[6] Karamzin's youngest daughter, by his second marriage, was alive when I was in Russia,--a charming old lady. She gave me her own copy of her "favorite book," a volume (in French) by Khomyakoff, very rare and difficult to obtain; and in discussing literary matters, wound up thus: "They may say what they will about the new men, but no one ever wrote such a beautiful style as my dear papa!" I also knew some of Ozeroff's relatives. [7] Pronounced Alyog. [8] A translation of this--which is too long to quote here--may be found in Sir John Bowring's "Specimens of the Russian Poets," Vol. II. [9] These imperial favors and pensions were continued to his children. His son, an artist, regularly visited Russia as the guest of Alexander III. I met him on two occasions and was enabled to judge of his father's charms of mind and manner. [10] This building still exists, with its garden alluded to in the "Memories." But though it still bears its name, it is connected by a glazed gallery with the old palace, famous chiefly as Katherine II.'s residence, across the street; and it is used for suites of apartments, allotted for summer residence to certain courtiers. The exact arrangement of the rooms in Pushkin's day is not now known. [11] "The Stone Guest" is founded on the Don Juan legend, like the familiar opera "Don Giovanni." Musorgsky set it to music, in sonorous, Wagnerian recitative style (though the style was original with him, not copied from Wagner, who came later). It is rarely given in public, but I had the pleasure of hearing it rendered by famous artists, accompanied by the composer Balakireff, at the house of a noted art and musical critic in St. Petersburg. [12] The reference is to Godunoff's presumptive share in the murder, at Uglitch, of Ivan the Terrible's infant heir, the Tzarevitch Dmitry. CHAPTER VIII SEVENTH PERIOD, FROM PUSHKIN TO THE WRITERS OF THE FORTIES. Even Karamzin's vast influence on his contemporaries cannot be compared with that exercised by Pushkin on the literature of the '20's and '30's of the nineteenth century; and no Russian writer ever effected so mighty a change in literature as Pushkin. Among other things, his influence brought to life many powerful and original talents, which would not have ventured to enter the literary career without Pushkin's friendly support and encouragement. He was remarkably amiable in his relations with all contemporary writers (except certain journalists in St. Petersburg and Moscow), and treated with especial respect three poets of his day, Delvig, Baratynsky, and Yazykoff. He even exaggerated their merits, exalting the work of the last two above his own, and attributing great significance to Delvig's most insignificant poems and articles. Hence their names have become so closely connected with his, that it is almost impossible to mention him without mentioning them.