A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections - LightNovelsOnl.com
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[41] About two cents and a half.
[42] I have seen the number variously stated at from eleven to thirteen; but Countess Sophia Andreevna, his wife, told me there had been fifteen, and I regard her as the final authority on this point, a very interesting one, in view of some of his latter-day theories and exhortations. Countess Tolstoy was the daughter of Dr. Behrs, of Moscow.
[43] Turgeneff, who afterwards called Tolstoy "The Great Writer of the Russian Land," p.r.o.nounced emphatically against him at this time; and so did many others, who became his enthusiastic admirers.
[44] At this period, also, the peasant costume became the fas.h.i.+on in the higher circles. Count Tolstoy is generally (out of Russia) a.s.sumed to be the first and only wearer of such garments.
[45] This is a particularly interesting example to the people of America and to me. I sent to Count Tolstoy over seven thousand dollars which people throughout the length and breadth of the land had forwarded to me for that purpose, and I turned thousands more in his direction. His conscience is as uneasy and as fitful and illogical in pretty nearly all other matters, which is a pity, because it is both lively and sincere, though mistaken.
[46] It was to this sort of story that Count Tolstoy referred, when he told me that Lyeskoff had spoiled his talent of recent years by imitating him, Tolstoy.
[47] I have stated my own theory as to Count Tolstoy's incessant changes of view, and his puzzling inconsistencies, in my "Russian Rambles." It is not necessary or fitting that I should repeat it here.
[48] I tried to see him in Nizhni Novgorod, but although he was still under police surveillance, the police could not tell me where to find him, and I obtained the information from a photographer friend of his.
Unfortunately, he was then in the Crimea, gathering "material."
[49] Translated into English under the t.i.tle "A Russian Priest." Another volume contains two charming stories from the same circle, "A Father of Six" and "An Occasional Holiday."
[50] He must have been at Kazan about the time I was there; and I have often wondered if I saw him on the wharf, where I pa.s.sed weary hours waiting for the steamer.
[51] See "Orloff and His Wife," in my translation, 1891.
[52] I do not attempt a metrical translation. Lines 1-3, 2-4, 5-7, 6-8, rhyme in pairs.
