The present essay continues the exploration of documents kept by the heirs of Nadine Helbig, who was one of Liszt’s pupils and a friend of Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein during the last twenty-five years of her life.
Among the relics, the collection contains about sixty letters from Princess Wittgenstein to Madame Helbig. These letters tell us about the everyday life of two noblewomen at the end of 19th century and shed light on some of their private aspects that fascinated the composer Liszt.
The letters present some difficulties of interpretation because of notorious illegibility of Princess Carolyne’s and the linguistic peculiarities of the texts, in which French, the primary language, is often sprinkled with German, Italian, English, Russian and Latin verbal expressions. Moreover, many letters are undated, badly preserved, and with lacunae. The lack of dates prohibits a reconstruction of their chronological order as well as identification of some of the narrated events or other references.
This essay presents a thematic voyage via a series of citations in order to sketch the personality of Princess Wittgenstein. The lines related to Liszt, the man as well as his art, are transcribed in their entirety.