A few years before the last World War, an event of outstanding interest took place in the literary circles of Paris. This was the publication of part of Turgenev's posthumous works. For half a century these had remained hidden in the family of the famous French opera star Pauline Viardot. Among other valuable items, they contained one of Turgenev's most inspired pages—his farewell greeting to the beloved woman, full of tender love and passion, which he wrote before his death and which she was to read after her friend should be no more. This pathetic greeting recalls the almost forgotten story of Turgenev's tragic love for Pauline Viardot, developing from selfish passion to supreme sacrifice and closing with the pathetic message from the dead.