depths He and his
family measured all their emotions In this Inn
netuous and overw heming way. When one con-
siders that feelings tumultuous as theirs were
denied the stimulating outlets OF intellectual ac-
tivity or the soothing urbanitics OF serepression
which belong to more sophisticated nations II Is
not diincult to why Sonya. we have limited.
lived in a kind OF inferno all her life long. Any
life IL an inferno whose conventions OF mental and
emotlonal discipline either too lax too strict
for the inner cravings OF impressionable char
acters: and In Russia there has not as yet been
achieved a true balance between the feelings and
the actions OF her people. sonya suffered. as thou
sands OF her countrymen have suffered. from tho
seethng OF ideas In her head. OF new In
stncts In her heart which the old regime never
pretended to recognize and by which the new IL
nuzzled as much as It is conciated 1t has made
haf the Russians dreamers. visionaries. SocialIsno
poets and II has transformed a large section or
that half into Nihilists. Ii made Sonya hova-
lfvsky n restless woman, uncertain as to what she
wanted and unable TO be the sure mistress OF her
fate when II at last given to her 10 retain
happiness within her grasp.
Some tendency there seems to be to present this
entertaining Russian lady as a remarkable psyche
logical phenomenon an eccentric. as second
Marie Bashkirtseff. Nothing could be further from
tho point The friend OF Bastien- Lepage was.
Whatever defects she may have had. an original
character. a nevrose to be sure, but one for whom
II would be hard o find a precedent. She followed
Jean Jacques In the frankness OF her confession.
and sometimes recalls him In minor ways. but on
the whole her career recalls no other. Nine Kova-
lfysky was accomplished mathematician. and
led n life which marked by more than one
picturesque incident. but must confess that
even her winning Of the Prix Bordin. one OF the
greatest scientific rewards In France leaves her
a figure attractive individual. but not at all ex-
traordna-y. This judgment II not altered by
sympa thctic study OF the present anectonately
written record. Henrik Ibsen. that portentous
producer OF solemnities. when told by the Duchess
OF Cajaneo that she was writing a memoir OF
sonya Kovalevsky. Immediately said: Is It her