The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-24
TOigtOy III,

TOistOy-HI.
II was in 1851 that the rupture occurred
which long put an end 70 friendly Intercourse
between Tolstoy and T~urgenieh. Before
marking this regrettable incident we may
exemplify the relations which had existed
between the two novelists at an earlier
period OF their acquaintance by quoting a
letter written to Tolstoy by Turgenieff from
Paris In November, 1850: 1T is a fact, the
writer says, "that / cannot be quite straight
forward with you, because / cannot be quite
frank with you. II seems TO me that we
became acquainted in an awkward way
and at an evil moment. but, when we meet
again, all will be much easier and smoother.
/ feel | love you as a man las to my love for
the author-needless to mention it); yet
many things in you jar upon me. and, in
the end, | have found out that it is better
for me to keep aloof from you. At our next
meeting let us try again to go hand in hand
perhaps it will come of better. But at a
distance chow very strange it sounds) my
heart is disposed to you as to a brother.
and | feel a tenderness for you In a word.
/ love you-there Is no doubt bout it:
let Us hope that, In time, something good
will come of it," In a letter written some
what earlier to an aunt Tolstoy said OF his
brother novelist: "T~urgenief, whom | have
begun to love Il realize it now, notwith-
standing that we always quarreD, is gone.
Hence I feel terribly lonely"
In January, 1857. just before Tolstoy
reached Paris in the course Of his first
Journey abroad, T%urgenieff wrote to a friend
concerning him: "Tolstoy writes that he
intends coming over here. me then going
in the spring to Italy. Judging from his
letters, / see that he is going through most
beneficial changes, and l I'M rejoicing at it
like an old nurse l nave read his A Rus
sian Proprietor which pleased me very
much by it's ~frankness and almost full free
dom of conviction. say almost because
in the way he states the problem to him
self lies (perhaps unknown to HIM a certain
prejudice, The essential moral impression
Of the tale Il don't think Of the artistic
one) is this, that until serfdom ceases to exist
lit was not to cease until some years
later) there would be no possibility Of
mutual understanding between serf W
ers and ~serfsl in spite OF the most
disinterested honest desire to meet. This
impression is good and true, but, side by
side with it, runs another secondary i'm
preston, namely, that, on the whole, teach
ing the peasant or improving his position
Ia useless, and this impression l canno
agree with. But his mastery Of the language
and Of characteristic is very great After
meeting olstoy in Paris, Turgenief told an
other friend: "Tolstoy is here; a change
for the better has taken place in him, and a
very considerable one. This man will go
far, and will cave a deep trail after him"
In a letter penned in February, 1880. the
admiration expressed by Tolstoy for Tur-
genief's novel "On the Eve" is distinctly
qualified. He considers it much better
than "A Nest Of Mobiles, " and comedies that
there are in it excellent negative characters:
the artist and the father. In his judgment.
however, "the other characters not only
fail to be types. but their conception, their
situation, is not typical, or else they are
quite trivial. However, this is Turgenief's
usual mistake. The young lady is
wretchedly drawn. In general it always
astonishes me in Turgenieff that, with his
intelligence and poetic constituencies, he
is not able to avoid insipidity, and that
even in his methods"
Tolstoy's second journey abroad came
to an end in April, 1851. 1t was not long
afterward that the quarrel with Turgenieff
occurred; they were both sojourning at a
friends country seat. 1t seems that one
morning at breakfast the lady Of the house,
aware Of the Importance which Turgenieff
alta ched to his daughters education, in
quired whether he was pleased with his
English governess. Turgenieff replied In
the affirmative, and among other things
related that the governess, with truly
English practically, asked Turgenieff to
fix a sun Of money which his daughter
could use for charitable purposes. Now.
said Turgenief A, "the governess requests
my daughter to take the old clothes OF the
poor and after mending them herself to
return them to the owners And do
you consider this right" asked Tolstov.
either because the instincts Of the artist ocrat
had not yet been e~xtinguished by the zeal
Of the apostle or from a very different
motive. "of course l do; it brings the
charitable person nearer to real want. "
And think said Tolstoy, that a richly
dressed girl who m~anipulates dirty, III
smelling rags. is acting a false and theatri-
cal farce Il beg o not to say this, =
exclaimed Turgenief, his nostrils dilatipe,
why should not l say what I am convinced
OFFS returned Tolstoy, Turgenieff said.
Then you think that / do not bring up NV
daughter properly?' Tolstoy's answer to
this was that "he thought what he said.
and without v%enturing upon personalities
had expressed his thoughts" Their host
had no time to cry out to Turgenieff to desist
when, pale with wrath, the latter said.
If you persist in speaking in this way I
will box your ears" With these words
he left the table, and catching hold of his
head in great excitement stepped into the
next room, He came back a second after
and said. turning to his hosts wife: aFor
Gods sake forgive my hasty action, which
| deeply repent He then left the room
a gain and soon afterward the visitors took
their leave. At the first hating plaoe
Tolstoy sent a letter to Turgenien with
q demand for satisfaction. A Iit,le
later, without waiting for an answer to
his first letter, he sent a second IN. v;th