3 God… rank: A slightly misquoted line from Woe from Wit, A. S. Griboyedov’s comedy of 1824 (Act II, Scene 5).
4 Hegelists: The idealism of the German philosopher Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) was very popular with the Russian intelligentsia of the 1830s and 1840s, Turgenev’s own generation.
5 Aesop: Sixth-century BC Greek author of fables, here meaning ‘a character’.
Chapter VI
1 Liebig: Justus Liebig (1803–73), German chemist.
Chapter VII
1 Corps des Pages: Founded in 1697 and housed in the Vorontsov Palace in St Petersburg, the Corps of Pages was socially the most exclusive of Russian military schools. Its cadets acted as pages at court ceremonies.
2 Baden: Baden-Baden, the famous spa in the German Black Forest, frequented by many fashionable Russians including Turgenev himself, who settled there for a while.
3 Marino… in honour of his wife: I.e. Marino after Mariya.
4 Wellington… Louis-Philippe: The Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), victor over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and British Tory politician; Louis-Philippe (1773–1850), King of the French (1830–48).
5 their estate isn’t divided: Normally, after a death an estate or inheritance would be divided up among the heirs.
6 Galignani: See chapter IV, note 5.
Chapter VIII
1 Mais je puis te donner de l’argent: But I can give you money (French).
2 polite form of address: I.e. she called them ‘you’ rather than ‘thou’.
3 St Nicholas the Thaumaturge: Or ‘Wonderworker’, fourth-century Bishop of Myra, a major saint of the Orthodox Church and also the original Santa Claus.
4 Yermolov: A. P. Yermolov (1772–1861), a famous Russian general, who fought against the French in 1812 and in the wars in the Caucasus.
5 Streltsy: Historical novel set in the reign of Peter the Great (1832) by the popular novelist K. P. Masalsky.
6 fireplace: The point being that a fireplace was a Western import, Russian houses traditionally having stoves.
Chapter IX
1 bad luck: I.e. by praising them, as he’s done to the baby.
2 Bene: Good (Italian).
3 Schubert’s Erwartung: ‘Expectation’, a song of 1815, D 159, by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797–1828).
4 pater familias: Father or head of a family (Latin).
Chapter X
1 Stoff und Kraft: Kraft und Stoff (Force and Matter), a controversial materialist book by the German physician Ludwig Büchner (1824–99) was published in 1855 and translated into Russian in 1860.
2 ‘The Gypsies’: A long dramatic poem of 1825.
3 inspection of the province: Senior civil servants carried out regular inspections of the local administration (the theme of Gogol’s famous play The Government Inspector of 1836).
4 Privy Councillor: No. 3 in the (civilian) Table of Ranks.
5 general aide-de-camp: A military rank attached to the Tsar’s person.
6 bien public: Public good (French).
7 liberation: I.e. the coming Emancipation of the Serfs.
8 un barbouilleur: Scribbler (French).
9 Moscow… was burnt down by a penny candle: Referring to the fire that destroyed much of Moscow during Napoleon’s invasion of 1812.
10 Raphael: Raffaello Sanzio (1483–1520), one of the most celebrated artists of the Italian Renaissance, famous for the perfection of his paintings.
11 A Maiden at the Fountain: An actual ultra-realistic painting of 1859 by Novikovich.
12 peasant commune: Or mir, the primitive Russian peasant commune, organized on the basis of collective responsibilities, thought by some to contain the essence of agrarian socialism.
13 vieilli: Antiquated (French).
14 bon soir: Good evening (French).
Chapter XI
1 Pardon, monsieur: Sorry, sir (French).
Chapter XII
1 marshal of nobility: Elected every three years by the dvoryanstvo or nobility of a province to represent their interests.
2 l’énergie… d’état: Energy is the first quality of a statesman (French).
3 Guizot: François Guizot (1787–1874), conservative French politician and historian.
4 Alexander I: Nicholas I’s initially liberal but in the end reactionary elder brother who ruled Russia as Tsar 1801–25.
5 Madame Svechina: Sofiya Petrovna Svechina (1782–1859), mystical writer and fashionable salonnière.
6 Condillac: Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715–80), French philosopher of the Enlightenment.
7 is quite a favourite: In English in the original text.
8 il a fait son temps: It has had its day (French).
9 Bourdaloue: Louis Bourdaloue (1632–1704), influential French divine and preacher.
10 Slavophile’s: The Slavophile movement, in politics, literature, art and philosophy, was opposed to Westernization and Western ideas and stressed Russian tradition and national peculiarity. Slavophiles would indicate their persuasion in their dress and home as well.
11 with the corners turned down: As etiquette decreed, indicating the visiting card had been left personally.
12 émancipée: Emancipated (French).
13 state liquor business: The government monopoly in the sale of spirits was leased out to individuals – a famously corrupt business.
Chapter XIII
1 Entrez: Enter (French).
2 Moskovskiye vedomosti: The Moscow Gazette, a semi-official journal published from 1756 to 1917. Kislyakov is a fictitious name.
3 George Sand: Pen name of Aurore Dupin (1804–76), free-living feminist and prolific novelist. Her work had been very popular with intellectual Russia in the 1840s.
4 Emerson: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82), American philosopher.
5 Yelisevich: A fictitious name for a radical journalist.
6 Pathfinder: The Pathfinder is one of a series of novels known as the ‘Leatherstocking Tales’ by James Fenimore Cooper (1789– 1851) recounting the adventures of Natty ‘Hawkeye’ Bumppo (who is the ‘pathfinder’).
7 Bunsen: Robert Bunsen (1811–99), German chemist and Professor of Chemistry at Heidelberg 1852–89.
8 mon amie: My friend (French).
9 Proudhon: Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–65), French journalist, economist and social thinker, an opponent of the emancipation of women.
10 Macaulay: Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), British historian and liberal politician.
11 Slavophile: See chapter XII, note 10.
12 Domostroy: Sixteenth-century manual for the conducting of life; it was supposed to advocate wife-beating.
13 Michelet’s De l’Amour: Jules Michelet (1798–1874), French journalist and historian. His De l’Amour was published in 1859.
14 Et toc… tin-tin-tin: Refrain from ‘The drunkard and his wife’ by the French song-writer Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780–1857).
15 Seymour Schiff’s romance ‘Drowsy Granada slumbers’: Seymour Schiff, popular composer and pianist. The closing lines of the romance ‘Night in Granada’, for which he wrote the music, are misquoted.
Chapter XIV
1 en vrai chevalier français: Like a true French knight (French).
2 Enchanté: Enchanted (French).
3 crinoline: A stiffened petticoat or structure of metal hoops to support the voluminous skirts of the period. Not to wear one would be the sign of an emancipated woman and could be viewed as ‘shocking’.
4 said ‘si j’aurais’… certainly: The mistakes are that he says ‘if I would have’ instead of ‘if I had’ and ‘absolutely’ instead of ‘certainly’.
Chapter XV
1 good Russian: The point being that many aristocratic Russian women, educated by foreign governesses, spoke poor Russian.
2 Optime: Very good (Latin).
Chapter XVI
1 Alexandrine: The name given to the architectural style of a simplified neoclassicism associated with the reign of Al
exander I (1801–25).
2 Speransky: Count Mikhail Speransky (1772–1839), statesman during the reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I, sometimes known as the father of Russian liberalism.
3 Saxon Switzerland: A hilly and scenic area of Saxony in southwestern Germany on the Elbe, beloved of artists.
4 sinful: Because sugar used to be clarified with blood.
5 préférence: A whist-like card game.
6 Fantasy in C-Minor: The Fantasy in C-Minor, K. 475, of 1785 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91).
Chapter XVII
1 Toggenburg… Minnesingers… troubadours: Toggenburg, the knightly hero of Ritter Toggenburg (1797), Schiller’s ballad of chivalrous love; Minnesingers and troubadours were the German and Provençal medieval poets and minstrels of courtly love.
2 Notions générales de Chimie: This work, General Principles of Chemistry, by two professors of chemistry at the École Polytechnique, had been published in Paris in 1853.
Chapter XVIII
1 Ganot’s Traité élémentaire de physique expérimentale: Adolphe Ganot’s Treatise of Experimental Physics had been published in Paris in 1851, and a Russian translation appeared in 1862.
Chapter XIX
1 crossed herself: In thanks for the departure of the, to her, unwelcome guests.
Chapter XX
1 homme fait: A real man (French).
2 Hufeland: Christoph-Wilhelm Hufeland (1762–1836), German scientist known for his The Art of Prolonging Human Life (Macrobiotics), published in 1796 – i.e. long out of date.
3 summer now: I.e. the bathhouse wasn’t being used.
4 Suum cuique: To each his own (Latin).
5 quit-rent: See chapter III, note1.
6 Friend of Health: Drug zdraviya, a medical periodical published in St Petersburg 1833–69.
7 Schönlein and Rademacher: J. L. Schönlein (1793–1864) and J. G. Rademacher (1772–1849), German medical scholars.
8 Hoffman… humoral pathologist… Brown… “Vitalism”: Friedrich Hoffman (1660–1742), German medical scholar; humoral pathology refers all disease to the state of the cardinal humours, the four chief fluids of the body; John Brown (1735–88), Scottish doctor and founder of the Brunonian system; Vitalism was a biological theory which proclaimed the presence in all organisms of a governing life-force.
9 voilà tout: That’s all (French).
10 Prince Wittgenstein and of Zhukovsky: Prince Peter Wittgenstein (1768–1842), Russian field-marshal and commander in the 1812 war against Napoleon; V. A. Zhukovsky (1783–1852), poet and tutor of Alexander II as a boy.
11 men of 14 December from the Army of the South: An allusion to the Decembrist rising against Tsar Nicholas I of 14 December 1825 and the part played in it by the ‘Southern Society’, leading members of which served in the Army of the South.
12 Paracelsus: T. B. Paracelsus (1493–1541), famous Swiss doctor.
13 In herbis, verbis et lapidibus: With herbs, words and minerals (Latin).
14 ad patres: To his fathers (Latin).
15 Napoleon III… Italian question: The Italian independence movement, the Risorgimento, and the involvement in it of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, were major European issues of the day.
16 preserves: The sweet course of an old-fashioned Russian dinner would consist of home-made fruit conserves and jams.
17 Horace: Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65–8 BC), Latin lyric poet.
18 Morpheus: The Roman god of dreams.
19 holy idiots: The mentally deficient were thought to be blessed by God and often lived off charity.
20 Maundy Thursday salt: Salt specially prepared on the Thursday before Easter was regarded as a universal panacea.
21 Alexis, or The Cottage in the Wood: A popular sentimental novel (1788) by the French writer F. G. Ducray-Dumesnil (1761–1819), which was very successful in its Russian translation.
22 bows to the ground: The traditional greeting of serf to master.
Chapter XXI
1 Cincinnatus: Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Roman patrician, according to tradition called from the plough on his farm in 458 BC and appointed dictator against the Aequi enemy.
2 Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Swiss Enlightenment philosopher (1712–78), who among other things advocated the benefits of the simple life.
3 en amateur: As an amateur (French).
4 homo novus: A new man (Latin).
5 kissed him on the shoulder: A traditional salutation of respect from an inferior.
6 amice: My friend (Latin).
7 Robert le Diable: An opera of 1831 by the German composer Jakob Meyerbeer (1791–1864).
8 Suvorov: Prince Alexander Suvorov (1729–1800), great Russian commander against the Turks and against Napoleon – famous for his crossing of the Alps in 1799.
9 Castor and Pollux: Classical Greek twin demigods and heroes.
10 Dioscuri: ‘Sons of Zeus’, another name for Castor and Pollux as sons of the king of the gods.
11 Vladimir: The military order of St Vladimir, founded by Catherine II in 1792, which conferred hereditary nobility on the recipient.
12 handshake: The traditionally devout would kiss a priest’s hand while he would bless them.
13 silver: Silver money was worth more than paper banknotes.
Chapter XXII
1 poor Nikolay Petrovich was having a hard time: Nikolay Petrovich’s problems with running his estate echo Turgenev’s own difficulties with his peasants at Spasskoye.
2 desyatina: An old unit of land measurement equivalent to 2.7 acres.
3 Council of Trustees: Founded by Catherine II to safeguard the interests of orphans. In the course of time it became responsible among other things for the provision of credit and mortgage facilities.
4 Du calme, du calme: Calm, calm (French).
5 Sunday schools: Schools for adult literacy were developed from 1859 onwards.
Chapter XXIII
1 Baltic barons: The noble landowners of the Baltic provinces, mostly of German origin.
Chapter XXIV
1 comme il faut: Gentlemanly style (French).
2 À bon entendeur salut: He that hath ears, let him hear (French).
3 utile dulci: The useful with the pleasant (Latin).
4 vertige: Giddiness (French).
5 Mrs Radcliffe: Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823), successful English writer of ‘Gothic’ novels, the most famous being The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794).
6 Sir Robert Peel: (1788–1850), British Conservative politician and prime minister.
7 Couchez-vous: Go to bed (French).
8 Pasha: Affectionate diminutive of Pavel.
9 C’est de la même famille: It’s the same type (French).
10 belle-sœur: Sister-in-law (French).
11 au dix-neuvième siècle: In the nineteenth century (French).
12 Quelle idée: What an idea (French).
Chapter XXV
1 Heine: Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), German Romantic lyric poet, many of whose poems were set to music.
2 kvass: A lightly fermented home-made drink made with rye flour.
3 Kaluga governor’s wife: The reference here is to the writer Nikolay Gogol’s letter to A. O. Rosset-Smirnova of 6 June 1846 originally excised by the censor from his selected correspondence. First published in 1860 under the title ‘What is a governor’s wife?’, it was criticized by liberals as reactionary and sententious.
Chapter XXVI
1 e volatu: A mangled version of the French et voilà tout, ‘and that’s all’.
Chapter XXVII
1 The time… love: I.e. a trashy romance.
2 mir which rests on three fishes: There is a play on words here between mir, commune, and mir, world or earth. Also in early Russian mythology the earth rested on three fishes.
3 Goulard water: A lead-acetate-based lotion named after the French physician Thomas Goulard (1720–90)
4 Napoleon: He means Napoleon III, then on the French throne (1852–70).
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5 lunar caustic: Lapis infernalis, ‘the stone of hell’ – silver nitrate, used by doctors to cauterize wounds.
6 Elysian Fields: In Greek mythology the paradise of the blessed.
7 Stoic: A follower of the Stoa, a Greek philosophical school characterized by the austerity of its ethics
8 duty as a Christian: I.e. receive the last rites of the Church.
9 Wo ist der Kranke: Where is the sick man (German)?
10 wertester Herr College: Respected colleague – in the Russian a bit garbled from the German.
11 iam moritur: Now he’s dying (Latin). Latin had been the international language of medicine.
12 Der Herr scheint des Deutschen mächtig zu sein: The gentleman clearly understands German (German).
13 Aesculapius: The Greek god of medicine.
14 Ikh… gabe: Ich habe, I have (German), garbled.
Chapter XXVIII
1 kokoshnik: The traditional Russian headdress, which now survived chiefly at court and as part of a nursemaid’s costume.
2 grand seigneur: Great nobleman (French).
3 Farewell: In English in the original.
4 at this moment: I.e. after Emancipation in February 1861.
5 arbitrator: A newly created official who after Emancipation regulated relations between landowners and former serfs.
6 e’s as u’s: The examples of Pyotr’s ‘refinement’ given by Turgenev are tyupyur’ and obyuspyuchyun, for teper’ (now) and obespechen (guaranteed).
7 Brühl Terrace: The terrace on the River Elbe, named after Count Brühl, minister of Augustus the Strong of Saxony.