Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Impressions of Russian Literature - IV
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
the ideas which that year came to the front, and of all the
noble struggles for liberty which were then set in motion.
Herzen’s father was a rich Russian grand seigneur,
Yakovlef, a retired captain of the Guard, with a colossal
fortune, who had received his whole culture from his
journeys in Western Europe, — a disciple of Voltaire, who
read only French and spoke it better than Russian. His
mother was a young lady, the daughter of a tradesman,
Louise Herzen, from Stuttgart, who, at the age of
seventeen, consented to accompany the rich Russian gentleman
who had won her heart to his home in Moscow, and who
was always treated as his wife, although no marriage
ceremony had taken place between them. The son was born
a few months before the French troops marched into
Moscow, and it was the great event in his father’s life
that Napoleon, who was in want of a messenger to the
Tsar, sent for the Russian nobleman, who was of old
known to his Marshal Mortier, and gave him a letter,
“To my brother, the Tsar Alexander,” and gave him
safe conduct out of the burning city.
His father developed constantly more and more into
a bitter, reserved, aristocratic eccentricity, wholly
absorbed in a boundless contempt for the human race.
His mother was an unhappy, solitary creature, with
intellect and heart. In the son, the qualities of parents
and ancestors were so mingled as to amount to genius.
He has written his life, — reminiscences in three
volumes, — and this work ought not to be neglected by any
one who takes an interest in the struggle for the
development of modern Russia. There is no better insight
accessible to us. With artistic clearness, with the
unreservedness of an author of memoirs, Herzen has told, not
only the life of his boyhood and youth to his thirty-fifth
year, but he has given the description of a superior,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
