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The Attitudes of Henry James and Ivan Turgenev Toward the Russo-Turkish War The Balkan crises and resulting Russo-Turklsh War of 1876-78 occasioned many expressions In verse and prose by Victorians attacking or defending Britain's pro-Turkish policy. In the summer of 1876, as reports of atrocities In Bulgaria mounted, liberal opinion was aroused against Turkey. For example, Cariyle and Tennyson were among those speaking out against Turkish oppression of Slavic Christians.' On the other hand, Swinburne had nothing but scorn for these English Russophlles and Panslavists.2 What Is not so well known, perhaps, is that Russian author Ivan Turgenev wrote a poem critical of Queen Victoria's policies regarding the Turks and that Henry James supplied an English prose translation to the Nation, 23 (October 5, 1876), 213. Turgenev's poem, "Croquet at Windsor," was Inspired by newspaper accounts of the atrocities committed by Turkish Irregulars in suppressing the Bulgarian uprising. As Turgenev tells his correspondents, he was spending a sleepless night on a train between Moscow and St. Petersburg on July 19-20, 1876 (July 31-August 1 by the western calendar), when what he had been reading caused him to dash off the verses in a heat of indignation. Upon arriving in St. Petersburg, he sought to have "Croquet" published in Novoe Vremia, but censorship prevented it. Despite this fact, the poem was widely circulated In handwritten copies, even at the parties given by the heir to the throne.3 One Russian wrote in a letter at the time, "The young people are learning It by heart and are very enthusiastic about it."4 The poem was not published in Russia until 1881, but translations appeared almost immediately In French, German, and English. 1. In a letter to the London Times (November 28, 1876) Cariyle called for an alliance with the "good" and "noble" Russians in driving "The Unspeakable Turk" from Bulgaria. Tennyson's sonnet "Montenegro" In praise of the Montenegrins' courage in opposing the Turk appeared on the title page of Ni neteenth Century i η May 1877. It preceded an article by Wi I I i am G I adstone on the history and customs of Montenegro, with examples, legendary and otherwise, of the virtues of its people (pp. 360-79). 2. Swinburne's answer to Carlyle's letter to the Times was a pamphlet, Note of an English Republican on the Muscovite Crusade (December 1876). At about the same time he wrote "The Ballad of Bulgarie," a satiric comment on what he considered to be the foolish crusade of Cariyle, Gladstone, and others. He was never able to get it published in the papers to which he submitted it. See text in New Writ I ngs by Swinburne, ed. Cecil Y. Lang (Syracuse: Syracuse Univ. Press, 1964), pp. 188-90. 3. See his letters to P. V. Annenkov, Aug. 18 (30), 1876 (Pls'ma, 11, 309), Ekaterina Alexeevna Cherkasskaya, Nov. 9 (21), 1876 (Pls'ma 11, 349), and N. S. Turgenev, Dec. 9 (21), 1876 (Pls'ma, 12, 31-32) in I. S Turgenev, Polnoe sobranle sochinenii i pisem, 28 vols. (Moscow and Leningrad, 1960-1969). The volumes containing the works are numbered separately from those containing the letters. The first date given for a letter Is by the Russian calendar, which at this time was twelve days behind the western calendar. Turgenev's letters in the Soviet edition are printed In the original Russian, French, German, and English. All translations and paraphrases of letters and notes into English in this article are mine unless otherwise noted. Turgenev's letters to Henry James cited herein are In French. "Kroket ν Vinzore" is published in Vol. 13 of the works, pp. 292-93. The notes to the poem indicate that it was not really censorship that prevented publication of the poem In Novoe Vremia, but rather the editors' fear of provoking the displeasure of Queen Victoria and clashing with England (Sochinenia, 13, 693). 4. A letter from A. V. Golovin to N. V. Hanikov, Sept. 3 (15), 1876, quoted in Sochi nenia, 13, 693. 257 Recent Soviet scholars seem unaware of James's translation. V. N. Stefanovich states that an "English translation of...

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