"When Sunday
came, I had no alternative but to send Mr.
came, I had no alternative but to send Mr.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v25 - Tas to Tur
The deep, angry, remonstrant eyes, the shaggy eye-
brows, telling tales of frequent anger,-of anger frequent but
generally silent,― the repressed indignation of the habitual frown,
the long nose and large powerful mouth, the deep furrows on
the cheek, and the general look of thought and suffering, all
combined to make the appearance of the man remarkable, and
to describe to the beholders at once his true character. No one
## p. 15047 (#631) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15047
ever on seeing Mr. Crawley took him to be a happy man, or a
weak man, or an ignorant man, or a wise man.
"You are very punctual, Mr. Crawley," said the bishop. Mr.
Crawley simply bowed his head, still keeping his hands beneath.
his cloak. "Will you not take a chair nearer to the fire? " Mr.
Crawley had not seated himself, but had placed himself in front
of a chair at the extreme end of the room, resolved that he
would not use it unless he were duly asked. Now he seated
himself, still at a distance.
-
"Thank you, my lord," he said: "I am warm with walking,
and if you please, will avoid the fire. "
"You have not walked, Mr. Crawley? "
"Yes, my lord. I have been walking. "
"Not from Hogglestock! "
Now, this was a matter which Mr. Crawley certainly did not
mean to discuss with the bishop. It might be well for the bishop
to demand his presence in the palace, but it could be no part of
the bishop's duty to inquire how he got there. "That, my lord,
is a matter of no moment," said he. "I am glad at any rate
that I have been enabled to obey your Lordship's order in coming
hither on this morning. "
Hitherto Mrs. Proudie had not said a word. She stood
back in the room, near the fire,- more backward a good deal
than she was accustomed to do when clergymen made their ordi-
nary visits.
On such occasions she would come forward and
shake hands with them graciously,- graciously even if proudly:
but she felt that she must do nothing of that kind now; there
must be no shaking hands with a man who had stolen a cheque
for twenty pounds! It might probably be necessary to keep
Mr. Crawley at a distance; and therefore she had remained in
the background. But Mr. Crawley seemed to be disposed to keep
himself in the background, and therefore she could speak. "I
hope your wife and children are well, Mr. Crawley? " she said.
"Thank you, madam, my children are well, and Mrs. Crawley
suffers no special ailment at present. "
"That is much to be thankful for, Mr. Crawley. " Whether
he were or were not thankful for such mercies as these, was no
business of the bishop or the bishop's wife. That was between
him and his God. So he would not even bow to this civility,
but sat with his head erect, and with a great frown on his heavy
brow.
――――――
## p. 15048 (#632) ##########################################
15048
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
Then the bishop rose from his chair to speak, intending to
take up a position on the rug. But as he did so Mr. Crawley
rose also, and the bishop found that he would thus lose his
expected vantage. "Will you not be seated, Mr. Crawley? " said
the bishop. Mr. Crawley smiled, but stood his ground. Then the
bishop returned to his arm-chair, and Mr. Crawley also sat down
again. "Mr. Crawley," began the bishop, "this matter which came
the other day before the magistrates at Silverbridge has been a
most unfortunate affair. It has given me, I can assure you, the
most sincere pain. "
Mr. Crawley had made up his mind how far the bishop should
be allowed to go without a rebuke. He had told himself that
it would only be natural, and would not be unbecoming, that
the bishop should allude to the meeting of the magistrates and
to the alleged theft, and that therefore such allusion should be
endured with patient humility. And moreover, the more rope
he gave the bishop, the more likely the bishop would be to en-
tangle himself. It certainly was Mr. Crawley's wish that the
bishop should entangle himself. He therefore replied very meekly,
"It has been most unfortunate, my lord. "
"I have felt for Mrs. Crawley very deeply," said Mrs. Proudie.
Mr. Crawley had now made up his mind that as long as it was
possible he would ignore the presence of Mrs. Proudie altogether;
and therefore he made no sign that he heard the latter remark.
"It has been most unfortunate," continued the bishop. "I
have never before had a clergyman in my diocese placed in so
distressing a position. "
"That is a matter of opinion, my lord," said Mr. Crawley, who
at that moment thought of a crisis which had come in the life of
another clergyman in the diocese of Barchester, with the circum-
stances of which he had by chance been made acquainted.
"Exactly," said the bishop. "And I am expressing my opin
ion. " Mr. Crawley, who understood fighting, did not think that
the time had yet come for striking a blow, so he simply bowed
again. "A most unfortunate position, Mr. Crawley," continued the
bishop. "Far be it from me to express an opinion upon the mat-
ter, which will have to come before a jury of your countrymen.
It is enough for me to know that the magistrates assembled at
Silverbridge-gentlemen to whom no doubt you must be known,
as most of them live in your neighborhood-have heard evidence
upon the subject — »
## p. 15049 (#633) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15049
―――
"Most convincing evidence," said Mrs. Proudie, interrupting
her husband. Mr. Crawley's black brow became a little blacker
as he heard the word, but still he ignored the woman. He not
only did not speak, but did not turn his eye upon her.
"They have heard the evidence on the subject," continued the
bishop, "and they have thought it proper to refer the decision as
to your innocence or your guilt to a jury of your countrymen. "
"And they were right," said Mr. Crawley.
"Very possibly. I don't deny it. Probably," said the bishop,
whose eloquence was somewhat disturbed by Mr. Crawley's ready
acquiescence.
"Of course they were right," said Mrs. Proudie.
"At any rate it is so," said the bishop. "You are in the
position of a man amenable to the criminal laws of the land. "
"There are no criminal laws, my lord," said Mr. Crawley;
"but to such laws as there are, we are all amenable,- your
Lordship and I alike. ”
"But you are so in a very particular way. I do not wish to
remind you what might be your condition now, but for the inter-
position of private friends. "
"I should be in the condition of a man not guilty before the
law, guiltless, as far as the law goes,- but kept in durance, not
for faults of his own, but because otherwise, by reason of laches
in the police, his presence at the assizes might not be insured.
In such a position a man's reputation is made to hang for a
while on the trust which some friends or neighbors may have in
it. I do not say that the test is a good one. "
"You would have been put in prison, Mr. Crawley, because
the magistrates were of the opinion that you had taken Mr.
Soames's cheque," said Mrs. Proudie. On this occasion he did
look at her. He turned one glance upon her from under his eye-
brows, but he did not speak.
"With all that I have nothing to do," said the bishop.
"Nothing whatever, my lord," said Mr. Crawley.
"But, bishop, I think that you have," said Mrs. Proudie.
"The judgment formed by the magistrates as to the conduct of
one of your clergymen makes it imperative upon you to act in
the matter. "
"Yes, my dear, yes; I am coming to that. What Mrs. Proudie
says is perfectly true. I have been constrained most unwillingly
to take action in this matter. It is undoubtedly the fact that you
## p. 15050 (#634) ##########################################
15050
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
must at the next assizes surrender yourself at the court-house
yonder, to be tried for this offense against the laws. "
"That is true. If I be alive, my lord, and have strength suf-
ficient, I shall be there. "
"You must be there," said Mrs. Proudie. "The police will
look to that, Mr. Crawley. " She was becoming very angry in
that the man would not answer her a word. On this occasion
again he did not even look at her.
"Yes; you will be there," said the bishop. "Now that is, to
say the least of it, an unseemly position for a beneficed clergy-
man. "
"You said before, my lord, that it was an unfortunate position;
and the word, methinks, was better chosen. "
་་
"It is very unseemly, very unseemly indeed," said Mrs.
Proudie; "nothing could possibly be more unseemly. The bishop
might very properly have used a much stronger word. "
"Under these circumstances," continued the bishop, "looking
to the welfare of your parish, to the welfare of the diocese, and
allow me to say, Mr. Crawley, to the welfare of yourself also-"
"And especially to the souls of the people," said Mrs. Proudie.
The bishop shook his head. It is hard to be impressively
eloquent when one is interrupted at every best turned period,
even by a supporting voice. "Yes;-and looking of course to
the religious interests of your people, Mr. Crawley, I came to
the conclusion that it would be expedient that you should cease
your ministrations for a while. " The bishop paused, and Mr.
Crawley bowed his head. "I therefore sent over to you a gen-
tleman with whom I am well acquainted - Mr. Thumble — with a
letter from myself, in which I endeavored to impress upon you,
without the use of any severe language, what my convictions
were. "
-
"Severe words are often the best mercy," said Mrs. Proudie.
Mr. Crawley had raised his hand, with his finger out, preparatory
to answering the bishop. But as Mrs. Proudie had spoken he
dropped his finger and was silent.
"Mr. Thumble brought me back your written reply," contin-
ued the bishop, "by which I was grieved to find that you were
not willing to submit yourself to my counsel in the matter. "
"I was most unwilling, my lord. Submission to authority is
at times a duty;- and at times opposition to authority is a duty
also. "
## p. 15051 (#635) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15051
Opposition to just authority cannot be a duty, Mr. Craw-
«<
ley,»
"Opposition to usurped authority is an imperative duty," said
Mr. Crawley.
"And who is to be the judge? " demanded Mrs. Proudie.
Then there was silence for a while; when, as Mr. Crawley made
no reply, the lady repeated her question. "Will you be pleased
to answer my question, sir? Who, in such a case, is to be the
judge? » But Mr. Crawley did not please to answer. "The man
is obstinate," said Mrs. Proudie.
"I had better proceed," said the bishop. "Mr. Thumble
brought me back your reply, which grieved me greatly. "
"It was contumacious and indecent," said Mrs. Proudie.
The bishop again shook his head, and looked so unutterably
miserable that a smile came across Mr. Crawley's face. After all,
others besides himself had their troubles and trials. Mrs. Proudie
saw and understood the smile, and became more angry than
ever. She drew her chair close to the table, and began to fidget
with her fingers among the papers. She had never before en-
countered a clergyman so contumacious, so indecent, so unrev-
erend, so upsetting. She had had to do with men difficult to
manage, the archdeacon, for instance; but the archdeacon had
never been so impertinent to her as this man.
She had quar-
reled once openly with a chaplain of her husband's, a clergyman
whom she herself had introduced to her husband, and who had
treated her very badly, but not so badly, not with such unscru-
pulous violence, as she was now encountering from this ill-
clothed beggarly man, this perpetual curate, with his dirty broken
boots, this already half-convicted thief! Such was her idea of
Mr. Crawley's conduct to her, while she was fingering the papers,
simply because Mr. Crawley would not speak to her.
"I forget where I was," said the bishop. "Oh, Mr. Thumble.
came back, and I received your letter;- of course I received it.
And I was surprised to learn from that, that in spite of what
had occurred at Silverbridge, you were still anxious to continue
the usual Sunday ministrations in your church. "
"
"I was determined that I would do my duty at Hogglestock
as long as I might be left there to do it," said Mr. Crawley.
"Duty! " said Mrs. Proudie.
-
―――――
—
"Just a moment, my dear," said the bishop.
"When Sunday
came, I had no alternative but to send Mr. Thumble over again
to Hogglestock. It occurred to us - to me and Mrs. Proudie- »
## p. 15052 (#636) ##########################################
15052
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
"I will tell Mr. Crawley just now what has occurred to me,”
said Mrs. Proudie.
"Yes; just so. And I am sure that he will take it in good
part. It occurred to me, Mr. Crawley, that your first letter might
have been written in haste. >>
-
"It was written in haste, my lord: your messenger was
waiting. "
"Yes; just so. Well, so I sent him again, hoping that he
might be accepted as a messenger of peace. It was a most dis-
agreeable mission for any gentleman, Mr. Crawley. "
"Most disagreeable, my lord. "
"And you refused him permission to obey the instructions
which I had given him! You would not let him read from your
desk, or preach from your pulpit. "
"Had I been Mr. Thumble," said Mrs. Proudie, "I would
have read from that desk and I would have preached from that
pulpit. "
Mr. Crawley waited a moment, thinking that the bishop might
perhaps speak again; but as he did not, but sat expectant, as
though he had finished his discourse and now expected a reply,
Mr. Crawley got up from his seat and drew near to the table.
"My lord," he began, "it has all been just as you have said.
did answer your first letter in haste. "
―
"The more shame for you," said Mrs. Proudie.
"And therefore, for aught I know, my letter to your Lordship
may be so worded as to need some apology. "
"Of course it needs an apology," said Mrs. Proudie.
"But for the matter of it, my lord, no apology can be made,
nor is any needed. I did refuse to your messenger permission
to perform the services of my church, and if you send twenty
more, I shall refuse them all,-till the time may come when it
will be your Lordship's duty, in accordance with the laws of the
Church, as borne out and backed by the laws of the land, to pro-
vide during my constrained absence for the spiritual wants of
those poor people at Hogglestock. "
"Poor people, indeed," said Mrs. Proudie. "Poor wretches! "
"And my lord, it may be that it shall soon be your Lordship's
duty to take due and legal steps for depriving me of my benefice
at Hogglestock; - nay, probably for silencing me altogether as to
the exercise of my sacred profession! "
"Of course it will, sir. Your gown will be taken from you,"
said Mrs. Proudie. The bishop was looking with all his eyes up
## p. 15053 (#637) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15053
at the great forehead and great eyebrows of the man, and was so
fascinated by the power that was exercised over him by the other
man's strength that he hardly now noticed his wife.
"It may well be so," continued Mr. Crawley. "The circum-
stances are strong against me; and though your Lordship has
altogether misunderstood the nature of the duty performed by
the magistrates in sending my case for trial,- although, as it
seems to me, you have come to conclusions in this matter in
ignorance of the very theory of our laws, — »
"Sir! " said Mrs. Proudie.
"Yet I can foresee the probability that a jury may discover
me to have been guilty of theft. "
"Of course the jury will do so," said Mrs. Proudie.
"Should such verdict be given, then, my lord, your interfer-
ence will be legal, proper, and necessary. And you will find
that, even if it be within my power to oppose obstacles to your
Lordship's authority, I will oppose no such obstacle.
There is,
I
believe, no appeal in criminal cases. "
"None at all," said Mrs. Proudie. "There is no appeal
against your bishop. You should have learned that before. "
« But till that time shall come, my lord, I shall hold my own
at Hogglestock as you hold your own here at Barchester. Nor
have you more power to turn me out of my pulpit by your mere
voice, than I have to turn you out of your throne by mine.
If
you doubt me, my lord, your Lordship's ecclesiastical court is
open to you. Try it there. "
"You defy us, then? " said Mrs. Proudie.
"My lord, I grant your authority as bishop to be great, but
even a bishop can only act as the law allows him. "
"God forbid that I should do more," said the bishop.
<< Sir, you will find that your wicked threats will fall back
upon your own head," said Mrs. Proudie.
"Peace, woman," Mr. Crawley said, addressing her at last.
The bishop jumped out of his chair at hearing the wife of his
bosom called a woman. But he jumped rather in admiration than
in anger.
He had already begun to perceive that Mr. Crawley
was a man who had better be left to take care of the souls at
Hogglestock, at any rate till the trial should come on.
"Woman! " said Mrs. Proudie, rising to her feet as though
she really intended some personal encounter.
"Madam," said Mr. Crawley, "you should not interfere in
these matters. You simply debase your husband's high office.
## p. 15054 (#638) ##########################################
15054
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
The distaff were more fitting for you. My lord, good morning. "
And before either of them could speak again, he was out of the
room, and through the hall, and beyond the gate, and standing
beneath the towers of the cathedral. Yes, he had, he thought,
crushed the bishop. He had succeeded in crumpling the bishop
up within the clutch of his fist.
He started in a spirit of triumph to walk back on his road
towards Hogglestock. He did not think of the long distance
before him for the first hour of his journey. He had had his
victory, and the remembrance of that braced his nerves and gave
elasticity to his sinews; and he went stalking along the road
with rapid strides, muttering to himself from time to time as he
went along some word about Mrs. Proudie and her distaff. Mr.
Thumble would not, he thought, come to him again,- not, at
any rate, till the assizes were drawing near. And he had resolved
what he would do then. When the day of his trial was near, he
would himself write to the bishop, and beg that provision might
be made for his church, in the event of the verdict going against
him. His friend Dean Arabin was to be home before that time,
and the idea had occurred to him of asking the dean to see to
this. But the other would be the more independent course, and
the better. And there was a matter as to which he was not
altogether well pleased with the dean, although he was so con-
scious of his own peculiarities as to know that he could hardly
trust himself for a judgment. But at any rate, he would apply
to the bishop-to the bishop whom he had just left prostrate in
his palace
when the time of his trial should be close at hand.
Full of such thoughts as these, he went along almost gayly,
nor felt the fatigue of the road till he had covered the first five
miles out of Barchester. It was nearly four o'clock, and the
thick gloom of the winter evening was making itself felt. And
then he began to be fatigued. He had not as yet eaten since he
had left his home in the morning; and he now pulled a crust out
of his pocket and leaned against a gate as he crunched it. There
were still ten miles before him, and he knew that such an addi-
tion to the work he had already done would task him very
severely. Farmer Mangle had told him that he would not leave
Framley Mill till five, and he had got time to reach Framley
Mill by that time. But he had said that he would not return to
Framley Mill, and he remembered his suspicion that his wife and
Farmer Mangle between them had cozened him. No: he would
persevere and walk,- walk, though he should drop upon the
-
## p. 15055 (#639) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15055
road. He was now nearer fifty than forty years of age, and
hardships as well as time had told upon him. He knew that
though his strength was good for the commencement of a hard
day's work, it would not hold out for him as it used to do.
He
knew that the last four miles in the dark night would be very
sad with him. But still he persevered; endeavoring, as he went,
to cherish himself with the remembrance of his triumph.
He passed the turning going down to Framley with courage;
but when he came to the further turning, by which the cart
would return from Framley to the Hogglestock road, he looked
wistfully down the road for Farmer Mangle. But Farmer Mangle
was still at the mill, waiting in expectation that Mr. Crawley
might come to him. But the poor traveler paused here barely
for a minute, and then went on; stumbling through the mud,
striking his ill-covered feet against the rough stones in the dark,
sweating in his weakness, almost tottering at times, and calculat-
ing whether his remaining strength would serve to carry him
home. He had almost forgotten the bishop and his wife before
at last he grasped the wicket gate leading to his own door.
"O mamma, here is papa! "
"But where is the cart? I did not hear the wheels," said
Mrs. Crawley.
"O mamma, I think papa is ill. " Then the wife took her
drooping husband by both arms and strove to look him in the
face.
"He has walked all the way, and he is ill," said Jane.
"No, my dear, I am very tired, but not ill. Let me sit down,
and give me some bread and tea, and I shall recover myself. "
Then Mrs. Crawley, from some secret hoard, got him a small
modicum of spirits, and gave him meat and tea; and he was
docile, and obeying her behests, allowed himself to be taken to
his bed.
"I do not think the bishop will send for me again," he said,
as she tucked the clothes around him.
## p. 15056 (#640) ##########################################
15056
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE NOVELIST
From the Autobiography>
VAST proportion of the teaching of the day-greater, prob-
than many of us have acknowledged to ourselves
comes from novels which are in the hands of all readers.
It is from them that girls learn what is expected from them,
and what they are to expect, when lovers come; and also from
them that young men unconsciously learn what are, or should
be, or may be, the charms of love,- though I fancy that few
young men will think so little of their natural instincts and
powers as to believe that I am right in saying so. Many other
lessons also are taught. In these times, when the desire to be
honest is pressed so hard, is so violently assaulted by the ambi-
tion to be great; in which riches are the easiest road to great-
ness; when the temptations to which men are subjected dull
their eyes to the perfected iniquities of others; when it is so hard
for a man to decide vigorously that the pitch which so many are
handling will defile him if it be touched,- men's conduct will
be actuated much by that which is from day to day depicted to
them as leading to glorious or inglorious results.
The
young man who in a novel becomes a hero, perhaps a Member of
Parliament, and almost a prime minister, by trickery, falsehood,
and flash cleverness, will have many followers, whose attempts to
rise in the world ought to lie heavily on the conscience of the
novelists who create fictitious Cagliostros.
Thinking of all this, as a novelist surely must do,-as I cer-
tainly have done through my whole career,—it becomes to him
a matter of deep conscience how he shall handle those charac-
ters by whose words and doings he hopes to interest his readers.
The writer of stories must please, or he will be noth-
ing. And he must teach, whether he wish to teach or no. How
shall he teach lessons of virtue, and at the same time make him-
self a delight to his readers? The novelist, if he have a con-
science, must preach his sermons with the same purpose as the
clergyman, and must have his own system of ethics. If he can
do this efficiently, if he can make virtue alluring and vice ugly,
while he charms his readers instead of wearying them, then I
think Mr. Carlyle need not call him distressed, nor talk of that
long ear of fiction, nor question whether he be or not the most
foolish of existing mortals.
·
•
## p. 15056 (#641) ##########################################
## p. 15056 (#642) ##########################################
ຈ
@nu
TURGÉNIEFF.
## p. 15056 (#643) ##########################################
## p. 15056 (#644) ##########################################
ringe
2
## p. 15057 (#645) ##########################################
15057
IVAN TURGENEFF
(1818-1883)
BY HENRY JAMES
HERE is perhaps no novelist of alien race who more naturally
than Ivan Turgeneff inherits a niche in a Library for Eng-
lish readers; and this not because of any advance or con-
cession that in his peculiar artistic independence he ever made, or
could dream of making, such readers, but because it was one of the
effects of his peculiar genius to give him, even in his lifetime, a
special place in the regard of foreign publics. His position is in this
respect singular; for it is his Russian savor that as much as any-
thing has helped generally to domesticate him.
Born in 1818, at Orel in the heart of Russia, and dying in 1883,
at Bougival near Paris, he had spent in Germany and France the
latter half of his life; and had incurred in his own country in some
degree the reprobation that is apt to attach to the absent, the pen-
alty they pay for such extension or such beguilement as they may
have happened to find over the border. He belonged to the class
of large rural proprietors of land and of serfs; and with his ample
patrimony, offered one of the few examples of literary labor achieved.
in high independence of the question of gain, a character that he
shares with his illustrious contemporary Tolstoy, who is of a type in
other respects so different. It may give us an idea of his primary
situation to imagine some large Virginian or Carolinian slaveholder,
during the first half of the century, inclining to "Northern" views;
and becoming (though not predominantly under pressure of these, but
rather by the operation of an exquisite genius) the great American
novelist - one of the great novelists of the world. Born under a social
and political order sternly repressive, all Turgeneff's deep instincts,
all his moral passion, placed him on the liberal side; with the conse-
quence that early in life, after a period spent at a German university,
he found himself, through the accident of a trifling public utterance,
under such suspicion in high places as to be sentenced to a term of
tempered exile,— confinement to his own estate. It was partly under
these circumstances perhaps that he gathered material for the work
from the appearance of which his reputation dates,-'A Sportsman's
Sketches,' published in two volumes in 1852. This admirable collec-
tion of impressions of homely country life, as the old state of servitude
had made it, is often spoken of as having borne to the great decree
XXV-942
―
## p. 15058 (#646) ##########################################
15058
IVAN TURGENEFF
of Alexander II. the relation borne by Mrs. Beecher Stowe's famous
novel to the emancipation of the Southern slaves. Incontestably,
at any rate, Turgeneff's rustic studies sounded, like 'Uncle Tom's
Cabin,' a particular hour: with the difference, however, of not having
at the time produced an agitation,- of having rather presented the
case with an art too insidious for instant recognition, an art that
stirred the depths more than the surface.
The author was designated promptly enough, at any rate, for
such influence as might best be exercised at a distance: he traveled,
he lived abroad; early in the sixties he was settled in Germany; he
acquired property at Baden-Baden, and spent there the last years of
the prosperous period-in the history of the place of which the
Franco-Prussian War was to mark the violent term. He cast in his
lot after that event mainly with the victims of the lost cause; setting
up a fresh home in Paris,-near which city he had, on the Seine, a
charming alternate residence,—and passing in it, and in the country,
save for brief revisitations, the remainder of his days. His friend-
ships, his attachments, in the world of art and of letters, were numer-
ous and distinguished; he never married; he produced, as the years
went on, without precipitation or frequency; and these were the
years during which his reputation gradually established itself as,
according to the phrase, European,- a phrase denoting in this case,
perhaps, a public more alert in the United States even than else-
where.
Tolstoy, his junior by ten years, had meanwhile come to fruition;
though, as in fact happened, it was not till after Turgeneff's death
that the greater fame of War and Peace' and of 'Anna Karénina'
began to be blown about the world. One of the last acts of the elder
writer, performed on his death-bed, was to address to the other
(from whom for a considerable term he had been estranged by cir-
cumstances needless to reproduce) an appeal to return to the exercise
of the genius that Tolstoy had already so lamentably, so monstrously
forsworn. "I am on my death-bed; there is no possibility of my
recovery. I write you expressly to tell you how happy I have been
to be your contemporary, and to utter my last, my urgent prayer.
Come back, my friend, to your literary labors. That gift came to
you from the source from which all comes to us. Ah, how happy
I should be could I think you would listen to my entreaty! My
friend, great writer of our Russian land, respond to it, obey it! "
These words, among the most touching surely ever addressed by
one great spirit to another, throw an indirect light — perhaps I may
even say a direct one-upon the nature and quality of Turgeneff's
artistic temperament; so much so that I regret being without oppor-
tunity, in this place, to gather such aid for a portrait of him as
might be supplied by following out the unlikeness between the pair.
## p. 15059 (#647) ##########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
15059
It would be too easy to say that Tolstoy was, from the Russian
point of view, for home consumption, and Turgeneff for foreign: War
and Peace' has probably had more readers in Europe and America
than 'A House of Gentle folk' or 'On the Eve' or 'Smoke,'.
a cir-
cumstance less detrimental than it may appear to my claim of our
having, in the Western world, supremely adopted the author of the
latter works. Turgeneff is in a peculiar degree what I may call
the novelists' novelist, - an artistic influence extraordinarily valuable
and ineradicably established. The perusal of Tolstoy a wonderful
mass of life is an immense event, a kind of splendid accident, for
each of us: his name represents nevertheless no such eternal spell of
method, no such quiet irresistibility of presentation, as shines, close
to us and lighting our possible steps, in that of his precursor. Tol-
stoy is a reflector as vast as a natural lake; a monster harnessed
to his great subject - all human life! - as an elephant might be har-
nessed, for purposes of traction, not to a carriage, but to a coach-
house. His own case is prodigious, but his example for others dire:
disciples not elephantine he can only mislead and betray.
One by one, for thirty years, with a firm, deliberate hand, with
intervals and patiences and waits, Turgeneff pricked in his sharp
outlines. His great external mark is probably his concision: an
ideal he never threw over,-it shines most perhaps even when he is
least brief, and that he often applied with a rare felicity. He has
masterpieces of a few pages; his perfect things are sometimes his
least prolonged. He abounds in short tales, episodes clipped as by
the scissors of Atropos; but for a direct translation of the whole we
have still to wait,- depending meanwhile upon the French and Ger-
man versions, which have been, instead of the original text (thanks to
the paucity among us of readers of Russian), the source of several
published in English. For the novels and 'A Sportsman's Sketches'
we depend upon the nine volumes (1897) of Mrs. Garnett. We touch
here upon the remarkable side, to our vision, of the writer's fortune,
-the anomaly of his having constrained to intimacy even those
who are shut out from the enjoyment of his medium, for whom
that question is positively prevented from existing. Putting aside
extrinsic intimations, it is impossible to read him without the convic-
tion of his being, in the vividness of his own tongue, of the strong
type of those made to bring home to us the happy truth of the
unity, in a generous talent, of material and form,- of their being
inevitable faces of the same medal; the type of those, in a word,
whose example deals death to the perpetual clumsy assumption that
subject and style are -æsthetically speaking, or in the living work-
different and separable things. We are conscious, reading him in a
language not his own, of not being reached by his personal tone, his
individual accent.
-
――
-
## p. 15060 (#648) ##########################################
15060
IVAN TURGENEFF
It is a testimony therefore to the intensity of his presence,
that so much of his particular charm does reach us; that the mask
turned to us has, even without his expression, still so much beauty.
It is the beauty (since we must try to formulate) of the finest pres-
entation of the familiar. His vision is of the world of character
and feeling, the world of the relations life throws up at every hour
and on every spot; he deals little, on the whole, in the miracles of
chance, the hours and spots over the edge of time and space; his
air is that of the great central region of passion and motive, of the
usual, the inevitable, the intimate the intimate for weal or woe.
No theme that he ever chooses but strikes us as full; yet with all
have we the sense that their animation comes from within, and is
not pinned to their backs like the pricking objects used of old in the
horse-races of the Roman carnival, to make the animals run. With-
out a patch of "plot" to draw blood, the story he mainly tells us, the
situation he mainly gives, runs as if for dear life. His first book
was practically full evidence of what, if we have to specify, is finest
in him, the effect, for the commonest truth, of an exquisite envelope
of poetry. In this medium of feeling,-full, as it were, of all the
echoes and shocks of the universal danger and need,-everything in
him goes on; the sense of fate and folly and pity and wonder and
beauty. The tenderness, the humor, the variety of 'A Sportsman's
Sketches' revealed on the spot an observer with a rare imagination.
These faculties had attached themselves, together, to small things
and to great: to the misery, the simplicity, the piety, the patience,
of the unemancipated peasant; to all the natural wonderful life of
earth and air and winter and summer and field and forest; to queer
apparitions of country neighbors, of strange local eccentrics; to old-
world practices and superstitions; to secrets gathered and types disin-
terred and impressions absorbed in the long, close contacts with man
and nature involved in the passionate pursuit of game. Magnificent
in stature and original vigor, Turgeneff, with his love of the chase,
or rather perhaps of the inspiration he found in it, would have been
the model of the mighty hunter, had not such an image been a little
at variance with his natural mildness, the softness that often accom-
panies the sense of an extraordinary reach of limb and play of mus-
cle.
brows, telling tales of frequent anger,-of anger frequent but
generally silent,― the repressed indignation of the habitual frown,
the long nose and large powerful mouth, the deep furrows on
the cheek, and the general look of thought and suffering, all
combined to make the appearance of the man remarkable, and
to describe to the beholders at once his true character. No one
## p. 15047 (#631) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15047
ever on seeing Mr. Crawley took him to be a happy man, or a
weak man, or an ignorant man, or a wise man.
"You are very punctual, Mr. Crawley," said the bishop. Mr.
Crawley simply bowed his head, still keeping his hands beneath.
his cloak. "Will you not take a chair nearer to the fire? " Mr.
Crawley had not seated himself, but had placed himself in front
of a chair at the extreme end of the room, resolved that he
would not use it unless he were duly asked. Now he seated
himself, still at a distance.
-
"Thank you, my lord," he said: "I am warm with walking,
and if you please, will avoid the fire. "
"You have not walked, Mr. Crawley? "
"Yes, my lord. I have been walking. "
"Not from Hogglestock! "
Now, this was a matter which Mr. Crawley certainly did not
mean to discuss with the bishop. It might be well for the bishop
to demand his presence in the palace, but it could be no part of
the bishop's duty to inquire how he got there. "That, my lord,
is a matter of no moment," said he. "I am glad at any rate
that I have been enabled to obey your Lordship's order in coming
hither on this morning. "
Hitherto Mrs. Proudie had not said a word. She stood
back in the room, near the fire,- more backward a good deal
than she was accustomed to do when clergymen made their ordi-
nary visits.
On such occasions she would come forward and
shake hands with them graciously,- graciously even if proudly:
but she felt that she must do nothing of that kind now; there
must be no shaking hands with a man who had stolen a cheque
for twenty pounds! It might probably be necessary to keep
Mr. Crawley at a distance; and therefore she had remained in
the background. But Mr. Crawley seemed to be disposed to keep
himself in the background, and therefore she could speak. "I
hope your wife and children are well, Mr. Crawley? " she said.
"Thank you, madam, my children are well, and Mrs. Crawley
suffers no special ailment at present. "
"That is much to be thankful for, Mr. Crawley. " Whether
he were or were not thankful for such mercies as these, was no
business of the bishop or the bishop's wife. That was between
him and his God. So he would not even bow to this civility,
but sat with his head erect, and with a great frown on his heavy
brow.
――――――
## p. 15048 (#632) ##########################################
15048
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
Then the bishop rose from his chair to speak, intending to
take up a position on the rug. But as he did so Mr. Crawley
rose also, and the bishop found that he would thus lose his
expected vantage. "Will you not be seated, Mr. Crawley? " said
the bishop. Mr. Crawley smiled, but stood his ground. Then the
bishop returned to his arm-chair, and Mr. Crawley also sat down
again. "Mr. Crawley," began the bishop, "this matter which came
the other day before the magistrates at Silverbridge has been a
most unfortunate affair. It has given me, I can assure you, the
most sincere pain. "
Mr. Crawley had made up his mind how far the bishop should
be allowed to go without a rebuke. He had told himself that
it would only be natural, and would not be unbecoming, that
the bishop should allude to the meeting of the magistrates and
to the alleged theft, and that therefore such allusion should be
endured with patient humility. And moreover, the more rope
he gave the bishop, the more likely the bishop would be to en-
tangle himself. It certainly was Mr. Crawley's wish that the
bishop should entangle himself. He therefore replied very meekly,
"It has been most unfortunate, my lord. "
"I have felt for Mrs. Crawley very deeply," said Mrs. Proudie.
Mr. Crawley had now made up his mind that as long as it was
possible he would ignore the presence of Mrs. Proudie altogether;
and therefore he made no sign that he heard the latter remark.
"It has been most unfortunate," continued the bishop. "I
have never before had a clergyman in my diocese placed in so
distressing a position. "
"That is a matter of opinion, my lord," said Mr. Crawley, who
at that moment thought of a crisis which had come in the life of
another clergyman in the diocese of Barchester, with the circum-
stances of which he had by chance been made acquainted.
"Exactly," said the bishop. "And I am expressing my opin
ion. " Mr. Crawley, who understood fighting, did not think that
the time had yet come for striking a blow, so he simply bowed
again. "A most unfortunate position, Mr. Crawley," continued the
bishop. "Far be it from me to express an opinion upon the mat-
ter, which will have to come before a jury of your countrymen.
It is enough for me to know that the magistrates assembled at
Silverbridge-gentlemen to whom no doubt you must be known,
as most of them live in your neighborhood-have heard evidence
upon the subject — »
## p. 15049 (#633) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15049
―――
"Most convincing evidence," said Mrs. Proudie, interrupting
her husband. Mr. Crawley's black brow became a little blacker
as he heard the word, but still he ignored the woman. He not
only did not speak, but did not turn his eye upon her.
"They have heard the evidence on the subject," continued the
bishop, "and they have thought it proper to refer the decision as
to your innocence or your guilt to a jury of your countrymen. "
"And they were right," said Mr. Crawley.
"Very possibly. I don't deny it. Probably," said the bishop,
whose eloquence was somewhat disturbed by Mr. Crawley's ready
acquiescence.
"Of course they were right," said Mrs. Proudie.
"At any rate it is so," said the bishop. "You are in the
position of a man amenable to the criminal laws of the land. "
"There are no criminal laws, my lord," said Mr. Crawley;
"but to such laws as there are, we are all amenable,- your
Lordship and I alike. ”
"But you are so in a very particular way. I do not wish to
remind you what might be your condition now, but for the inter-
position of private friends. "
"I should be in the condition of a man not guilty before the
law, guiltless, as far as the law goes,- but kept in durance, not
for faults of his own, but because otherwise, by reason of laches
in the police, his presence at the assizes might not be insured.
In such a position a man's reputation is made to hang for a
while on the trust which some friends or neighbors may have in
it. I do not say that the test is a good one. "
"You would have been put in prison, Mr. Crawley, because
the magistrates were of the opinion that you had taken Mr.
Soames's cheque," said Mrs. Proudie. On this occasion he did
look at her. He turned one glance upon her from under his eye-
brows, but he did not speak.
"With all that I have nothing to do," said the bishop.
"Nothing whatever, my lord," said Mr. Crawley.
"But, bishop, I think that you have," said Mrs. Proudie.
"The judgment formed by the magistrates as to the conduct of
one of your clergymen makes it imperative upon you to act in
the matter. "
"Yes, my dear, yes; I am coming to that. What Mrs. Proudie
says is perfectly true. I have been constrained most unwillingly
to take action in this matter. It is undoubtedly the fact that you
## p. 15050 (#634) ##########################################
15050
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
must at the next assizes surrender yourself at the court-house
yonder, to be tried for this offense against the laws. "
"That is true. If I be alive, my lord, and have strength suf-
ficient, I shall be there. "
"You must be there," said Mrs. Proudie. "The police will
look to that, Mr. Crawley. " She was becoming very angry in
that the man would not answer her a word. On this occasion
again he did not even look at her.
"Yes; you will be there," said the bishop. "Now that is, to
say the least of it, an unseemly position for a beneficed clergy-
man. "
"You said before, my lord, that it was an unfortunate position;
and the word, methinks, was better chosen. "
་་
"It is very unseemly, very unseemly indeed," said Mrs.
Proudie; "nothing could possibly be more unseemly. The bishop
might very properly have used a much stronger word. "
"Under these circumstances," continued the bishop, "looking
to the welfare of your parish, to the welfare of the diocese, and
allow me to say, Mr. Crawley, to the welfare of yourself also-"
"And especially to the souls of the people," said Mrs. Proudie.
The bishop shook his head. It is hard to be impressively
eloquent when one is interrupted at every best turned period,
even by a supporting voice. "Yes;-and looking of course to
the religious interests of your people, Mr. Crawley, I came to
the conclusion that it would be expedient that you should cease
your ministrations for a while. " The bishop paused, and Mr.
Crawley bowed his head. "I therefore sent over to you a gen-
tleman with whom I am well acquainted - Mr. Thumble — with a
letter from myself, in which I endeavored to impress upon you,
without the use of any severe language, what my convictions
were. "
-
"Severe words are often the best mercy," said Mrs. Proudie.
Mr. Crawley had raised his hand, with his finger out, preparatory
to answering the bishop. But as Mrs. Proudie had spoken he
dropped his finger and was silent.
"Mr. Thumble brought me back your written reply," contin-
ued the bishop, "by which I was grieved to find that you were
not willing to submit yourself to my counsel in the matter. "
"I was most unwilling, my lord. Submission to authority is
at times a duty;- and at times opposition to authority is a duty
also. "
## p. 15051 (#635) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15051
Opposition to just authority cannot be a duty, Mr. Craw-
«<
ley,»
"Opposition to usurped authority is an imperative duty," said
Mr. Crawley.
"And who is to be the judge? " demanded Mrs. Proudie.
Then there was silence for a while; when, as Mr. Crawley made
no reply, the lady repeated her question. "Will you be pleased
to answer my question, sir? Who, in such a case, is to be the
judge? » But Mr. Crawley did not please to answer. "The man
is obstinate," said Mrs. Proudie.
"I had better proceed," said the bishop. "Mr. Thumble
brought me back your reply, which grieved me greatly. "
"It was contumacious and indecent," said Mrs. Proudie.
The bishop again shook his head, and looked so unutterably
miserable that a smile came across Mr. Crawley's face. After all,
others besides himself had their troubles and trials. Mrs. Proudie
saw and understood the smile, and became more angry than
ever. She drew her chair close to the table, and began to fidget
with her fingers among the papers. She had never before en-
countered a clergyman so contumacious, so indecent, so unrev-
erend, so upsetting. She had had to do with men difficult to
manage, the archdeacon, for instance; but the archdeacon had
never been so impertinent to her as this man.
She had quar-
reled once openly with a chaplain of her husband's, a clergyman
whom she herself had introduced to her husband, and who had
treated her very badly, but not so badly, not with such unscru-
pulous violence, as she was now encountering from this ill-
clothed beggarly man, this perpetual curate, with his dirty broken
boots, this already half-convicted thief! Such was her idea of
Mr. Crawley's conduct to her, while she was fingering the papers,
simply because Mr. Crawley would not speak to her.
"I forget where I was," said the bishop. "Oh, Mr. Thumble.
came back, and I received your letter;- of course I received it.
And I was surprised to learn from that, that in spite of what
had occurred at Silverbridge, you were still anxious to continue
the usual Sunday ministrations in your church. "
"
"I was determined that I would do my duty at Hogglestock
as long as I might be left there to do it," said Mr. Crawley.
"Duty! " said Mrs. Proudie.
-
―――――
—
"Just a moment, my dear," said the bishop.
"When Sunday
came, I had no alternative but to send Mr. Thumble over again
to Hogglestock. It occurred to us - to me and Mrs. Proudie- »
## p. 15052 (#636) ##########################################
15052
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
"I will tell Mr. Crawley just now what has occurred to me,”
said Mrs. Proudie.
"Yes; just so. And I am sure that he will take it in good
part. It occurred to me, Mr. Crawley, that your first letter might
have been written in haste. >>
-
"It was written in haste, my lord: your messenger was
waiting. "
"Yes; just so. Well, so I sent him again, hoping that he
might be accepted as a messenger of peace. It was a most dis-
agreeable mission for any gentleman, Mr. Crawley. "
"Most disagreeable, my lord. "
"And you refused him permission to obey the instructions
which I had given him! You would not let him read from your
desk, or preach from your pulpit. "
"Had I been Mr. Thumble," said Mrs. Proudie, "I would
have read from that desk and I would have preached from that
pulpit. "
Mr. Crawley waited a moment, thinking that the bishop might
perhaps speak again; but as he did not, but sat expectant, as
though he had finished his discourse and now expected a reply,
Mr. Crawley got up from his seat and drew near to the table.
"My lord," he began, "it has all been just as you have said.
did answer your first letter in haste. "
―
"The more shame for you," said Mrs. Proudie.
"And therefore, for aught I know, my letter to your Lordship
may be so worded as to need some apology. "
"Of course it needs an apology," said Mrs. Proudie.
"But for the matter of it, my lord, no apology can be made,
nor is any needed. I did refuse to your messenger permission
to perform the services of my church, and if you send twenty
more, I shall refuse them all,-till the time may come when it
will be your Lordship's duty, in accordance with the laws of the
Church, as borne out and backed by the laws of the land, to pro-
vide during my constrained absence for the spiritual wants of
those poor people at Hogglestock. "
"Poor people, indeed," said Mrs. Proudie. "Poor wretches! "
"And my lord, it may be that it shall soon be your Lordship's
duty to take due and legal steps for depriving me of my benefice
at Hogglestock; - nay, probably for silencing me altogether as to
the exercise of my sacred profession! "
"Of course it will, sir. Your gown will be taken from you,"
said Mrs. Proudie. The bishop was looking with all his eyes up
## p. 15053 (#637) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15053
at the great forehead and great eyebrows of the man, and was so
fascinated by the power that was exercised over him by the other
man's strength that he hardly now noticed his wife.
"It may well be so," continued Mr. Crawley. "The circum-
stances are strong against me; and though your Lordship has
altogether misunderstood the nature of the duty performed by
the magistrates in sending my case for trial,- although, as it
seems to me, you have come to conclusions in this matter in
ignorance of the very theory of our laws, — »
"Sir! " said Mrs. Proudie.
"Yet I can foresee the probability that a jury may discover
me to have been guilty of theft. "
"Of course the jury will do so," said Mrs. Proudie.
"Should such verdict be given, then, my lord, your interfer-
ence will be legal, proper, and necessary. And you will find
that, even if it be within my power to oppose obstacles to your
Lordship's authority, I will oppose no such obstacle.
There is,
I
believe, no appeal in criminal cases. "
"None at all," said Mrs. Proudie. "There is no appeal
against your bishop. You should have learned that before. "
« But till that time shall come, my lord, I shall hold my own
at Hogglestock as you hold your own here at Barchester. Nor
have you more power to turn me out of my pulpit by your mere
voice, than I have to turn you out of your throne by mine.
If
you doubt me, my lord, your Lordship's ecclesiastical court is
open to you. Try it there. "
"You defy us, then? " said Mrs. Proudie.
"My lord, I grant your authority as bishop to be great, but
even a bishop can only act as the law allows him. "
"God forbid that I should do more," said the bishop.
<< Sir, you will find that your wicked threats will fall back
upon your own head," said Mrs. Proudie.
"Peace, woman," Mr. Crawley said, addressing her at last.
The bishop jumped out of his chair at hearing the wife of his
bosom called a woman. But he jumped rather in admiration than
in anger.
He had already begun to perceive that Mr. Crawley
was a man who had better be left to take care of the souls at
Hogglestock, at any rate till the trial should come on.
"Woman! " said Mrs. Proudie, rising to her feet as though
she really intended some personal encounter.
"Madam," said Mr. Crawley, "you should not interfere in
these matters. You simply debase your husband's high office.
## p. 15054 (#638) ##########################################
15054
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
The distaff were more fitting for you. My lord, good morning. "
And before either of them could speak again, he was out of the
room, and through the hall, and beyond the gate, and standing
beneath the towers of the cathedral. Yes, he had, he thought,
crushed the bishop. He had succeeded in crumpling the bishop
up within the clutch of his fist.
He started in a spirit of triumph to walk back on his road
towards Hogglestock. He did not think of the long distance
before him for the first hour of his journey. He had had his
victory, and the remembrance of that braced his nerves and gave
elasticity to his sinews; and he went stalking along the road
with rapid strides, muttering to himself from time to time as he
went along some word about Mrs. Proudie and her distaff. Mr.
Thumble would not, he thought, come to him again,- not, at
any rate, till the assizes were drawing near. And he had resolved
what he would do then. When the day of his trial was near, he
would himself write to the bishop, and beg that provision might
be made for his church, in the event of the verdict going against
him. His friend Dean Arabin was to be home before that time,
and the idea had occurred to him of asking the dean to see to
this. But the other would be the more independent course, and
the better. And there was a matter as to which he was not
altogether well pleased with the dean, although he was so con-
scious of his own peculiarities as to know that he could hardly
trust himself for a judgment. But at any rate, he would apply
to the bishop-to the bishop whom he had just left prostrate in
his palace
when the time of his trial should be close at hand.
Full of such thoughts as these, he went along almost gayly,
nor felt the fatigue of the road till he had covered the first five
miles out of Barchester. It was nearly four o'clock, and the
thick gloom of the winter evening was making itself felt. And
then he began to be fatigued. He had not as yet eaten since he
had left his home in the morning; and he now pulled a crust out
of his pocket and leaned against a gate as he crunched it. There
were still ten miles before him, and he knew that such an addi-
tion to the work he had already done would task him very
severely. Farmer Mangle had told him that he would not leave
Framley Mill till five, and he had got time to reach Framley
Mill by that time. But he had said that he would not return to
Framley Mill, and he remembered his suspicion that his wife and
Farmer Mangle between them had cozened him. No: he would
persevere and walk,- walk, though he should drop upon the
-
## p. 15055 (#639) ##########################################
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
15055
road. He was now nearer fifty than forty years of age, and
hardships as well as time had told upon him. He knew that
though his strength was good for the commencement of a hard
day's work, it would not hold out for him as it used to do.
He
knew that the last four miles in the dark night would be very
sad with him. But still he persevered; endeavoring, as he went,
to cherish himself with the remembrance of his triumph.
He passed the turning going down to Framley with courage;
but when he came to the further turning, by which the cart
would return from Framley to the Hogglestock road, he looked
wistfully down the road for Farmer Mangle. But Farmer Mangle
was still at the mill, waiting in expectation that Mr. Crawley
might come to him. But the poor traveler paused here barely
for a minute, and then went on; stumbling through the mud,
striking his ill-covered feet against the rough stones in the dark,
sweating in his weakness, almost tottering at times, and calculat-
ing whether his remaining strength would serve to carry him
home. He had almost forgotten the bishop and his wife before
at last he grasped the wicket gate leading to his own door.
"O mamma, here is papa! "
"But where is the cart? I did not hear the wheels," said
Mrs. Crawley.
"O mamma, I think papa is ill. " Then the wife took her
drooping husband by both arms and strove to look him in the
face.
"He has walked all the way, and he is ill," said Jane.
"No, my dear, I am very tired, but not ill. Let me sit down,
and give me some bread and tea, and I shall recover myself. "
Then Mrs. Crawley, from some secret hoard, got him a small
modicum of spirits, and gave him meat and tea; and he was
docile, and obeying her behests, allowed himself to be taken to
his bed.
"I do not think the bishop will send for me again," he said,
as she tucked the clothes around him.
## p. 15056 (#640) ##########################################
15056
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE NOVELIST
From the Autobiography>
VAST proportion of the teaching of the day-greater, prob-
than many of us have acknowledged to ourselves
comes from novels which are in the hands of all readers.
It is from them that girls learn what is expected from them,
and what they are to expect, when lovers come; and also from
them that young men unconsciously learn what are, or should
be, or may be, the charms of love,- though I fancy that few
young men will think so little of their natural instincts and
powers as to believe that I am right in saying so. Many other
lessons also are taught. In these times, when the desire to be
honest is pressed so hard, is so violently assaulted by the ambi-
tion to be great; in which riches are the easiest road to great-
ness; when the temptations to which men are subjected dull
their eyes to the perfected iniquities of others; when it is so hard
for a man to decide vigorously that the pitch which so many are
handling will defile him if it be touched,- men's conduct will
be actuated much by that which is from day to day depicted to
them as leading to glorious or inglorious results.
The
young man who in a novel becomes a hero, perhaps a Member of
Parliament, and almost a prime minister, by trickery, falsehood,
and flash cleverness, will have many followers, whose attempts to
rise in the world ought to lie heavily on the conscience of the
novelists who create fictitious Cagliostros.
Thinking of all this, as a novelist surely must do,-as I cer-
tainly have done through my whole career,—it becomes to him
a matter of deep conscience how he shall handle those charac-
ters by whose words and doings he hopes to interest his readers.
The writer of stories must please, or he will be noth-
ing. And he must teach, whether he wish to teach or no. How
shall he teach lessons of virtue, and at the same time make him-
self a delight to his readers? The novelist, if he have a con-
science, must preach his sermons with the same purpose as the
clergyman, and must have his own system of ethics. If he can
do this efficiently, if he can make virtue alluring and vice ugly,
while he charms his readers instead of wearying them, then I
think Mr. Carlyle need not call him distressed, nor talk of that
long ear of fiction, nor question whether he be or not the most
foolish of existing mortals.
·
•
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ຈ
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TURGÉNIEFF.
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ringe
2
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15057
IVAN TURGENEFF
(1818-1883)
BY HENRY JAMES
HERE is perhaps no novelist of alien race who more naturally
than Ivan Turgeneff inherits a niche in a Library for Eng-
lish readers; and this not because of any advance or con-
cession that in his peculiar artistic independence he ever made, or
could dream of making, such readers, but because it was one of the
effects of his peculiar genius to give him, even in his lifetime, a
special place in the regard of foreign publics. His position is in this
respect singular; for it is his Russian savor that as much as any-
thing has helped generally to domesticate him.
Born in 1818, at Orel in the heart of Russia, and dying in 1883,
at Bougival near Paris, he had spent in Germany and France the
latter half of his life; and had incurred in his own country in some
degree the reprobation that is apt to attach to the absent, the pen-
alty they pay for such extension or such beguilement as they may
have happened to find over the border. He belonged to the class
of large rural proprietors of land and of serfs; and with his ample
patrimony, offered one of the few examples of literary labor achieved.
in high independence of the question of gain, a character that he
shares with his illustrious contemporary Tolstoy, who is of a type in
other respects so different. It may give us an idea of his primary
situation to imagine some large Virginian or Carolinian slaveholder,
during the first half of the century, inclining to "Northern" views;
and becoming (though not predominantly under pressure of these, but
rather by the operation of an exquisite genius) the great American
novelist - one of the great novelists of the world. Born under a social
and political order sternly repressive, all Turgeneff's deep instincts,
all his moral passion, placed him on the liberal side; with the conse-
quence that early in life, after a period spent at a German university,
he found himself, through the accident of a trifling public utterance,
under such suspicion in high places as to be sentenced to a term of
tempered exile,— confinement to his own estate. It was partly under
these circumstances perhaps that he gathered material for the work
from the appearance of which his reputation dates,-'A Sportsman's
Sketches,' published in two volumes in 1852. This admirable collec-
tion of impressions of homely country life, as the old state of servitude
had made it, is often spoken of as having borne to the great decree
XXV-942
―
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15058
IVAN TURGENEFF
of Alexander II. the relation borne by Mrs. Beecher Stowe's famous
novel to the emancipation of the Southern slaves. Incontestably,
at any rate, Turgeneff's rustic studies sounded, like 'Uncle Tom's
Cabin,' a particular hour: with the difference, however, of not having
at the time produced an agitation,- of having rather presented the
case with an art too insidious for instant recognition, an art that
stirred the depths more than the surface.
The author was designated promptly enough, at any rate, for
such influence as might best be exercised at a distance: he traveled,
he lived abroad; early in the sixties he was settled in Germany; he
acquired property at Baden-Baden, and spent there the last years of
the prosperous period-in the history of the place of which the
Franco-Prussian War was to mark the violent term. He cast in his
lot after that event mainly with the victims of the lost cause; setting
up a fresh home in Paris,-near which city he had, on the Seine, a
charming alternate residence,—and passing in it, and in the country,
save for brief revisitations, the remainder of his days. His friend-
ships, his attachments, in the world of art and of letters, were numer-
ous and distinguished; he never married; he produced, as the years
went on, without precipitation or frequency; and these were the
years during which his reputation gradually established itself as,
according to the phrase, European,- a phrase denoting in this case,
perhaps, a public more alert in the United States even than else-
where.
Tolstoy, his junior by ten years, had meanwhile come to fruition;
though, as in fact happened, it was not till after Turgeneff's death
that the greater fame of War and Peace' and of 'Anna Karénina'
began to be blown about the world. One of the last acts of the elder
writer, performed on his death-bed, was to address to the other
(from whom for a considerable term he had been estranged by cir-
cumstances needless to reproduce) an appeal to return to the exercise
of the genius that Tolstoy had already so lamentably, so monstrously
forsworn. "I am on my death-bed; there is no possibility of my
recovery. I write you expressly to tell you how happy I have been
to be your contemporary, and to utter my last, my urgent prayer.
Come back, my friend, to your literary labors. That gift came to
you from the source from which all comes to us. Ah, how happy
I should be could I think you would listen to my entreaty! My
friend, great writer of our Russian land, respond to it, obey it! "
These words, among the most touching surely ever addressed by
one great spirit to another, throw an indirect light — perhaps I may
even say a direct one-upon the nature and quality of Turgeneff's
artistic temperament; so much so that I regret being without oppor-
tunity, in this place, to gather such aid for a portrait of him as
might be supplied by following out the unlikeness between the pair.
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IVAN TURGENEFF
15059
It would be too easy to say that Tolstoy was, from the Russian
point of view, for home consumption, and Turgeneff for foreign: War
and Peace' has probably had more readers in Europe and America
than 'A House of Gentle folk' or 'On the Eve' or 'Smoke,'.
a cir-
cumstance less detrimental than it may appear to my claim of our
having, in the Western world, supremely adopted the author of the
latter works. Turgeneff is in a peculiar degree what I may call
the novelists' novelist, - an artistic influence extraordinarily valuable
and ineradicably established. The perusal of Tolstoy a wonderful
mass of life is an immense event, a kind of splendid accident, for
each of us: his name represents nevertheless no such eternal spell of
method, no such quiet irresistibility of presentation, as shines, close
to us and lighting our possible steps, in that of his precursor. Tol-
stoy is a reflector as vast as a natural lake; a monster harnessed
to his great subject - all human life! - as an elephant might be har-
nessed, for purposes of traction, not to a carriage, but to a coach-
house. His own case is prodigious, but his example for others dire:
disciples not elephantine he can only mislead and betray.
One by one, for thirty years, with a firm, deliberate hand, with
intervals and patiences and waits, Turgeneff pricked in his sharp
outlines. His great external mark is probably his concision: an
ideal he never threw over,-it shines most perhaps even when he is
least brief, and that he often applied with a rare felicity. He has
masterpieces of a few pages; his perfect things are sometimes his
least prolonged. He abounds in short tales, episodes clipped as by
the scissors of Atropos; but for a direct translation of the whole we
have still to wait,- depending meanwhile upon the French and Ger-
man versions, which have been, instead of the original text (thanks to
the paucity among us of readers of Russian), the source of several
published in English. For the novels and 'A Sportsman's Sketches'
we depend upon the nine volumes (1897) of Mrs. Garnett. We touch
here upon the remarkable side, to our vision, of the writer's fortune,
-the anomaly of his having constrained to intimacy even those
who are shut out from the enjoyment of his medium, for whom
that question is positively prevented from existing. Putting aside
extrinsic intimations, it is impossible to read him without the convic-
tion of his being, in the vividness of his own tongue, of the strong
type of those made to bring home to us the happy truth of the
unity, in a generous talent, of material and form,- of their being
inevitable faces of the same medal; the type of those, in a word,
whose example deals death to the perpetual clumsy assumption that
subject and style are -æsthetically speaking, or in the living work-
different and separable things. We are conscious, reading him in a
language not his own, of not being reached by his personal tone, his
individual accent.
-
――
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15060
IVAN TURGENEFF
It is a testimony therefore to the intensity of his presence,
that so much of his particular charm does reach us; that the mask
turned to us has, even without his expression, still so much beauty.
It is the beauty (since we must try to formulate) of the finest pres-
entation of the familiar. His vision is of the world of character
and feeling, the world of the relations life throws up at every hour
and on every spot; he deals little, on the whole, in the miracles of
chance, the hours and spots over the edge of time and space; his
air is that of the great central region of passion and motive, of the
usual, the inevitable, the intimate the intimate for weal or woe.
No theme that he ever chooses but strikes us as full; yet with all
have we the sense that their animation comes from within, and is
not pinned to their backs like the pricking objects used of old in the
horse-races of the Roman carnival, to make the animals run. With-
out a patch of "plot" to draw blood, the story he mainly tells us, the
situation he mainly gives, runs as if for dear life. His first book
was practically full evidence of what, if we have to specify, is finest
in him, the effect, for the commonest truth, of an exquisite envelope
of poetry. In this medium of feeling,-full, as it were, of all the
echoes and shocks of the universal danger and need,-everything in
him goes on; the sense of fate and folly and pity and wonder and
beauty. The tenderness, the humor, the variety of 'A Sportsman's
Sketches' revealed on the spot an observer with a rare imagination.
These faculties had attached themselves, together, to small things
and to great: to the misery, the simplicity, the piety, the patience,
of the unemancipated peasant; to all the natural wonderful life of
earth and air and winter and summer and field and forest; to queer
apparitions of country neighbors, of strange local eccentrics; to old-
world practices and superstitions; to secrets gathered and types disin-
terred and impressions absorbed in the long, close contacts with man
and nature involved in the passionate pursuit of game. Magnificent
in stature and original vigor, Turgeneff, with his love of the chase,
or rather perhaps of the inspiration he found in it, would have been
the model of the mighty hunter, had not such an image been a little
at variance with his natural mildness, the softness that often accom-
panies the sense of an extraordinary reach of limb and play of mus-
cle.
