Pièce 257 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Sir George Trevelyan

The Shiffolds, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking. - Julian and Bessie start for the Netherlands on Friday; Robert had hoped to travel with them, then on to Italy as the Berensons have invited him to stay for a few weeks, but it would be 'very difficult' to get from the Netherlands to Italy at the moment, so he is 'going direct through Paris'.

Is just finishing correcting his proofs of his Lucretius; has translated 'rather more than a third [of De Rerum Natura]' and doubts he will 'ever do much more of it'. After reading two volumes of [Richardson's] Charles Grandison, he and Bessie have 'laid him aside for a time, and are reading some of Tchehov's short stories. A more absolute contrast could not be imagined'. At his best Chekhov seems 'quite perfect', though he has 'a certain proportion [of] pot-boilers, that don't amount to much' but are 'always brilliantly told'. They like Sir Charles Grandison, the book rather than the character, and 'find even the parts that ought to be dull, amusing in their way'; however, it seems to Robert inferior in most respects to Clarissa*'.