languages'. It is a remarkably modest
point to make about the language of Push
kin, a language which was about to beco
me the vehicle for the prose of Gogol,
Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Tolstoy. Vve-
densky went on to remind Dickens of his
already established reputation in the east:
For the last eleven years your name
has enjoyed a wide celebrity in
Russia, and from the banks of the
Neva to the remotest parts of Sibe
ria you are read with avidity. Your
Domhey continues to inspire with
enthusiasm the whole of literary
Russia.
Vvedensky came to London in 1853 but
probably never managed to meet or even
see the celebrated Dickens. Flowever, as
Forster records, whenever anything subse
quently went wrong for Dickens he threa
tened that he had ordered his portmanteau
to be packed ready 'for the more sympa
thizing and congenial climate of the tremo-
test part of Siberia'.
It was perhaps through the agency of
Vvedensky's translations that Leo Tolstoy
first became aware of Dickens's work.
Certainly by the time of his visit to Lon
don in 1861 he had assimilated a great
deal of the English Dickens into his own
published Russian writings (the Sevastopol
Sketches and, above all, his Childhood of
1852). Tolstoy was Dickens's junior by
sixteen years; he was unknown to English
readers and, as far as we know, he too
made no effort to introduce himself to the
English novelist he so much admired.
According to many biographers, including
Flenry Troyat, Tolstoy's London program
me included a trip to the House of Com
mons, where he heard Lord Palmerston
speak for three hours, and a visit to 'a
lecture on education given by Dickens'.
This information is based on Tolstoy's
recorded statement to his English disciple,
Aylmer Maude, that he had 'seen Dickens
in a large hall. He was lecturing on educa
tion'. The fact is, he couldn't have seen
Dickens lecturing on education, because
Dickens didn't lecture on education in
1861. Tolstoy was much concerned with
English educational methods at the time of
his visit (he had obtained a letter of intro
duction from Matthew Arnold in order to
inspect London schools), but his memory
(or perhaps his English) was at fault in the
claim that he had witnessed Dickens tal
king on the subject. What he probably
heard on Friday March 22 was Dickens
reading 'The Story of Little Dombey' at
the St James's Hall. Although he must
have known the novel well, it is probable
that he mistook Dickens's animated pre
sentation of Dr Blimber's school for an
exegesis of educational principle!
Nevertheless, Tolstoy's other recorded
statements about Dickens suggest both a
profound reverence and a clear grasp of
his literary message. 'How delightful
David Copperfield is!' he wrote in his
An exegesis of educational principle
21
