Читать книгу The Stonehenge Letters - Harry Karlinsky - Страница 13

With the establishment of the Nobel Foundation in 1900, Sohlman’s responsibilities as principal executor diminished substantially. No longer required to consolidate and administer Nobel’s financial assets, Sohlman could finally turn to the systematic organisation of Nobel’s personal files. These were extensive, as Nobel saved all incoming letters. It was also his habit to travel with a portable hectograph, about the size of a large briefcase. With little effort, Nobel could methodically reproduce onionskin duplicates of all outgoing correspondence, which he then kept in a large number of carelessly organised folders and folio boxes. Most letters were written in Swedish or Russian, but Nobel also corresponded in French, English and German. Sohlman, also a competent multilinguist due to Nobel’s influence and the nature of their work together, was soon surprised to find that he now faced the challenging task of cataloguing over ten thousand documents

Regrettably, Sohlman was already familiar with one specific folder that he himself had stamped ‘Legal and Confidential’ two years earlier. Within it, there were 216 letters Nobel had written to a Miss Sofie Hess. There were also forty letters from Sofie to Nobel, a single well-written telegram, a photogravure of the couple, as well as one affidavit assuring the Nobel estate that Sofie ‘had no further claims against the estate apart from the annual income designated to her’. Of note, some of Nobel’s letters to Sofie were addressed to ‘Dear, pretty child’, ‘Little Sweetheart’, ‘My dearest Sofiechen’, and even ‘Frau Sofie Nobel’.

The awkward details were as follows: In 1876, a forty-three-year-old Nobel had met the much younger Sofie – then representing herself as eighteen years old^fn15 – at a spa in a small Austrian resort. Sofie was working in a florist shop but aspired to advance beyond her lower-middle-class Viennese background. Nobel, enthralled by Sofie’s beauty, offered assistance. Assuming a role akin to an avuncular patron, Nobel installed his protégée in a small but comfortable Paris apartment. Sofie was then provided with a substantial allowance intended to further her education. Although Sofie neglected her studies, Nobel fell in love. The infatuation would last fifteen years, fluctuating substantially in its intensity and warmth. At times, Nobel was jealous;^fn16 at other times he was more concerned that Sofie was wasting her life with an ‘old philosopher’ like himself. Nobel’s largesse could also waver. Most often indulgent, he was also capable of railing against Sofie’s extravagant and heavily subsidised lifestyle.

Though Nobel would insist to others that his association with Sofie was platonic, the two often travelled together and, with Nobel’s collusion, Sofie would at times represent herself as Madame Nobel. Ultimately, their relationship cooled and by the late 1880s, Sofie had returned to Austria and begun openly to entertain other men. In July 1891, she had a daughter out of wedlock. She eventually married the Hungarian father, a Captain von Kapivar, in 1895. By then, Nobel had established a fixed annuity of six thousand Hungarian florins for Sofie, albeit with the following admonition:

Figure 9. Sofie Hess.

It is clear to everyone who knows the circumstances that you have been extremely lucky. Most men in my position would have calmly left you to the misery you have brought upon yourself.

Despite the generous support, both Sofie and Captain von Kapivar began to beg Nobel for an increase in her allowance. With the assistance of a lawyer, Sofie’s petitions continued after Nobel’s death. These were now directed to Nobel’s executors (i.e., Sohlman) and with a more threatening tone: if increased funds were not forthcoming, Nobel’s highly personal letters to Sofie would be sold for publication to the highest bidder. Sohlman, anxious to avoid a scandal, negotiated a one-time settlement in return for the affidavit referenced above as well as all outstanding letters from Nobel in Sofie’s possession.

The distasteful nature of Sofie’s demands left Sohlman puzzled as to how a man as sophisticated as Nobel could have fallen in love with such an ill-suited woman. One explanation for Nobel’s puzzling infatuation with Sofie relates to his fragile psychological state at the time of their initial meeting. A few months prior to encountering Sofie, Nobel had taken out the Victorian equivalent of a classified advertisement in a Viennese newspaper: ‘A wealthy and highly educated old gentleman living in Paris seeks to engage a mature lady with language proficiency as secretary and housekeeper’. The successful applicant was a thirty-three-year-old Austrian woman, Countess Bertha Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau. The aristocratic title was misleading. Bertha was a poor cousin within an otherwise prominent family and was then working as a governess in the home of the wealthy Baron Karl von Suttner. After travelling by train to Paris, Bertha was met by Nobel, who then escorted his new employee to comfortable quarters in a nearby hotel. Nobel appears to have fallen instantly in love. By all accounts, Bertha was beautiful and sophisticated. She was fluent in four languages. She shared Nobel’s love of literature and opera.^fn17 She, in turn, appears to have been pleasantly surprised by her new circumstances: ‘Alfred Nobel made a very good impression on me. He was certainly anything but the “old gentleman” described in the advertisement.’

Unknown to Nobel, Bertha arrived in Paris still deeply attached to Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner, the son of her recent employer and seven years younger than herself. After only one week of employment, Bertha returned to Vienna so that she and Arthur could elope. Nobel was heartbroken. Despite their limited acquaintance, he had already indulged in fantasies about their life together, including the renovations that would be required to accommodate a married couple within his elegant Parisian mansion on Avenue Malakoff. Reeling from the pain of unrequited love,^fn18 Nobel retreated to a spa in Austria. It was there that he met Sofie and her easily won affection.

Figure 10. Bertha von Suttner.

Sohlman, not completely naive, eventually concluded that Sofie represented more than a timely remedy for Nobel’s injured self-esteem. There was also the matter of Nobel’s more ‘basic’

needs. In Sohlman’s words, Sofie was adeptly prepared to do ‘everything possible to amuse and entertain him’.

Years later, Nobel would again find himself in the lingering lonely aftermath of a failed relationship, this time with Sofie as the rejecting figure. Once again, Nobel would turn to a younger woman for affection.