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Ah! the world is funny, and it seems chimerical to me to want to regulate oneself according to its opinion. The good Tourgueneff must be now in Saint Petersburg; he sent me a favorable article on Saint-Antoine from Berlin. It is not the article, but he, that has given me pleasure. I saw him a great deal this winter, and I love him more and more.
His prophecy now seems nearing fulfilment. Among the various meetings which were held in connection with the exposition was a convention of literary men for the purpose of securing better international arrangements regarding copyright. Having been elected a member of this, I had the satisfaction of hearing most interesting speeches from Victor Hugo, Tourgueneff, and Edmond About.
And I also did a little Buddha that I consider charming. I am not going to Nohant, for I don't care to go further I away from my mother now. Her society afflicts me and unnerves me, my niece Caroline takes turns with me in carrying on the dear and painful burden. In a fortnight I shall be back in Croisset. Between the 15th and the 20th of August I am expecting the good Tourgueneff there.
But if you don't leave your spun-sugar confectionery business once in a while, and come out among lusty men, the bristly, pachydermatous fellows that hew out the highways for the material progress of society, and the broad-shouldered, out-of-door men that fight for the great prizes of life, you will come to think that the spun-sugar business is the chief end of man, and begin to feel and look as if you believed yourself as much above common people as that personage of whom Tourgueneff says that "he had the air of his own statue erected by national subscription."
Hence his stories are ever sad, but they are not depressing; for his weak characters we sympathize with and do not despise, his strong and generous ones we sorrow for, his lovely women we reverence. And, however great one's admiration of Tourgueneff's books may be, the man Tourgueneff will not appear unworthy of them.
But her father lost no opportunity of warning her that she deceived herself. He had his reasons for doing so. His temper was perfect: his outlook on the world remained that of a genial pessimist, a type of man common enough in our day. He seemed to find a pleasure in urbanely mocking at his own futility. 'I am the sort of man, he once said, 'of whom Tourgueneff would make an admirable study.
Cruchard is weary. The good Tourgueneff leaves this evening for Saint Petersburg. He asks me if I have thanked you for your last book? Could I be guilty of such an oversight? You will see by my Histoire d'un coeur simple where you will recognize your immediate influence, that I am not so obstinate as you think.
I love you with all my heart. Friend, I shall come at your call as soon as you say to me, "I have finished." I love you, and I embrace you. G. Sand CCXCIV. TO GUSTAVE FLAUBERT Nohant, 15 August My poor, dear, old fellow, I learn only today in a letter from that dear, lazy soul of a Tourgueneff, about the misfortune which has come to your niece. Is it then irreparable?
His most discernible characteristic particularly in his walk, his face, in the whole man, and which the Czar perceived at a glance was, that he was "a fulfiller of orders." He therefore possessed one of the most serviceable qualities in Russia one which, as the celebrated novelist Tourgueneff says, "will lead to the highest positions in the Muscovite empire."
It seemed as if we had been for an hour in the presence of the portly critic; and the circle of brilliant men and witty women who surrounded him—Flaubert, Tourguéneff, Théophile Gautier, Renan, George Sand—were realities at that moment, not abstractions with great names. It was like returning from another age, to step out again into the glare and bustle of the Boulevard St. Michel.
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