Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883)
'I have almost given up working'. 1871
Autograph letter signed ('I. Tourguéneff') to Princess [Anna Andreyevna] Trubetskoy, 16 Beaumont Street, Marylebone, London, 17 May 1871.

In French. Four pages, 177 x 114mm, on a bifolium.

'I have almost given up working. – I have reached the end of the line'. The letter opens with excuses for not writing, and warm expressions of sympathy, also on behalf of the Viardot family: 'I was very happy to learn that you have been left in peace at Bellefontaine throughout this horrible year and that you have been able to continue to enjoy your "horizon"'; he also expresses sympathy with a misfortune (perhaps a miscarriage) that has occurred to Princess Orlov (the Trubetskoys' daughter). Pauline Viardot has received many expressions of sympathy after a false rumour was published about her: she is well, but a 'catarrhe' caught in November often prevents her from singing; and he gives news also of the Viardot children, and of their musical soirées. They will remain in London until August, then move to Baden-Baden for a few weeks, and then probably ('by the grace of God!') back to London. 'I am happy to learn that you liked "King Lear"; – I have almost given up working. – I have reached the end of the line'. As for the events of the Paris Commune: 'We continue to watch with stupor what is happening in France – without being able to feel real sympathy either for Versailles or for Paris. – Are these convulsion a death-agony – or those which accompany a birth?'.

Turgenev's novella King Lear of the Steppes was published in 1870. Princess Anna Andreyevna Trubetskoy (née Gudovich, 1818-1892) lived at the Château de Bellefontaine, near Fontainebleau: Turgenev was close to the whole family, which included her husband, Prince Nikolay Trubetskoy (1807-1874), her daughter Yekatarina (1840-1875) and their son-in-law, Prince Nikolay Orlov (1827-1885). 'This horrible year' is a reference to the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, which was to conclude with the bloody recapture of the capital on 21-28 May.

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