COUNT TOLSTOY'S WIFE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 422, 3 February 1909, Page 3

COUNT TOLSTOY'S WIFE.

.-■■ 'In Professor Anuchin's article on his visit to Count Tolstoy,,.published ..in.--"Russky.. Viedomosti," - says tho London'-."Standard," is civen to'the devotion of-Coun-; tess Tolstoy, without which the Count would; long ago have succumbed to the-trials of an author's life in Russia; The; Countess has developed her wifely care of her-famous husband, into a, positive, cult. .For a score of years past Count Tolstoy has lived entirely iii/the regions of thought, leaving everything .concerning this world to his able wife. The .education of their thirteen children, eveii the necessary petitioning to : secure the sons at manhood appointments in favourite regiments, to say nothing of the housewifely cares of the-home and the management of the'estates-all have been solely in the hands of the Countess; ' ■' -y

When the Censor' refused to allow ..the ''Kreutzer Sonata" to appear, the.Countess got the ear of the Tsar, and on several/other occasions took off her husband's shoulders all ;the 'trouble connected with book-publish-ing under Russian regulations—a tasK which daunts many a man.. "When I married," said the Countess to Professor Anuchin, ■ "I burned my diaries and a novel I had written, and began a' new • life, forgetting all • my old' dreams." ' A sacrifice indeed! For.tunately, the Countess later began, and has continued,' a diary of : all that can be' interesting' about Tolstoy, and her. type-written notes now fill lye thick volumes; '