Tolstoy on expert coquettes

“Ask an expert coquette who has set herself the task of captivating a man, which she would prefer to risk: to be convicted in his presence of lying, of cruelty, or even of dissoluteness, or to appear before him in an ugly and badly made dress — she will always prefer the first. She knows that we [men] are continually lying about high sentiments, but really only want her body and will therefore forgive any abomination except an ugly tasteless costume that is in bad style.”

Pozdnyshev, in “The Kreutzer Sonata,” chapter 6.

I don't know whether Pozdnyshev speaks for Tolstoy in this novella -- I think maybe he does -- but right now my interest is more whether this statement is true. 

I think D would have concurred, if pressed. Looking good was really important to her, and she studied it as a science. She thought it was genuinely puzzling that I was married to Wife, because (in her evaluation) I was so much more attractive than Wife was, and she considered it a scientific fact that on the whole spouses are of comparable attractiveness. I'd never heard about this until she told me, but she treated it as common knowledge, rather like knowing that the earth goes around the sun. 

One interesting thought is that there are plenty of misogynists who would agree with the first sentence -- that women are more concerned with their physical appearance than with their moral standing -- on the grounds that women are silly, vain creatures. Pozdnyshev (and by extension Tolstoy) affirms the same thesis on the grounds that men are all horndogs, and that women are perceptive enough to see through our bullshit to the reality underneath.

I sent the quote to Marie, without the comments about D. I wonder if she will concur that this sounds like her mother? We'll see ….