Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth by Marion Meade
Authors: Marion Meade
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs
Ads: Link
Princess Lydia Gagarin’s balcony, Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff gave Helena a lecture on morality. The Fadeyevs, shaken by her flight and aware that she was gaining a reputation for looseness, were now doubly anxious to get her safely married and proceeded hastily with preparations for the wedding.
At the end of June of 1849, Helena was escorted to her wedding by the whole family, including Katherine who only ten days earlier had given birth to her third son—Sergei Yulyevich 75 . The only absent relative—the one most important to Helena—was her father, who did not make the long journey from St. Petersburg, where he was living with his new wife. This impressive family cavalcade was organized less for the sake of appearances than for security reasons, since it was not in Helena’s nature to yield gracefully and she continued to entertain strategies for escape. Seized by a “great horror,” 76 she felt as if she were being swept toward the threshold of mortal danger. But even though her instinct warned her to run, a kind of paralysis prevented her from taking any action.
Leaving Tiflis, the wedding party rode south along the Kura River and then began to climb up into the mountain ranges of the southern Caucasus where the scenery was breathtaking: sharp peaks, romantic valleys watered by torrential streams, the forest-encircled Blue Sea. The area was popular with residents of Tiflis, who flocked there in summer for their holidays. Halfway to Erivan, the party reached the small town of Gerger (now Armansky Gerger), and then headed toward the settlement of Dzhelal-ogli (now Kamenka), where Nikifor was to join them for the nuptials on July 7 (Old Style).
Much later in her life, H.P.B. became quite censorious about sex. At seventeen, it can be assumed that she was merely ignorant and scared. Young girls were invariably uninformed about the sexual side of marriage. It was not uncommon for new brides to rush home after their wedding night, declaring that their husbands had been rude. Helena, however, was more fortunate than most. On the day of her wedding, either her grandmother or her Aunt Katherine made “a distinct attempt to impress her with the solemnity of marriage, with her future obligations and her duties to her husband and married life.” 77 Instead of assuaging her dread, however, this last-minute lecture merely heightened it. A few hours later, standing at the altar with Nikifor, when she heard the priest say, “Thou shalt honour and obey thy husband,” the word “shalt” proved to be the proverbial last straw. Forgetting where she was, she flushed angrily and breached every code of manners by muttering in a perfectly audible voice: “Surely, I shall not.” 78
Puzzled as Nikifor Blavatsky may have been by his bride’s extraordinary outburst, he seems to have spared no effort or expense to make the honeymoon pleasant. Immediately after the ceremony, the couple set off for Darachichag—a fashionable mountain resort whose name means “valley of flowers”—where he planned for them to spend July and August, before he had to take up his duties at Erivan.
There is no question that the marriage was a disaster from the start. Despite their romantic surroundings, the couple “came into violent conflict from the day of the wedding—a day of unforeseen revelations, furious indignation, dismay and belated repentance.” With all due consideration for a bride’s natural modesty, Nikifor naturally wished to assert his marital rights. To his bewilderment, Helena would not allow him to touch her. 79
H.P.B. adamantly insisted that: “/ never was his wife, I swear it up to the hour of my death. NEVER have I been WIFE Blavatsky although I lived for a year under his roof.” 80 The marriage actually lasted for three months, but there is small doubt that it was ever consummated. During those months when Blavatsky repeatedly attempted to initiate a sexual relationship, he must at last have understood the true
At the end of June of 1849, Helena was escorted to her wedding by the whole family, including Katherine who only ten days earlier had given birth to her third son—Sergei Yulyevich 75 . The only absent relative—the one most important to Helena—was her father, who did not make the long journey from St. Petersburg, where he was living with his new wife. This impressive family cavalcade was organized less for the sake of appearances than for security reasons, since it was not in Helena’s nature to yield gracefully and she continued to entertain strategies for escape. Seized by a “great horror,” 76 she felt as if she were being swept toward the threshold of mortal danger. But even though her instinct warned her to run, a kind of paralysis prevented her from taking any action.
Leaving Tiflis, the wedding party rode south along the Kura River and then began to climb up into the mountain ranges of the southern Caucasus where the scenery was breathtaking: sharp peaks, romantic valleys watered by torrential streams, the forest-encircled Blue Sea. The area was popular with residents of Tiflis, who flocked there in summer for their holidays. Halfway to Erivan, the party reached the small town of Gerger (now Armansky Gerger), and then headed toward the settlement of Dzhelal-ogli (now Kamenka), where Nikifor was to join them for the nuptials on July 7 (Old Style).
Much later in her life, H.P.B. became quite censorious about sex. At seventeen, it can be assumed that she was merely ignorant and scared. Young girls were invariably uninformed about the sexual side of marriage. It was not uncommon for new brides to rush home after their wedding night, declaring that their husbands had been rude. Helena, however, was more fortunate than most. On the day of her wedding, either her grandmother or her Aunt Katherine made “a distinct attempt to impress her with the solemnity of marriage, with her future obligations and her duties to her husband and married life.” 77 Instead of assuaging her dread, however, this last-minute lecture merely heightened it. A few hours later, standing at the altar with Nikifor, when she heard the priest say, “Thou shalt honour and obey thy husband,” the word “shalt” proved to be the proverbial last straw. Forgetting where she was, she flushed angrily and breached every code of manners by muttering in a perfectly audible voice: “Surely, I shall not.” 78
Puzzled as Nikifor Blavatsky may have been by his bride’s extraordinary outburst, he seems to have spared no effort or expense to make the honeymoon pleasant. Immediately after the ceremony, the couple set off for Darachichag—a fashionable mountain resort whose name means “valley of flowers”—where he planned for them to spend July and August, before he had to take up his duties at Erivan.
There is no question that the marriage was a disaster from the start. Despite their romantic surroundings, the couple “came into violent conflict from the day of the wedding—a day of unforeseen revelations, furious indignation, dismay and belated repentance.” With all due consideration for a bride’s natural modesty, Nikifor naturally wished to assert his marital rights. To his bewilderment, Helena would not allow him to touch her. 79
H.P.B. adamantly insisted that: “/ never was his wife, I swear it up to the hour of my death. NEVER have I been WIFE Blavatsky although I lived for a year under his roof.” 80 The marriage actually lasted for three months, but there is small doubt that it was ever consummated. During those months when Blavatsky repeatedly attempted to initiate a sexual relationship, he must at last have understood the true
Similar Books
