Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883)
On the figure of the Russian woman. 1873
Autograph letter signed ('Ivan Tourguéneff') to [Sofia De Gubernatis-Besobrasof], 48 rue de Douai, Paris, 18 March 1873.

In French, with a few words in Russian. Three pages, 205 x 131mm, on a bifolium with embossed initials 'IT'.

On the figure of the Russian woman in Spring Torrents and A Nest of Gentlefolk. Turgenev acknowledges two copies of 'your excellent translation of Veshniye vody [Spring Torrents]'. He goes on, in response to a question, 'I think that the figure of Liza in Dvoryánskoye gnezdó [A Nest of Gentlefolk] would be of a nature to give the Italian public a better idea of the Russian woman than M.N. [i.e. Maria Nikolaevna] in Spring Torrents': he offers to send her a copy of this, if she does not already have it, and indeed of all his other works. He cannot say when he may come to Italy, 'a country which left such deep memories and which I have not yet seen in a state of freedom [i.e. since Italian unification]', but if he does come to Florence he will hasten to make her acquaintance and that of her husband, 'that distinguished and friendly scholar'. He sends her a photograph (no longer present) in response to her request, regretting that he does not have a better one: 'your wish is too flattering for me not to hurry to fulfil it'. In a postscript, he notes that 'I have learned from the Rivista that my cousin, Count Alexei Tolstoï is in Florence; may I dare to ask you to pass to him and to the Countess my friendliest greetings?'.

Sofia De Gubernatis-Besobrasof was a cousin of Mikhail Bakunin and the wife of the Italian man of letters Angelo De Gubernatis (1840-1913): her Italian translation of Spring Torrents was published at Florence by Tipografia editrice dell'Associazione in 1872. The Rivista to which Turgenev refers is the Florentine magazine Rivista Europea of which Angelo De Gubernatis was editor. The poet and dramatist Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) was not only a relative of Turgenev but a second cousin of Leo Tolstoy: see lot 155 for an important letter from him to Angelo De Gubernatis.

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