Note 29 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
“Kind and dear Leo Nikoláyevitch,—I have long not written to you, because, to tell the truth, I have been, and am, on my deathbed. I cannot recover: that is out of the question, I am writing to you specially to say how glad I am to be your contemporary, and to express my last and sincere request. My friend, return to literary activity! That gift came to you whence comes all the rest. Ah! how happy I should be if I could think my request would have an effect on you!... I am played out—the doctors do not even know what to call my malady, névralgie stomacale goutteuse. I can neither walk, nor eat, nor sleep. It is wearisome even to repeat it all! My friend—great writer of our Russian land—listen to my request!... I can write no more I am tired. (Unsigned), Bougival, 27 or 28 June 1883.”—Translated by A. Maude, The Life of Tolstoy, vol. ii. p. 182.