Ivan TURGUENIEV promotes the literature of his friend FLAUBERT.

Ivan TURGENEV (1818.1883)

Autograph letter signed to the publisher Maurice Dreyfous.

Three pages in-8°. “Rep [ondu] April 27” in the hand of Dreyfous, at the head.

Miter mark on the fourth sheet.

Paris. Sunday March 29 [18]74

“I will send an article to the Revue Russe – we don’t know! »

Very beautiful letter from Turgenev advising Charpentier's collaborator on the sending abroad of the work of his friend Flaubert, The Temptation of Saint-Antoine.

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“Sir, Here is the list of people in Germany to whom it would be good to send copies of St Anthony – I am giving you the addresses in German:

1) Dr. Julian Schmidt, Berlin….

2) Ludwig Pietsch, Berlin…

3) Paul Lindau, Berlin…

4) Professor Dr Friedlander, Königsberg…

5) Paul Heyse, … in Munich.

6) Dr H. Laube … in Vienna

[Dreyfous checked all the lines confirming the probable sending of the works to the recipients listed by Turgenev.]

For my part, I will write to them all today. I will also write to a friend in England, who will send me the addresses of 4 or 5 influential critics, to whom we can send the St Antoine. I will write to them too.

You could send a copy now to America to the following address: Mr. Boyesen. Cornell University. Ithaca. NY United States. Mr. Boyesen, to whom I will also write, will put an article in the Atlantic Monthly, which is the Review of the 2 Worlds of America .

Here's what we can do now, we'll let you know later. I will send an article to the Revue Russe – we don’t know! – In any case, don’t talk about prohibition yet. Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my best feelings. IV. Tourguéneff. »

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Gustave Flaubert and Ivan Turgenev met on February 23, 1863 in Paris, at the Magny dinner, where authors and critics gathered. A friendship develops between these two giants of literature. They will write to each other for seventeen years.

The Temptation of Saint Antoine by Georges Charpentier on March 31, 1874 The first print run of two thousand copies sold out in less than three weeks. However, the criticism was overall very negative, which deeply hurt Flaubert.