ABSTRACT
AFTER the embarrassment of his relations with Valeria, and his disgust with most of the literary world of Petersburg, at first Tolstoy found Paris full of interest and charm. Nekrasov and Turgenev were there; and after a stormy scene in which Tolstoy challenged Turgenev to a duel, but was finally persuaded by Nekrasov to be reconciled, the two novelists departed together on a visit to Dijon. Then Sergey arrived, and Tolstoy surrendered himself whole-heartedly to new and exotic impressions. Having engaged English and Italian masters to improve his languages, he frequented the gymnasium; went often to the theatre (where he saw Ristori) and to the opera; looked at the pictures in the Louvre; explored old churches and the cemetery of Pere Lachaise; drove out diligently to admire Fontainebleau and Versailles; stood aghast before Napoleon's tomb at the Hotel des Invalides, where he recorded characteristically: "This deification of a criminal is awful"; found himself suddenly tormented by doubts of everything; dined with his Russian acquaintances; and mildly paid court to the two Princesses Lvov. (Of the mother he recorded: " Lvovis jealous of me, and, Heaven knows why, I am deprived of his wife's agreeable company"; and of the daughter: "I like her very much and think I am a fool not to try to marry her. If she were to marry a very good man and they were happy together I might be driven to despair." 51)
