4, Rue Nungesser et Coli, Paris XVI. - Thanks 'Elisaveta Ivanovna' for showing such concern about her own 'poor naughty heart'. Reksuchka [the dog] was 'so mad with joy' when she got back that it was 'imposssible' for her husband to hug her; then when she had to go to a rehearsal he 'put his paw on her foot, as if to stop [her]'. The theatre did not mind her absence [for a performance in London]; they have had a dress rehearsal already, and the costumes are 'very pretty, but rather heavy'; everyone is nervous about the play ["Crime and Punishment?"] so rehearsals are long. Does not know what she would do without her husband; he asks her to send his thanks to the Trevelyans for their kindness to her. She would be very happy to rest at the Shiffolds, which is 'a dream'; hopes God will let her do that. Managed to avoid sea-sickness on her crossing by praying. Thinks "Anna Karenina" is the 'best of Tolstoi's novels'. She acted the part of Anna for the cinema in Russia in 1914, and was 'so wrapped in the part' she 'studied all the smallest movements of her [Anna's] heart'; they wanted to put it on in the theatre, but Tolstoy, unlike Dostoevsky, is hard to transfer to the stage without losing his 'charm'. Very glad to know the Shiffolds and be able to picture them all there; asks to be remembered to 'Robert Egoritch' and Julian - who 'as usually' was right about the train. Looks forward to Elizabeth visiting her in Paris.
14, rue Nungesser et Coli. - Arrived in Paris two days ago with his father, who is consulting doctors. Rex [the dog] was very glad to see him. [Marie] Germanova is well but very tired after over three hundred and thirty performances of Dostoevesky's play. Is not sure whether he will be able to come to England except for a few days at Whitsuntide; asks if Trevelyan will pass through Paris before 10 June, when he will have to leave to catch his boat at Venice for India. Sends best love to Bessie and Julian.
Rome. - Glad that Elizabeth would like to stay at Grosvenor Cr[escent]; thinks it can easily be arranged, though she should see [Mary] Prestwich who is there now and talk it over with her. She and Sir George will not go to London before Easter this year. Does not want her servants upset, so Prestwich must arrange it with them. Is improving steadily, but does not see how she can get home before the end of the month. Thinks it is an 'excellent plan to send Julian to a class', though she suggests not taking him up before the end of January because of the fogs; she and Sir George are very glad to be able to help. They are more cheerful now as Sir George has 'settled down' and is doing some writing. Does not like the idea of C[harles] and M[ary] taking the children to Cambo in this 'arctic weather'. The 'poor baby' [Marjorie] is to stay at Rounton. Sends love to Robert; Sir George is reading [Dostoevsky's "Brothers] Karamazoff"; she tried to but could not.
The Shiffolds. - He and Bessie are 'glad to good news' of his mother's recovery; hopes she is able to go outside now. The Bottomleys leave on Wednesday; Gordon is 'on the whole a good deal better for his stay in the South'. Bessie and Julian are well; Julian is 'very cheerful, and less likely to be cross and difficult than he was last year'. He was pleased with the 'Italian postcard of the engine' which his grandparents sent him, and asks him to thank them. Thinks 'it will do him good to be in London this Spring, and see something of other children'. Robert and Bessie have finished Dostoevsky's Idiot and are now reading [Austen's] Mansfield Park: 'a considerable contrast'. Was in London yesterday and saw George and Janet briefly; they and their children 'seemed very well and cheerful'.
Last week a Japanese writer, Yone Noguchi, a friend of Gordon Bottomley, came to stay for a night; he teaches English at Tokio, and 'writes English, verse and prose, fairly well. But he is very difficult to understand when he talks, as, like most Japanese, he pronounces very indistinctly' though he was 'several years in England, and ten years in America as a youth, when he was the servant of Joachim Miller, the Californian poet'. He was 'interesting, and talked well' as far as they could understand him, but Robert thinks he 'prefer[s] the educated Chinese to the Japanese'.
Palace Hôtel, Rome. - Has not been reading "The Brothers Karamazov"; was amused by the first two chapters, but they support Robert's observations about 'the hysterical character'; Caroline was also 'stuck' for the same reason. Has seen much of the 'unusually clever and well read American Secretary of Legation' [Arthur Frazier, acting Secretary?], who says the 'three great epochs in foreign novels' are that of Balzac, the Russian epoch (especially 'Tolstoi and Turgenieff') and the Jean Christophe [by Romain Rolland] epoch. The American ambassador, Page, is also a 'man of letters and means', of the same family as the American ambassador in England. Caroline has now been in bed with bronchitis for almost five weeks, and the doctors cannot say when she will be better; she is 'wonderfully patient'.
Little Datchet Farm, Malvern, R.D.1, Pennsylvania. - Agrees that it is difficult to write to distant friends - much unknown and much that cannot be said - but values letters from friends in England more and more. Absurd that Bob's walks on Leith Hill are so restricted. Agrees that ["The Brothers] Karamazov" is a great book, but hates it, and thinks Dostoevsky 'evil': dislikes 'the doctrine that one should sin in order to experience humility'. Has written about John in his letter to Bob [see Russell's "Autobiography"]; Kate is doing very well at Radcliffe, an annex of Harvard; at the moment she is on holiday and they are 'employing her as a servant, because ordinary servants can't be got' (they are all engaged in war work). This is 'terrible slavery' for Peter and she has hardly any time for reading or writing. Conrad is very well, 'a chatter-box, with an enormous vocabulary'; he can read a little, but they have not started him on writing; he is a delight, but it is hard not to wonder 'what sort of world he will have to live in'. Have had a visit from Julian Huxley and several from Ted Lloyd: 'a joy to see friends from England'. Also saw Jos Wedgwood, who was 'quite untamed'. Finds his pupils 'dull', and his employer 'very difficult', but is making a book from his lectures and his research is interesting. Peter 'fairly well', but sad at being exiled from all mental life by house-work'.
P.O. Moradpore, Bankipore. - Thanks Trevelyan for the letter and introductions, though he will not use them, since 'tapirs and Tagores tempt terribly, but samples of either can be met in England' and he wishes to stay in one place until going to the bathing festival at Allahabad. Is having trouble about his passage home and may have to sail from Karachi; Goodall (who was not at Calcutta to see Trevelyan) is dealing with it. Hopes Trevelyan is enjoying Southern India. Bankipore scenery 'quite tropical' because of the toddy palms and malaria-melons; Forster finds the place 'foul' but there is enough going on to amuse him. Likes [Charles] Russell, of Patna College, who has lent him Hiouen Tsang [Xuanzang], Johnstone (whom Trevelyan has dined with), and the Raja of Canika, who is here for the opening of the council. Masood thanks Trevelyan and Dickinson for their messages. Hopes the Karamazov family [Dostoevsky, "The Brothers Karamazov"] have arrived; he sent them to Madras,
Thanks Trevelyan for his ‘kind note from Madras’; is sorry he could not reply earlier as he was busy finishing a picture. He and his brother will be ‘delighted’ to meet E. M. Forster when he visits Calcutta; Tagore will be back in another week so he hopes to be able to meet him.
Has read ‘Masefield’s Poem’, which he does not ‘on the whole… much care for… but there are some very fine passages in the book’. Is now ‘absorbed in Dostoevsky’, which he finds ‘extremely interesting and beautiful. You rarely come across a book like this’ and he is ‘very thankful’ to Trevelyan for recommending it. Would much like to know if any more of Dostoevsky’s work has been translated into English. Will write to his uncle ‘Mr Rabindra’ about the book; is sure he would like it.
Asks if Trevelyan has been able to hear any good music in Madras. Asks to be remembered to Mr Dickinson.
Harnham, Monument Green, Weybridge. - Asks if Trevelyan could lend him some books as the L[ondon] L[ibrary] has failed him; would like some of: Jean Christophe [by Romain Rolland]; Butler's "Life or Habit" [sic: "Life and Habit", Samuel Butler], "Luck or Cunning" and "Evolution Old and New"; Dostoieffsky, "Les Possédés" [Dostoevsky, "Demons"] but not "L'Idiote" as he jokingly says he has 'déjà stucké dans le'. Asks if Trevelyan has read Gertrude Bone's "Women of the Country"; thinks Miss Mayor's book [F.M. Mayor, "The Third Miss Symons"?] is also good. Asks what Trevelyan thinks of Mrs Cornford's "Morality" [Frances Cornford, "Death and the Princess: A Morality"]: he found the middle dull but the end beautiful. Masood is marrying the niece of Sultan Ahmed Khan. Is going to visit Mrs [Hope] Wedgwood at Idlerocks in Staffordshire, then to Meredith in Ireland.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Robert's letter has brought 'a breath of Italy'; wishes he could be there; asks to be remembered kindly to Robert's hosts and wishes he could see Berenson's library. Books now his 'medium for everything': foreign countries, past times, 'vanished friends and opponents'. Has now read the elegiac and iambic fragments in Bergk, and will go on to read the '"Melic poets" as one reads Keats and Shelley'. Has also finished Plautus's "Casina"; a great coincidence 'utterly unimportant in itself' like all great coincidences, that the last time he did so, in 1916, Morton and Kate Philips came to stay as they are doing tonight for the first time since then. Is reading Robert's Tchernov [sic: Chekhov] and thinks the stories may give even 'more vivid and real' a picture of Russian life than Turgenev and Tolstoy, while being 'far less repulsive' than Dostoevsky; though he does not approve of the 'sordid little pictures of conjugal infidelity', which is better done in many French novels and he is 'many years too old for it in any language'.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Has sent back the Chekhov; "Three Years" gives a better picture of the Russia 'of a semi-barbarous state' than anything else he has read: Dostoevesky does too much of this, and 'no nation of such a people as he draws them could have got on even as they did', while Tolstoy remains the aristocrat and Turgenev 'a sweet-natured gentleman'. Is sending a 'short correspondence' and cutting from the London "Guardian" telling of a pleasant thing which will has happened to him; younger people cannot understand 'what an Oriel [College, Oxford] fellowship used to mean'.
Hôtel Floresta, Taormina [headed notepaper]:- Will return to England at the end of the month: would like to join some friends - Marsh, Barran, and Childers - and possibly Charlie, who are going for a few days’ walking tour in Yorkshire. May stop a day or two at Rome, but does not mean to stay anywhere long. Was ‘very glad to learn that C[harlie] had been coopted’ - understands that he has not been elected ‘by a constituency. It shows that they must think a lot of him’. Met an ‘acquaintance’ of Charlie’s the other day, a Miss [Lena] Milman, who writes and translates Dostoevsky; she met Charlie at Lord Crewe’s, and ‘chiefly remembers him as an enthusiast for Jane Austen’. Supposes Georgie will be back [from Madeira] around the same time he returns, having been ‘further afield in this “grand terraqueous spectacle” [Wordsworth] than any of the family than Papa’, since he does not remember their mother having ‘ever ventured beyond Naples or Vienna’.
The Italians ‘have had a terrible disaster [the great defeat by the Ethiopians at Adwa] and there is some talk of the throne having received a dangerous jar’: it is too soon to tell, but certainly many Italians ‘especially in the North are republicans at heart’; Crispi [the Prime Minister] has resigned. Hopes ‘Uncle Sam will stick to his guns about Cuba. That will be so much better than having a senseless shindy with us’. Is ‘anxious’ to hear how the news sounds to her in England: ‘out here they are mere shadows of events, for it is only when history can be talked about and over hauled in conversation that it becomes real’.
The weather has not always been brilliant, though they ‘have not been siroccoed for a week on end again’; is finding it ‘very easy to catch a chill’, as nights can be cold and ‘there are no such things as fires’; still, it is easy to get rid of chills, and he is ‘keeping quite well’. Has discovered something ‘about Papist priests. They dispense with fasting when at an hotel, because table d’hôte does not provide them with a sufficiency of good fish and vegetables’. Also, they are ‘passing fond of Madeira’. Is ‘quite priest-ridden’, though the two in his hotel are ‘the only two of any intelligence and conversation’, and he is ‘deadly sick of watching “The fat and greasy citizens sweep in / To sate their sordid souls at table-d’hôte”’. This is a quotation from ‘a sonnet built out of quotations’ which he and Bertram ‘architected for the Westminster two years ago on the Wengen (?) Alp’.
Cortona (Arezzo). - Apologises for not writing sooner because of ill-health and the heat; Trevelyan has had a token of his regard in the book about Machiavelli which is not meant to be scholarly but has charm and 'is not in the least stupid'; he could tell Lowes Dickinson that Machiavelli has only one 'c'. Trevelyan will see the 'B.B.s' [Bernard Berensons] soon. Is reading Virginia Woolf, and does not think her very entertaining; finds it easier to read, for example, Valéry. Is also reading [Dostoevsky's "Brothers] Karamazov" in what he hopes is a faithful Italian translation, to which he reacts with enthusiasm though says he 'can't think of it as literature'. Sends love to Bessie and Julian if he is there.