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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: The following year he wrote a letter to my father which, it
seems to me, is a key to the understanding of Turgénieff's
attitude toward him:
You write that you are very glad you did not follow my advice
and become a pure man of letters. I don't deny it; perhaps you are
right. Still, batter my poor brains as I may, I cannot imagine
what else you are if you are not a man of letters. A soldier? A
squire? A philosopher? The founder of a new religious doctrine?
A civil servant? A man of business? . . . Please resolve my
difficulties, and tell me which of these suppositions is correct.
I am joking, but I really do wish beyond all things to see you
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