TURGENEV (IVAN) Autograph letter signed ('Iv. Tourgueneff') to an unknown recipient [possibly Caroline Commanville], in French, beginning '...What a frightful accident!...', going on to say he immediately telegraphed Flaubert but has not received a reply which worries him, that he goes to Croisset tomorrow and asks if he has got any news, ending '...Excusez la décousu de ce billet...', one page on a bifolium, light dust-staining, creased at folds, 8vo (210 x 134mm.), rue de Douai, Paris, 'Jeudi matin' [Thursday 30 January 1879] Footnotes: 'QUEL AFFREUX ACCIDENT!': TURGENEV RUSHES TO THE AID OF HIS FRIEND FLAUBERT. On Saturday 25 January 1879, Flaubert slipped on a patch of ice in his garden at Croisset and broke his leg. This news was reported in Le Figaro on Tuesday 28th. According to our letter, Turgenev telegraphed Flaubert straight away on hearing the news and here he expresses his anxiety at not having heard back. Flaubert's response to having his accident in the public domain was one of irritation: '...all my friends are worried, and I received fifteen letters yesterday and eleven this morning. There are the benefits of journalism for you... I don't like to arouse 'public interest' with my person...' he wrote to Turgenev, entreating him not to come: '...I'd be too, too sad to see you go: and frankly it isn't worth the trouble to come for a visit of two hours...'(Letters, pp.152-153). On 31 January Turgenev responded ('My dear invalid'), reprimanded Flaubert for not telegraphing him immediately and told him that, in his anxiety, he had written to Mme Commanville (Letters, p.153). This may well be a reference to the present letter, and thus would suggest that Caroline Commanville, Flaubert's beloved niece, was our recipient. Despite Flaubert's protestations, Turgenev arrived at Croisset on Monday 3 February for a two-day stay, during which he tried to persuade Flaubert to accept the post of librarian at the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris (Letters, p.141). Our letter shows the extent of the warm and affectionate relationship that had developed between the two authors: '...there were few correspondents... to whom he wrote in such warm terms or showed so much consideration...' (Leonard Schapiro, Turgenev: His Life and Times, 1978, p.289). Turgenev and Flaubert shared many letters in their twenty-year friendship, a relationship which had begun in the 1860's when both had already attained fame as novelists: '...founded on the deep understanding between two men of the same generation who have undergone essentially comparable experiences...' (Barbara Beaumont (ed.), Flaubert & Turgenev, A Friendship in Letters, 1985, p.1). It is not included in David Lowe's nor A.V. Knowles' editions of Turgenev's letters, neither is it published in Barbara Beaumont's collection of letters between the two. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing