Pièce 207 - Letter from Sir George Trevelyan to R. C. Trevelyan

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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'.