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A BIOGRAPHY
157
From an objective point of view the life-history I
have sought to depict of my friend may perhaps be
considered not real. But is the objective standpoint
necessarily the true one when we deal with the
interpretation of character?
Many may contest the justice of my estimate and
interpretation; many may judge S6nya’s actions and
feelings in quite another light, but this in no way
concerns me from my point of view.
The data which I have submitted are as accurate as
I can make them. It is only when such data seem to
have been slightly distorted by imagination that I
have failed to adhere closely to Sonya’s guidance.
When I met Hem-ik Ibsen last summer, and told him
that I was writing a memoir of Sönya Kovalévsky, he
exclaimed:
" Is it her biography in the ordinary meaning of the
word which you intend to write, or is it not rather a
poem about her ?"
"Yes," I answered; "that is to say, it will be her
own poem about herself as revealed to me."
" That is all right," he replied. " You must treat
the subject romantically."
This remark strengthened and cheered me,
encouraging me to follow out the plan which had presented
itself to me.
Let others who can describe Sönya objectively. I
cannot attempt anything but a subjective delineation
of my own subjective conception of her, derived from
the vividly subjective interpretation which she herself
gave me.
Anna Carlotta Leffler,
Duchess of Cajanello.
Naples.
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