From V. O. Kovalevsky 13 September 1869
Paris
13 September 1869
My dear Sir!
It is such a long time that I had no news from You, nor gave You any of me that I fear I am quite forgotten in Your amiable house at Down.1
I left Russia in March and passed the whole summer in Germany at Heidelberg devoting myself entirely to Geology and have now a reasonable hope to regain the time lost by me these five years, while affairs dragged me away from regular studies. My wife was happy enough to be accepted in the University as a regular student and worked so well that in eighteen months or two years she will be able to pass her examination as “Doctor der Mathematik und Physik”.2
In the vacation I travelled about five weeks in Switzerland, am now in Paris and hope to be in London, though my chief attraction in England will be Down. If you have not quite forgotten Your visitor of 1866 & editor of Your book3 be so kind as to write me two lines to Paris (W. Kowalevsky, Paris. Boulevard Montparnasse, Rue Vavin, Hotel Heranger N 4.) to inform me wether You will be able to receive our visit, I am very Impatient to see You once more and my wife is the more so to make Your aquaintance. The best wish of my brother was also to go this year to England to visit You, but he was send by the University of Kieff to the Caspian Sea and the project was to be remitted to the next year.4 I present also my humble respects to Mrs Darwin and the Ladies5 and am Sir
Yours most truly | W. Kowalevsky
P.S. The Russian Edition of Your work was not quite finished in March, when I got away, but now it is all ready and perhaps I could bring You a copy of my edition if I receive it by time from home.—6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Koblitz, Ann Hibner. 1983. A convergence of lives: Sofia Kovalevskaia, scientist, writer, revolutionary. Boston: Birkhäuser.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Since March has been living in Heidelberg, where his wife is studying mathematics and physics.
The Russian translation of Variation has been printed in his absence; he will bring a copy to Down if he receives one from Russia.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6890
- From
- Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский)
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Paris
- Source of text
- DAR 169: 78
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6890,” accessed on 5 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6890.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17