.jpg?w=1)
Details
LERMONTOV, Mikhail Yurievich (1814-1841). Autograph letter signed ('Lermontov') to his friend Aleksei Aleksandrovich Lopukhin ('Aliosha'), Grozny Fortress, late October 1840 (postmarked Caucasus Line, 4 November 1840), 2 pages, 4to, integral address leaf with remnant of seal (small loss near the seal, light soiling). Provenance: small contemporary blind-stamp in the top margin -- manuscript catalogue number and note in pencil in top margin.
EXILED IN THE CAUCASUS, LERMONTOV LONGS FOR NEWS. Russia's greatest author after Pushkin writes to his close friend Aleksei, brother of Varvara Lopukhin, the woman with whom Lermontov fell in love and continued to love after her marriage. Lermontov reports returning from a 20-day expedition in Chechnya, and taking over a detachment of Cossacks: 'since, in all likelihood, we shall be engaged in warfare for the whole winter, I shall get the chance to test their true mettle'. Lermontov complains that he has received no news in three months, and imagines how he will bore his friend's family upon his return: 'perhaps I shall someday sit down at your fireplace and tell you stories of long labours, nocturnal skirmishes, exhausting exchanges of fire, all the pictures of wartime life of which I have been a witness. Varvara Aleksandrovna will yawn behind her embroidery and, eventually will fall asleep from my tale, and your estate manager will call you into another room, and I shall remain alone and shall finish telling my story to your son, who will poo on my lap'.
Lermontov's attachment to Varvara is celebrated in his later work, including the novel Princess Ligovskaia, unfinished at the time of his untimely death in a duel, like Pushkin a few years earlier. Lermontov was first sent to the Caucasus following the publication of his passionate poem on the death of Pushkin. Although reprieved a year later, he was sent back in 1840, soon after the publication of his A Hero of Our Time, following a duel with a son of the French ambassador.
EXILED IN THE CAUCASUS, LERMONTOV LONGS FOR NEWS. Russia's greatest author after Pushkin writes to his close friend Aleksei, brother of Varvara Lopukhin, the woman with whom Lermontov fell in love and continued to love after her marriage. Lermontov reports returning from a 20-day expedition in Chechnya, and taking over a detachment of Cossacks: 'since, in all likelihood, we shall be engaged in warfare for the whole winter, I shall get the chance to test their true mettle'. Lermontov complains that he has received no news in three months, and imagines how he will bore his friend's family upon his return: 'perhaps I shall someday sit down at your fireplace and tell you stories of long labours, nocturnal skirmishes, exhausting exchanges of fire, all the pictures of wartime life of which I have been a witness. Varvara Aleksandrovna will yawn behind her embroidery and, eventually will fall asleep from my tale, and your estate manager will call you into another room, and I shall remain alone and shall finish telling my story to your son, who will poo on my lap'.
Lermontov's attachment to Varvara is celebrated in his later work, including the novel Princess Ligovskaia, unfinished at the time of his untimely death in a duel, like Pushkin a few years earlier. Lermontov was first sent to the Caucasus following the publication of his passionate poem on the death of Pushkin. Although reprieved a year later, he was sent back in 1840, soon after the publication of his A Hero of Our Time, following a duel with a son of the French ambassador.
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium
If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.