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274
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
books which contained the memories of her childhood,
and which Fröken (Miss) Hedberg had translated from
the Russian.
In the evenings, in our own family circle, these
books were read aloud, chapter after chapter, as soon
as they were translated. In spite of the melancholy
mood which had overcome both Sönya and myself,
that autumn was still full of interest in consequence
of her great eagerness for work—an eagerness felt by
both, though we were no longer in collaboration.
During October and November I wrote five new
tales, which, together with Sönya’s, were read aloud in
the family circle. We were very happy in each other’s
work. We went together to the publishers, and our
books—Sönya’s "Raevsky Sisters" ("Recollections of
Childhood") and my "From Life: No. III."—appeared
simultaneously. It was a faint reflection of our work
together in earlier days.
Sönya had intended to publish her memoirs in a
definite autobiographical form, and it was in that style
that she wrote them in Russian. But as soon as we
had read the first chapter we dissuaded her from the
attempt. We considered that, in a small community
such as ours, it would shock people if a still unknown
writer sat down and wrote, without disguise, all the
most intimate details of her family life for the benefit
of the public.
The whole was written in Russian, and several
chapters already translated, when she turned the
autobiography into a novel called "Tånya."1 From that
moment we had little or nothing to object to, and
could only express our astonishment on finding that,
at one stroke, our friend had become an artist in
literature.
1 Appendix J.
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