There is nothing to report on the theatre. Fiaminna, which everyone is talking about, is rubbish. Question d’argent is a piece of witty chat, but tedious. The French have lost all capacity for truth in art, and art itself is dying out here. With which, addio.
—Turgenev to P.V. Annenkov, 15 April 1857
Just imagine what it is like to have left an area where cholera is raging: I am eating radishes! lettuce!! cucumber!!! and drinking cream!!!! and all in huge quantities, and I’ve given up mint!!!!! I am definitely beginning to feel the presence within me of some heroic spirit.
—Turgenev to V.Y. Kartashevskaya, 31 March 1859
