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i THE COLLECTED if

Translated and Annotated by RICHARD PEVEAR

and LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY

VINTAGE CLASSICS Vintage Books / A Division of Random House, Inc. / New York CONTENTS

FIRST VINTACi'E .CLA-SS‘IGS EDITION, JULY 1999

Ali rights reserved .under International and Pan-American Qopyright Conventions. TRANSLATORS' NOTE XXI PdbHshed in the United States ^Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally pp'bhshed in hardcover in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1998. UKRAINIAN TALES

Vintage Books,Vintage Classics, and colophon St.John’s Eve 3 'are trademarks of Random House, Inc. The Night Before Christmas 19

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Pantheon Books edition as foUoii^s: The Terrible Vengeance 6 4 Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt 10 6 Gogol’, Nikolai Vasil’evich, 1809-1852. [Short stories. Enghsh. Selections] Old World Landowners 13 2 Th^ Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol / Nikolai Gogol; Viy 15 5 ' translated and annotated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The Story of How Iv^n Ivanovich Quarreled p. cm. Contents: St.John’s Ev^The night before Christmas-The terrible vengeance-Ivan ivith Ii>an Nikiforovich 19.4 Fyodorovich Shpdnka and his aunKpid world landowners—Viy—The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich—Nevsky Prospect—The diary of a madman—The nose—The carriag^The portrait—The overcoat. ISBN 0-679-43023-7 1. Gogol’, NikolaiVasil’evich, 1809-1852—Tthnslations into Enghsh. I. Pevear, Richard, PETERSBURG TALES 1943- . II.Volokhonsky, Larissa. III.Title. PG3333A6 1998 Nevsky Prospect 2 45 89i.73'3—dc2i 97-37228 The Diary of a Madman 27 9 CIP The Nose 300

Vintage ISBhJ: 0-375-70615-1 The Carriage 32 7 The Portrait 340 www.vintagebooks.com The Overcoat 394

Printed in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 I5 14 ‘13 12 NOTES 425 Nevsky Prospect

kERE IS NOTHING better than Nevsky Prospect, at least not Petersburg; for there it is everything. What does this street— he^ beauty of our capital—not shine wjith! I kno"w that not one of Its pale and clerical inhabitants would trade Nevsky Prospect for anything in the world. Not only the one who is twenty-five years kid, has an excellent mustache and a frock coat of an amazing cut, but even the one who has white h^r sprouting on his chin and a head as smooth as a silver dish, he, too, is enchanted yvdth Nevsky Prospect. And the ladies! Oh, the ladies find Nevsky Prospect still more pleasing. And who does not find it pleasing? The moment you enter Nevsky Prospect, it already smells of nothing but festiv ity. Though you may have some sort of necessary, indispensable business, once you enter it you are sure to forget all business. Here is the only place where people do not go out of necessity, where they are-not ckiven by the need and mercantile interest that enveloj) the whole of Petersburg. A man met on Nevsky Prospect seems less of an egoist than on Morskaya, Gorokhovaya, Lkeiny, Meshchanskaya, and other streets, where greed, self-interest, and necessity show on those walking or flying by in carriages and droshkies. Nevsky Prospect is the universal communication of Petersburg. Here the inhabitant of the Petersburg or Vyborg side who has not visited his

245 ,2 4 6 COLLECTED TALES Nevsky Prospect 2 4 7.

friend in Peski or the Moscow Gate^ for several years can be ..exations, and do not.think about it at ail. The Russian muzhik absolutely certain of meeting him. No directory or inquiry ofrice talks about his ten coppers or seven groats, the old men and win provide such reHable information as Nevsky Prospect. All- women wave their arms and talk to themselves, sometimes with powerful Nevsky Prospect! The only entertainment for a poor man qhite expressive gestures, but no one Hstens to them or laughs at at the Petersburg feast! How clean-swept are its sidewalks, and, them, except perhaps some urchins in hempen blouses, with empty God, how many feet^have left thek traces on it! The clumsy, dirty bottles or repaired shoes in their hands, racing along Nevsky boot of the retired soldier, under the weight of which the very iProspect hke Hghtning. At that time, however you may be dressbd; granite seems to crack, and the miniature shoe, Hght as smoke, of a even if you have a peaked cap on your head instead of a hat, young lady, who turns her head to the gUttering shop windows as a even if your collar sticks out too far over your tie—no one wiU sunflower turns toward the sun, and the clanking sword of a hope- notice it. filled sub-heutenant that leaves a sharp scratch on it—everything At twelve o’clock Nevsky Prospect is invaded by tutors of all wreaks upon it the power of strength or the power of weakness. rnktions with their charges in cambric collars'. EngUsh'Joneses and What a quick phantasmagoria is performed on it in the course of a : French Coques walk hand in hand with the charges entrusted to single day! How many changes it undergoes in the course of a sin their parental Care and, with-proper gravity, explain to them that gle day and night! the signs over the shops are made so that by means of them one Let us begin from earHest morning, when the whole of Pe may learn what is to be found inside the shop. Governesses, pale’ tersburg smells of hot, freshly baked bread atid is filled with misses and rosy Slavs, walk majestically behind their Hght, fidgety old> women in tattered dresses and coats carrying out their raids girls, teUing them to raise their shoulders a bit higher and straighten on churches and compassionate passers-by. At that time Nevsky their backs; in short, at this time Nevsky Prospect is a pedagogical Prospect is empty: the stout shop owners and their salesclerks are Nevsky Prospect. But the closer it comes to two o’clock, the fewer still asleep in their Holland nightshirts or are soaping their noble in number are the tutors; pedagogues, and children: they are finally cheeks, and drinking coflee; beggars gather near the pastry shops, supplanted by their loving progenitors, who hold on their arms where a sleepy Ganymede,^ who yesterday was flying -about with their bright, multicolored, weak--nerved companions. Gradually chocolate like a fly, crawls out, tieless, broom in hand, and tosses their company is joined by all those who have finished their rather them stale cikes and leftovers. Down the streets trudge useful folk: important domestic business, to wit: discussing the weather with Russian muzliiks pass by occasionally, hurrying to Work, their their doctor, as well as a Httle pimple that has popped out on the boots ctusted with Hme that even the Ekaterininsky Cafral, famous nose, informing themselves about the health of their horses and for its cleanness, would be unable to wash ofl*. At that time it -is children, who incidentally show great promise, reading an adver usually unfitting for ladies to ga about, becakse the Russian people tisement in the newspaper and an important article on arrivals and Hke to express themselves in such sharp terms as they wbuld prob departures, and, finally, drinking a cup of cdflee or tea; and these ably not hear even in the theater. An occasional sleepy clerk will are joined by those on whom an enviable fate has bestowed the plod by, briefcase under his arm, if he has to pass Nevsky Prospect blessed title of oflicial fof special missions. And these are joined by on his way to the oflîce. One may say decidedly that at that time, those who serve in the foreign oflice and are distinguished by the that is, until twelve o’clock, Nevsky Prospect does- not constitute nobility of their occupations and habits. G6d, how beautiful some anyone’s goal, it serves only as a'means: it gradually fills with peo posts and jobs are! how they elevate and dehght the soul! but, alas! ple who ,have their own occupations, their own cares, their own I am not in the civil service and am denied the pleasure of behold- 248 COLLECTED TALES •NeUsky Prospect 249 ing my superiors’ refined treatment of me. Whatever you meet sure, sometimes suddenly to see yourself, lowet than grass, and you on Nevsky Prospect is all filled with decency: men in long frock hang your head, sometimes to feel yoUrself higher than the Admi- coats, their hands in their pockets, ladies in pink, White, and pale .tralty spire,^ and you raise it. Here you will meet people discussing a blue satin redingotes and hats. Here you will meet singular side- concert or the weather with an extraordinary nobility and sense whiskers, tucked, with extraordinary and amazing art under the ' of their own digmty. You will meet thousands of inconceivable necktie, velvety whiskers, satiny whiskers, black as sable or coal, ? characters and phenomena. O Creator! what strange characters but, alas, belonging only to the foreign office'. Providence has pne meets on Nevsky Prospect! There is a?hPst of stich people as, denied black side-whiskers to those serving in other departments; when they meet you, unfaflingly look at your shoes, and, when they, however great the unpleasantness, must wear red ones. Here you pass by, turn tP look at youT coattailsv To this day I fail to you will meet wondrous mustaches, which no pen or brush is able understand why this happens. At first I thought they were shoe- to portray; mustaches to which the better part of a Hfetime is njakers, but no, that is not the case: for the most part they serve in devoted—object of long vigils by day and by night; mustaches on \ârious departments, many are perfectly well able to write an offi which exquisite perfumes and scents have been-poured, and which cial letter from one institution to another; or else they are people have been anointed with all the most rare ^d precious sorts of occupied with stroUing, reading newspapers in pastry -shops—în pomades, mustaches which are wrapped overnight in fine vellum, short, they are nearly all decent people. At this blessed time, from mustaches which are subject to the most touching affection of * tivo to three in the afternoon, when Nevsky Prospect may be their possessors and are the envy of passers-by. A thousand kinds called a capital in motion, there takes place a major exhibition of of hats, dresses, shawls—gay-colored, ethereal, for which their the best products of humanity. One displays a foppish frock coat owners’ affection sometimes lasts a whole two days—yviW. bedazzle with the best of beavers,, another a wonderful Greek nOSe, the anyone on Nevsky Prospect. It seems as if a whole sea of butter third is the bearer of superb side-whiskers, the fourth of a pair of flies has suddenly arisen from the stems, their brilliant cloud un pretty eyes and an astonishing little hat, the fifth of a signet ring dulating over the black beedes of the male sex. Here you will with a talisman on his smart pinkie, the sixth of a little foot in a meet such waists as you have never seen in dreams: slender, narrow charming bootie, the seventh of an astonishment-arousing iieck-' waists, no whit thicker than a botde’s neck, on meeting which tie^ the eighth of an amazement-inspiring mustache. But it strikes you deferentially step aside, lest you somehow imprudently nudge three and the exhibition is over, the crowd thins out... At three, .a them with your discourteous elbow; timidity and fear will come new change. Sudden^ spring comes to Nevsky Prospect: it gets all over your heart, lest somehow from your imprudent breath the covered Avith clerks in green uniforms. Hungry titular, court, and loveliest work of nature and art should be broken. And what la other councillors try with all their might' to put on speted. Young dies’ sleeves you meet on Nevsky Prospect! Ah, how lovely! collegiate registrars,, prpvinci^-and collegiate secretaries hasten to They somewhat resemble two airborne balloons, so that the lady make use of their time apd take a stroU on Nevsky Prospect with a would suddenly rise into the air if the man were not holding her; bearing which suggests ..that they have not spent Six hours sitting in for raising a lady into the air is as easy and pleasant as bringing a an office. But the old collegiate secretaries, titular and court couut- champagne-filled glass to your Hps. Nowhere do people exchange cillors walk briskly, their heads bowed: they cannot be bothered bows when they meet with such nobility and nonchalance as on with gazing at passery-by; they are not. yet completely torn away Nevsky Prospect. Here you will meet that singular smile, the from their cares; there is a jumble in their heads and a whole height of art, which may cause you sometimes to melt with plea- archive of started and unfinished cases; for a long time, instead of iso COLLEGTED T-ALES Nevsky Prospect 251 a signboard, they see a carton of papers or the plump face of the alesclerks, company agents, shopkeepers, always dressed in Ger- oflfice chief. Iman frock coats, who go stroUing in whole crowds and usually arm From four o’clock on, Nevsky Prospect is empty, and you will in arm. hardly meet even one clerk on it. Some seamstress from a shop “Wait!” Lieutenant Pirogov cried at that moment, tugging at runs across Nevsky Prospect, a box in her hands; some pathetic ^^the young man in the tailcoat and cloak who was walking beside victim of a humani^rian lawyer, reduced to begging in a frieze h^,m. “Did you see?” overcoat; some visiting eccentric for whom all hours are the same; “I did, a wonderful girl, a perfect Perugino Bianca.”"^ some long, tall EngUshwoman with a reticule and a book in her “But who are you talking about?” hands; some company agent, a Russian in a half-cotton frock coat “Her, the dark-haired one. And what eyes! God, what eyes! The gathered at the back, with a narrow Htde beard, who Hves all his bearing, and the figure, and the shape of the-face—sheer won hfe in a slapdash way, in whom everything moves—^back and arms ders!” and legs and head—as he goes deferentially down the sidewalk; “I’m talking about the blonde who walked after her in the same now and then a lowly artisan; you will not meet anyone else on ‘direction. Why don’t you go after the brunette, since you liked her Nevsky Prospect. sb much?” But as soon as dusk falls on the houses and streets, and the sen ' “Oh, how could I?” the young man in the tailcoat exclaimed, try, coveting himself with a bast mat, cHmbs the ladder to Hght blushing. “As if she were the kind to walk about Nevsky Prospect the lantern, and prints which do not dare show theniselves in the Hh the evening. She piust be a very noble lady,” he went on, sigh daytime peek out of the low shop windows, then Nevsky Pros ing, “her cloak alone is worth about eighty roubles!” pect again comes to life and begins to stir. Then comes that mys - “Simpleton!” cried Pirogov, pushing him toward where the terious time when lamps endow everything with some enticing, ^ bright cloak was fluttering. “Go on, ninny, you’ll miss her! And I’ll wondrous Hght. You will meet a great many young men, mosdy foUow the blonde.” bachelors, in warm frock coats or overcoats. At that time there is a The two friends parted, sense of some goal, or, better, of something resembling a goal, “We know you aU,” Pirogov thought with a self-satisfied and something extremely unaccountable; everyone’s steps quicken self-confident smile, sure that no beauty would be able to resist and generally become very uneven. Long shadows flit over the him. walls and pavement, their heads all but reaching the PpHce Bridge. The young man in the tailcoat and cloak went with timid and Young coUegiate registrars, provincial and Collegiate secretaries , tremulous steps toward Where, some distance away, the colofîil stroll about for a very long time; but the old collegiate registrars, cloak was fluttering, now bathed in bright Hght as it approached a titular councillors, and court councillors mosdy stay home, either street lamp, now instantly covered in darkness as it left it behind. because they are married folk or because their food fis very well His heart was pounding, and he unwittingly quickened his pace. prepared by their Hve-in German cooks. Here you will meet the He did not even dare dream of gaining any right to the attention respectable old men who strolled along Nevsky Prospect with such of the beauty flying off into the distance, stiU less to admit such a gravity and such aiiiazing nobiHty at two o’clock. You will see black thought as Lieutenant Pirogov had hinted at; he merely them ruhning just Hke young collegiate registrars to peek under wished to see the house, to make note of where this lovely being the hat of a lady spotted from far ofi", whose thick Hps and rouge- dwelt, who seemed to have flown down from heaven right onto plastered cheeks are liked by so many strollers, most of all by the Nevsky Prospect and would surely fly off again no one knew 252 COLLECTED TALES Nevsky Prospect 253 where. He flew alojig so quickly that he was constantly pushing 'no other place, sketched on the dirty background of an old work staid gentlemen with gray side-whiskers ofi" the sidewalk. This he once delighted in painting. He neve? looks you straight in the young man belonged to a class which represents quite a strange • eye; or if he does, it is somehow vaguely, indefinitely; he does not phenomenon among us and belongs as much to the citizens of pierce you with the hawk’s eye of an observer or the falcon’s gaze Petersburg as a person who comes to us in a dream belongs to of “a cavalry oflicer. The reason for that is that he sees, at one and the real world. This exceptional group is highly unusual in a city the same time, both your features and those of some plaster Her in which everyone is either an official, a shopkeeper, or a German cules standing in his room, or else he imagines a painting of his artisan. He was an artist. A strange phenomenon, is it not? A own that he still means to produce. That is why his responses are Petersburg artist! An artist in the land of snows, an artist in the land ofteh incoherent, not to the point, and the muddle of things in his of Finns, where everything is wet, smooth, flat, pale, gray, misty. head increases his timidity aU the more. To this kind belonged the These artists do not in the least resemble Italian artists—^proud, young man we have described, the artist Piskarev, shy, timid, but ardent, Hke Italy and its sky; on the contrary, they are for the most bearing in his soul sparks of feeling ready on the right occasion part kind and meek people, bashful, Hghthearted, with a quiet love to burst into flame. With a secret tremor he hastened after his for their art, who drink tea with their two firiends in a small room, object, who had struck him so strongly, and he himself seemed to who talk modestly about their favorite subject and are totally indif marvel at his own boldness. The unknown being to whom his ferent to all superfluity. He is forever inviting some old beggar eyfes, thoughts, and feelings clung so, suddenly turned her head and woman to his place and making her sit for a good six hours, so as looked at him. God, what divine features! The loveliest brow, of a to transfer her pathetic, insensible expression to cantas. He paints dazzHng whiteness, was overshadowed by beautiful, agate-like hair. his room in perspective, with all sorts of artistic clutter appearing They were curly, those wondrous tresses, some of which feU from in it. plaster arms and legs turned coffee-colored with time and under her hat onto her cheek, touched with a fine, fresh color dust, broken easels, an overturned palette, a friend playing a guitar, called up by the cool of the evening. Her Hps were locked on a paint-stained walls, and an open window through which comes a whole swarm of the loveliest reveries. All that remains of child glimpse of the pale Neva and poor fishermen in red shirts. They hood, that comes of dreaming and quiet inspiration by a lighted paint almost everything in dull, grayish colors—the indeHble im lamp—all this seemed to join and merge and be reflected in her print of the north. Yet, for all that, they apply themselves with harmonious lips. She glanced at Piskarev, and his heart fluttered genuine pleasure to their work. They often nurture a genuine tal at this glance; it was a stern glance, a sense of indignation showed ent in themselves, and if the firesh air of Italy were to breathe on on her face at the sight of such insolent pursuit; but on this beauti them, it would surely develop as freely, broadly, and vividly as a ful face wrath itself was bewitching. Overcome with shame and plant that has finally been brought outside into the opqn airi They timidity, he stopped, his eyes cast down; but how lose this divinity are generaUy very timid: a star^ or a thick epaulette throws them without even discovering to what holy place she had descended into such conflision that they unwittingly lower the price of their for a visit? Such thoughts came into the young dreamer’s head, and works. They Hke to play the dandy on occasion, but this dandyism he resolved on pursuit. But to do it without being noticed, he always stands out in them and looks something like a patch. You hung back, glanced around nonchalantly and studied the shop will sometimes meet an excellent tailcoat on them and a dirty signs, while not losing sight of a single step the unknown a y cloak, an expensive velvet waistcoat and a frock coat aU covered took. Passers-by began to flit by more rarely, the street grew qui with paint. Just as you will sometimes meet on their unfinished eter; the beauty looked back, and it seemed to him that t landscape a nymph painted upside down, which the artist, finding smile flashed on her lips. He trembled all over and did not e eve 254 COLLECTED TALE’S Nevsky Prospect 255 his eyes No, it was the street lamp with its deceitfiil light showing the semblance of a smile on her face; no, it was his own drean^ eing had shown in him, this trust imposed on him a vow of laughing at him. But it stopped the breath in his breast, everything ph;valric rigor, a vow slavishly to fulfill all her commands. He m him turned into a vague trembling, all his senses were aflame wished only for her commands to be all the more difficult and and everythmg before him was covered with a sort of mist. The side unrealizable, so that he could fly to overcome them with the greater walk rushed unde^ him, carriages with galloping horses seemed effort? He had no doubt that some- secret and at the same time motionless, the bridge was stretched out and breaking on its arch important reason had made the unknown woman entrust herself to the house stood roof down, the sentry box came tumbling to him", that some important services would surely be required of him, meet him, and the sentry’s halberd, along with the golden words of and- he already felt in himself enough strength and resolve for a shop sign and its painted scissors, seemed to flash right on his ' everything. eyelashes. And all this was accomplished by one glance, by one "The stairway wound around, and his quick dreams wound "with turn of a pretty head. Unhearing, unseeing, unheeding, he raced it. ^Watch your step!” a voice sounded Hke a harp and filled his m the light tracks of beautifiil feet, himself trying to moderate the veins with fresh trembHng. On the dark height of the fourth floor, qmckness of his pace, which flew in time with his heart. Some the unknown lady knocked at the door—ît opened, and they went times doubt would come over him: Was the expression of her face ii^ together. A rather good-looking woman met them with a can indeed so benevolent?-and then he would stop for a moment dle in her hand, but she gave Piskarev such a strange and insolent but the beating of his heart, the invincible force and agitation of look that he involuntarily lowered his eyes. They went into the ^ his feelings, urged him onward. He did not even notice how a room. Three female figures in different corners appeared before his four story house suddenly rose before him, how all four rows of eyes. One was laying out cards; the second sat at a piano and with endows, shining with hght, glared at him at once, and the raihngs two fingers picked out some pathetic semblance of an old polcin- o the entrance opposed him with their iron thrust. He saw the aise; the third sat before a mirror combing her long hair and never unknown woman fly up the steps, look back, put her finger to her thought of interrupting her toilette at the entrance of a stranger. hps, and motion for him to follow her. His knees trembled- his Some unpleasant disorder, to be met with only in the carefree senses and thoughts were on fire; a Ughtning flash of joy pierced room of a bachelor, reigned over all. The rather nice furniture was his heart with an unbearable point! No, it was no dream! God covered with dust; a spider had spread its web over a molded cor so much happiness m one instant! such a wonderfiil hfe of two nice; in the half-open doorway to another room, a spurred boot minutes! gleamed and the reS pipitig of a uniform flitted: a loud male voice But was it not a dream? Could it be that she, for one of whose and female laughter rang out unrestrainedly. eaveriy glances he would be ready to give his whole life, to an- God, where had he come! At first he refused to believe it and proach whose dweUing he already counted an inexphcable bliss— ^began studying the objects that filled the room more attentively; TOuld It be that she had just shown him such favor and attention? but the bare walls and curtainless windows showed no presence of He flew up the stairs. He did not feel any earthly thought- he a thoughtful housewife; the worn faces of these pathetic creatures, was not heated with the flame of earthly passion, no, at ’that one of whom sat down almost in front of his nose and gazed at moment he was pure and chaste, like a virginal youth, still breath him as calmly as at a spot on someone’s clothes—all this convinced ing the vaê spiritual need for love. And that which in a depraved him that he had come to one of those revolting havens where man would amuse bold thoughts, that same thing, on the contrary pathetic depravity makes its abode, born of tawdry education and made him sail more radiant. This trust which a weak, beaud^ the terrible populousness of the capital. One of those havens where man blasphemously crushes and derides all the pure and COLLECTED TALES Nevsky -Prospect 15 7 256 holy that adorns Ufe, where woman, the beauty of I whble expression of her beautiful face was marked by "such nobil- the CTOwn of creation, turns into some strange, ambipous being, I ity,* that it was simply impossible to think that deprtivity had where, along with purity of soul, she loses everting fem^ I stretched but its terrible claws ovor her. She would have been- a and repulsively adopts all the mannerisms and insolence of a ma , I priceless pearl, the whble world, the whole paradise, the whble and ceLes to be that uieak, that beauti&l being so different fom wealth of an ardent husband; she would have been the beauti- us Piskarev looked her up and down with astonished liil; gende star of an unostentatious family circle, and would have wishing to make sure that it was she who had so bewitched h given sweet orders with one movement of her beautiful mouth. and swept him away on Nevsky Prospect. But she stood before She would have been a divinity in a crowded haU, on the bright him as bLutifiil as ever; her hair was as wonderfiil; her ^ piquet, in the glow of candles, the awestruck company of her as heavenly. She was fresh; she was just seventeen; one could se admirers lying speechless at her feet. But, alas! by the terrible will that terrible depravity had overtaken her only of'some infernal spirit whb wishes to destroy the harniony of Hfe, yet dared to touch her cheeks, they were fresh and hghtly tinted by $h‘e had been flung, with 1 loud laugh, into the abyss.

a "fineHe tbluSh od— motionlessshe beûtifhl. before her and was about » M into Ae same simple-hearted reverie as earUer. But the beau^ got bored with such long silence and smiled significantly, looking stmgh into his eyes. Y« this smile was filled with some pathetic it was as strange and as suited to her face as “^^He to the mug of a bribe-taker, or an accountants ledger to a poet. H shuddered^ She opened her pretty Ups and began to say something, I snuaaereu. ^ inteUigence left a person but It was all so stupid, so trite ... & together with chastity. He did not want to « Filled with rending pity, he sat by a guttering candle. It was long was extremely fidiculousjnd as simple, as a cMd. “ .after midnight, the beU in the tower struck half-past, and he sat ins advantage of this favor, instead of being glad of such m occa- fixed, sleepless, keeping a poindess vigil. Drowsiness, taking advant ône else in his place would undoubtedly have been, he age of his fixity, was gradually beginning to come over him, the rushed ou^headlong, hke a wild goat, and ^ down to room was already beginning to disappear, only the hght of the His head bowed, his arms hanging limp, he sat in his room h candle penetrated the reveries that were coming over him, when suddenly a knock at the door made him start and cbme to his poor man who found a priceless in into the sea. “Such a beauty, such divine features-^d where, sefises. The door opened and a lackey in rich Hvery came in. Never had rich Hvery visited his soHtary room, and that at such an un- what place!. ..” That was all he was able to utter usual hour. . . He was perplexed and looked at the entering lackey Indeed pity never possesses us so- strongly , S beLt touched by the corrupting breath of depravity. Let ughness '^th impatient curiosity. fi-iends with it, but beauty, tender beauty... m it is united only with chastity and purity. The beauty who had so beti “h^poot Piskarev was in fact a marvelous, p^nomenon. Her presence in that despicable circb seemed s^ “The lady whonl you were pleased to visit several hours ago,” more extraordinary. Her features were all so purely formed. I the lackey said with a courteous bow, “bids me invite you to call * on her and sends a carriage for you.” I Piskarev stood in wordless astonishment: a carriage, a Hveried I lapkey! . . . No; there rtlust be some mistake here . . . I ‘‘Listen, my good fellow,” he said with timidity, “ybu must have I come to the wrong place. The lady undoubtedly sent you for [ someone else, and not for me.” ; “No, sir, I am not mistaken. "Was is not you who kindly accom- { panied a lady on fobt to a house on Liteiny, to a room on the i fourth floor?” : “Yes.” “Well, then, make haste if you please, the lady wishes to see you without fail and asks you kindly to come straight to her house.” 258 COLLE-CTED TALES Nevsky Prospect 259 Piskarev ran down the stairs. A carriage was indeed standing hey raced on, wrapped in transparent Parisian creations, dresses outside. He got into it, the door slamnied, the pavement rumbled oven of the very air; carelessly they touched the parquet with under wheels and hooves, and the Ht-up perspective of buildings eir shining Htde feet, and were more ethereal than if they had with bright signboards raced past the carriage windows. On the ot touched it at all. But one among them was dressed more finely, way, Piskarev kept thinking and was unable to figure out this ad ore splendidly and dazzHngly than the rest. Inexpressible, the venture. A private ôuse, a carriage, a lackey in rich Hvery ... he ry finest combination of taste showed in hfer attire, and yet it could m no way reconcile all this with the room on the fourth eemed that she did not care about it at all and that it showed inad- floor, the dusty windows, and the out-of-tune piano. er„tently, of itself. She both looked and did not look at the crowd The carriage stopped in front of a brightly ht entrance, and he f^spectators around her, her beautiful long eyelashes lowered was struck at once: by the row of carriages, the talk of the coach ihdifferendy, and the shining whiteness of her face struck the eye men, the brightly lit windows, and the sounds of music. The tiU more dazzHngly when a sHght shadow fell on her charming lackey in rich hvery helped him out of the carriage and respect- row as she incHned her head. friUy led the way to a front hah with marble columns, a doorman Piskarev made a great effort to force his way through the crowd ^ drowned in gold, cloaks and fur coats scattered about, and a and get a better look at her, but, to his greatest vexation, some bright lamp. An airy stairway with shining banisters, perfumed huge head with dark, curly hair kept getting in the way; the crowd with scents, raced upwards. He was already on it, he was already also pressed him so much that he did not dare move forward or in the first room, frightened and drawing back at' the first step backward for fear he might somehow shove some privy councillor. from the terrible crowdedness. The extraordinary diversity of faces ;,But then he did push to the front and looked at his clothes, wish threw him into complete bewilderment; it seemed as if some ing to straighten them properly. Heavenly Creator, what was this! demon had chopped the whole world up into a multitude of He had a frock coat on, and it was all covered with paint: in his difierent pieces and mixed those pieces together with no rhyme haste he had even forgotten to change into decent clothes. He or reason. Ladies’ gleaming shoulders, black tailcoats, chandehers, blushed to his ears and, dropping his glance, wanted to disappear lamps, airy gauzes flying, ethereal ribbons, and a fat double bass somewhere, but there was decidedly nowhere to disappear to: peeking from behind the rafling of a magnificent gallery—every court chamberlains in brilliant uniforms stood in a soHd waU thing was splendid for him. He saw at once so many venerable old behind him. He wished he was far away from the beauty with the and half-old men with stars on their taflcoats, ladies who stepped so lightly, proudly, and gracefully oyer the parquet or sat in rows, yônderful brow aftd eyelashes. He fearfully raised his eyes to see whether she was looking at him: God! she was standing right in he heard so many French and EngHsh words, moreover the young front of him .'. . But what is this? what is this? “It’s she!” he cried men in black tailcoats were filled with such nobility, talked or kept almost aloud. Indeed it was she, the very same one he had met on silent with such dignity, were so incapable of saying anything Nevsky and followed to her house. superfluous, joked so majesticaUy, smiled so respectfliUy, wore such She raised her eyelashes meanwhile and looked at everyone with superb side-whiskers, knew so well how to display perfect hands as her bright eyes. “Aie, aie, aie, what beauty! . . .” was aU he was they straightened their ties, the ladies were so airy, so; completely able to utter with fading breath. She looked around the whole iiêrsed in self-satisfaction and rapture, lowered their eyes so circle of people, all of whom strove to hold her attention, but charmingly, that. ... but the humble air of Piskarev, who clung her weary and inattentive eyes soon turned away and met the eyes fearfully .to a column, was enough to show that he was utterly at a of Piskarev. Oh, what heaven! what paradise! Grant him strength, loss. At that moment the crowd surrounded a group of dancers. O Creator, to bear it! Life will not contain it, it will destroy and 260 COLLECTED TALES Nevsky Prospect 261 catry off his soul! She made a sign, but not with her hand, not by some language unknown to Piskarev, and offered her his arm. She inchning her head—no, but her devastating eyes expressed this Sign looked at Piskarev with imploring eyes and motioned to him to so subtly and inconspicuously that no one could see it, yet he saw stay where he was and wait for her to come back, but he, in a fit of it, he understood it. The dance lasted a long time; the weary music impatience, was unable to obey any orders, even from her Hps. He seemed to fade and go out altogether, then it would break loose started after her; but the crowd parted them. He could no longer again, shriek and thunder. Finally—the end! She sat down, her see the lilac dress! Anxiously he went from room to room, shoving bosom, heaved under the thin smoke of gauze; her hand (O Cre everyone he met unmercifully, but in aU the rooms there were aces ator, what a wcAiderful hand!) dropped on her knees, crushing her sitting over whist, sunk in dead silence. In one corner of the room, airy dress beneath it, and her dress under her hand seemed to start several elderly men argued about the advantages of mihtary service breathing music, and its fine Hlac color emphasized stiU more the pver civil; in another, people in superb tailcoats were exchanging bright whiteness of this beautiful hand. Just to touch it—^nothing light remarks about a multivolume edition of a hardworking poet. more! No other desires—they are all too bold . . . He stood behind Piskarev felt one elderly man of respectable appearance seize him her chair, not daring to speak, not daring to breathe. by the button of - his tailcoat and present for his judgment some “Was it boring for you?” she said. “I was bored, too. I see that quite correct observation of his, but he rudely pushed him away you hate me . . .” she added, lowering her long eyelashes. without even noticing that he had a rather significant decoration “Hate you? Me? . . . I. . .” Piskarev, utterly at a loss, was about around his neck. He ran to the next room—she was not there to say, and would probably have produced a whole heap of the either. To a third—not there. “Where is she? Give her to me! Oh, I most incoherent things, but just then a gentleman-in-waiting cannot Hve without another look at her! I want to hear what she approached with witty and pleasant observations and a beautifully was going to say”—^but his search was all in vain. Anxious, weary, curled forelock on his head. He rather pleasandy displayed a row of he pressed himself into a corner and gazed at the crowd; but his rather good teeth, and each of his witticisms was a sharp nail in strained eyes began to present everything to him in some vague Piskarev’s heart. At last some third person, fortunately, addressed ^way. Finally, the w^s of his own room began to show clearly the gendeman with some question. before him. He raised his eyes. Before him stood a candlestick with “How unbearable!” she said, raising her heavenly eyes to him. the hght nearly gone out inside it; the whole candle had melted “rU go and sit at the other end of the room. Meet me there!” away; tallow had poured over the table. She sUpped through the crowd and disappeared. He shoved his So he had been sleeping! God, what a dream! And why wake way through the crowd Hke a madman and was already there. up? why not "Wkit one more moment: she surely would have Yes, it was she! She was sitting like a queen, the best of aU, the appeared again! The unpleasant and wan Hght of vexatious day most beautiful of all, and was seeking him with her eyes. showed in his windows. Such gray, such dingy disorder in his “You re here,” she said sofdy. “I’ll be frank with you: you must room . . . Oh, how repulsive reaHty is! What is it compared with have thought the circumstances of our meeting strange. Could dreams? He undressed hastily and went to bed, wrapped in a blan you really think that I belong to that despicable class of creatures ket, 'wishing to call back the flown vision for a moment. Sleep, among whom you met me? To you my actions seem strange, but I indeed, was not slow in coming to him, but it did not at all present wiU reveal a secret to you. Will you be able,” she said, fixing her him with what he would have liked to see: now a Lieutenant eyes on him, “to keep it forever?” Pirogov would come with his pipe, now an Academy watchman, “Oh, I will, I will, I will! ...” now an actual state councillor, now the head of a Finnish woman But just then a rather elderly man approached, spoke to her in whose portrait he had painted once, and other such nonsense. ^62 •' C O' L L ■£ ‘jC T rE D TALES Nevsky Prospect 263

He lay in bed till noon, wishing to- fall asleep; but ishe would •»“What do you need opium for?” he asked. not* appear. If only she wduld show her, beautiful features for a Piskarev told him about his insomnia. moment, if only he could hear her hght footstep.for a moment, if ,, “Very well, I give you opium, only paint-me a beauty. Must be a only her bare arm, bright- as snow on a mountaintop, could flash fine beauty! Must be with black eyebrows and eyes big as ohves; and me lying beside her smoking my pipe! Do you hear? Must be a before hini. Abandoning evefything, forgetting everything, he sat with a fine one! a beauty!” crushed, hopeless look, filled only with his dream. He did not .* Piskarev promised everything. The Persian stepped out for a think of eating-anything; without any interest, without any life, his hiinute and returned with a Httle pot fiUed with dark liquid,.care eyes gazed out the window to the courtyard, where a dirty water- fully poured some of it into another little pot and gave, it to carrier was pouring water that froze in the air, and the* bleating Piskarev, with instructions to take no more than seven drops in ■voice of a peddler quavered; “Old clothes for sale. The everyday Water. He greedily seized this precious pot, which he, would not and real struck oddly on his ear. Thus he sat tiU evenin^^, when he "have-given up for a heap of gold, and rushed headlong home. greedily rushed to-bed. Eona long time he struggled with sleepless On coming home, he poured a few drops into a glass of water ness and finally overcame it. Again some dream, some trite, vile and, having swallowed it, dropped off to sleep*. dream. “God, be merciful; show her to me for a moment at least, > God, what joy! It s she! She again! but now with a completely just, for, one moment!” Again he waited till evening, again fell .different look! Oh, how nicely she sits by the window of a bright asleep, agaiil dreamed of some official who was an .ofiicial and at Country house! Her dress breathes such simplicity as only a poet’s the same time a bassoon. Gh, this was unbearable! At last she came! thought is clothed in. Her hair is done . . . O Creator, how simply her head and her tresses. . . ^he looks. . . Oh, how brief! Again her hair is done, and how becoming it is to her! A short shawl the mistj again soine stupid dream. ^lighdy covers her slender neck; everything in her is modest, every In the end dreams became his life, and his whole hfe thereafter thing in her is—a mysterious, inexplicable sense of taste. How took a strange turn; one might say he slept while waking and lovely her graceful gait! how musical the sound of her footsteps watched while asleep. If anyone had seen him sitting silently before and the rustle of her simple dress! how beautiful her arm clasped the empty table or walking down the street, he would certainly round with, a bracelet* of hair! She says to him with tears in* her have taken him for a lunatic or someone destroyed by hard drink " Qyes: “Don’t despise me. I’m not at all what you take me for. Look ing; his gaze was quite senseless, his natural- distractedness devel ; ^,me, look at me rqore closely, and say: Am I capable of what you oped, finally; and imperiously drove all feeling, adl movement, think?” “Oh, no, no! If anyone dares to think so, let him . . .” But from his fane. He became anim'ated only'with the coming of night. he woke up, all stirred, distraught, with tears in his eyes, ‘ft would Such a state unsettled his health, and his most terrible torment be better if you didn’t exist, didn’t live in the world, but were the was that sleep finally began to desert him entirely. Wishing to-sal creation of an inspired artist! I would never leave the canvas, I vage this his only possession, he used every means to restore it. He would eternally gaze at you and kiss you. I would live and breathe heard that there was a means of restoring sleep—one had only to by you,, as the most beautiful dream, and then I would be happy. take, opium. But where to get this opium? He remembered one My desires could reach no further. I would call upon you as my Persian shopkeeper who sold shawls and who, whenever they met, guardian angel, before sleep and waking, and I would wait for you asked him to paint a beauty for him. He decided to go to him, sup whenever I had to portray the divine and holy. But now . . . what a posing that he would undoubtedly have this opium. The Persian terrible life! What is the use of her being alive? Is the Hfe of a mad received him sitting on a couch, his legs tucked under him. man pleasant for his relations and friends who once used to love 264 COLLECTED TALES •Nev^y-Prospect 26 5

him? God, what is our life! An eternal discord between dream and Having come up with such a Hght^minded plan,, he felt the flush reahty!” Thoughts much like these constandy occupied him. He of . color on his face; he went to the mirror and was himself fright^ did not think about anything, he even ate almost nothing, and ened by his sunken cheeks and the pallor of his face*. He began to impatiendy, with a lover’s passion, waited for evening and the dress carefully; he washed, brushed his hair, put on a new tailcoat, desired vision. His thoughts were constandy turned to one thing, a'smart waistcoat,, threw on a cloak, and went out. He breathed the and this finally acquired such power over his whole being and fresh air and felt freshness in his heart, Uke a convalescent who has imagination that the desired image came to him almost every day, .decided to go- out for the first time after a long iUness. His heart always in a situation contrary to reahty, because his thoughts were was pounding as he approached the street where he had not set perfeedy pure, Hke the thoughts of a child. Through his dreams, foot since the fatal encounter. h. the object itself was somehow becoming more pure and totally He spent along time looking for, the house; his memory seemed transformed. ‘tb'fail him. Twice he walked up and down the street, not knowing Taking opium enflamed his thoughts still more, and if anyone T^diere to stop. Finally one seemed right to him. He quickly ran up was ever in love to the utmost degree of madness, impetuously, the stairs, knocked at the door: the door opened, and who should terribly, destructively, stormily, he was that unfortunate man. come out to meet him? His ideal, his mysterious image, the origi Of all his dreams, one was the most joyful for him: he imagined nal of his dreamt pictures, she by whom he Uved, lived so terribly, his studio, he was so happy, he sat holding the palette with such so tormentingly, so sweetly. She herself stood before him. He pleasure! And she was right there. She was his wife ,now. She sat trembled; he could barely keep his feet from weakness, overcome beside him, her lovely elbow resting on the back of his chair, and by. an impulse of joy. She stood before hirn just as beautiful, though looked at his work. Her eyes, languid, weary, showed the burden ,her eyes were sleepy, though pallor had already crept over her face, of bhss; everything in his room breathed of paradise; there was no longer so fresh—^yet stiU she was beautiful. such brightness, such order! O Creator! she leaned het lovely head ,, “Ah!” she cried out, seeing Piskarev and rubbing her eyes (it on his breast. . . He had never had a better dream. He got up after tyas then already two o’clock). “Why did you run away from us it, somehow more fresh and less distracted than before. Strange 'that titiie?” thoughts were born in his head. “It may be,” he thought, “that Exhausted, he sat down on a chair and gazed at her. she’s been drawn into depravity by some involuntary, terrible acci “And I just woke up. They brought me back at seven in the dent; it may be that the impulses of her soul are inclined to repen rqorning. I was coni^letely drunk,”, she added with a smile. tance; it may be that she hefself wishes to tear herself away from Oh, better you were mute and totally deprived, of speech than her terrible condition. And can one indifferently allow for her to utter such things! She had suddenly shown him the whole of ruin, and that at a moment when it is enough just to reach out a her Hfe as in a panorama. However, he mastered himself despite hand to save her from drowning?” His thoughts went further still. that and decided to try whether his admonitions might have an “No one knows me,” he said to himself, “and who cares about me effect on her. Summoning his courage, he began in a trembling anyway? And I don’t care about them either. If she shows pure and at the same time fervent voice to present, her terrible position repentance and changes her life, then I’U marry her. I must marry to her. She Hstened to him with an attentive look and with that her, and surely I’ll do much better than many of those who marry sense of astonishment which we show at the sight of something their housekeepers, and often even the most despicable creatures. unexpected and strange. With a slight smile, she glanced at her But my deed will be an unmercenary and perhaps even a great 'friend who was sitting in the corner and who, abandoning the one. I’ll restore to the world its most beautiful ornament.” cpmb she was cleaning, also listened attentively to the new preacher. COLLECTED TALES Nevsky Prospect 267 266

“True, I’m poor,” Piskarev said finally, after a long and instruc the indifferent mien of a city doctor. His coffin was quietly taken tive admonition, “but we’U work; we’ll vie with each other in our to Okhta,^ even withoiit reHgious rites; only a soldier-sentry wept efforts to improve our Ufe. There’s nothing more pleasant than to as he followed it, and that because he had drunk an extra dram owe everything to oneself. I’ll sit over my paintings, you 11 sit by qf vodka. Not even Lieutenant Pirogov came to look at the body me, inspiring my labors, embroidering or doing some other hand of the unfortunate wretch upon whom,, while he lived, he had work, and we won’^ lack for anything.” bestowed his lofty patronage. However, he could not be bothered “What!” she interrupted his speech with an expression of some With that; he was occupied with an extraordinary event. But let us disdain. “I’m no laundress or seamstress that I should do any tiirn to him. work!” God! in these words all her low, all her contemptible life was expressed—a Hfe filled with emptiness and idleness, the faithful companions of dfepravity. “Marry me!” her friend, till then sitting silendy in the corner, picked up with an impudent look. “If I was a wife, I d sit hke this! And with that she made some stupid grimace with her pathetic face which the beauty found very fimny. Oh, this was too much! This was more than he could bear! He I rushed out, having lost aU feeling and thought. His reason was clouded: stupidly, aimlessly, seeing, hearing, feehng nothing, he wandered about for the whole day. No one could say whether he slept anywhere or not; only the next day, foUowing some stupid instinct, did he come to his apartment, pale, dreadful-looking, his hair disheveled, with signs of madness on his face. He locked him self in his room, let no one in and asked for nothing. Four days passed, and his locked room never once opened; finally a week went by, and the room still remained locked. They rushed to the door, began calling him, but there was no answer; finally they broke the door down and found his hfeless body with the throat cut. A bloody razor lay on the floor. From his convulsively spread arms and terribly disfigured appearance, it could be concluded that I don’t hke corpses and dead men, and it always gives me an his hand had not been steady and that he had suffered for a long .unpleasant feehng when a long funeral procession crosses my path time before his sinful soul left his body. ^md an invahd soldier, dressed hke some sort of Capuchin, takes a Thus perished, the victim of a mad passion, poor Piskarev, pinch of snuff with his left hand because his right is occupied with quiet, timid, modest, childishly simple-hearted, who bore in him X torch. My heart is always vexed at the sight of a rich catafalque self a spark of talent which in time might have blazed up broadly and a velvet coffin; but my vexation is mixed with sadness when I and brightly. No one wept over him; no one could be seen by his see a drayman pulhng the bare pine coffin of a poor man, and only hfeless body except the ordinary figure of a district inspector and some beggar woman met at an intersection plods after it, having hothing else to do. ' It seems we left Lieutenant Pirogov at the point of his parting from poor Piskarev and rushing ffter the blonde. This blonde was a hght, rather interesting httle creature. She stopped in front of each shop window to gaze at the displays of belts, kerchiefs, ear rings, gloves, and other trifles; she fidgeted constantly, looked in aU directions, and glanced over her shoulder. “You’re mine, Httle sweetie!” Lieutenant Pirogov repeated self-confidently as he con tinued his pursuit, covering his face with the collar of his overcoat lest he meet some acquaintance. But it will do no harm if we inform readers of who this Lieutenant Pirogov was. But before we tell who this Lieutenant Pirogov was, it will do no harm if we say a thing or two about the society to which I ^Pirogov belonged. There are oflicers in Petersburg who constitute I a sort of middle class in society. You will always find one of them I at a soiree, at a dinner given by a state or actual state councillor, I who earned this rank by forty long years of labor. Several pale I daiughters, completely colorless, Hke Petersburg, some of them I overripe, a tea table, a piano, dancing—aU this is usually insepara- f ble from a bright epaulette shining by a lamp, between a well- ; behaved blonde and the black tailcoat of a brother or a friend of 268 COLLE’CTED TALES Nevsky Prospect 269 the family; It is very hard to stir up these cool-blooded girls and ■He Hked talking about some actress or dapcer, but not so sharply as make them laugh; it takes very great art, or, bettdr to say, ho art ; a .young sub-Heutenant usually talks about this subject. He was at aU. One must speak so that it is neither too inteUigent nor very pleased with his rank, to which he had recendy been pro too funny, so that it is aU about the trifles that women Uke. In this moted, and though he would occasionally say, while lying on the the gentlemen under discussion should be given their due. They sofa: “Ah, ah! vanity, aU is vanity! So what if I’m a lieutenant?”— have a special gift^ for making these colorless beauties laugh and ^credy he was very flattered by this new dignity; in conversation hsten. Exclamations stifled by laughter—“Ah,* stop it! Aren’t you he often tried to hint at it indirecdy, and once, when he ran across ashamed to make me laugh sol”—are usually their best reward. some scrivener in the street who seemed impoHte to him, he Among the upper classes, they occur very rarely, or, better to say, ipunediatdy stopped him and in a few but sharp words gave him never. They are forced out altogether by wh^t this society calls to know that before him stood a Heutenant and not some other aristocrats; however, they are considered educated and well-bred .tsort of officer. He tried to expound it the more eloquendy as two people. They hke talking about literature; they praise Bulgarin, \g6od-looking ladies were just passing by. Generally, Pirogov Pushkin, and Grech, and speak with contempt and barbed wit of vshowed a passion for all that was fine, and he encouraged the artist A. A. Orlov. ^ They never miss a single pubHc lecture, be it on ^Piskarev; however, this may have proceeded from his great desire accounting or even on forestry. In the theater, whatever the play, to see his mascuHne physiognomy in a portrait. But enough about you vidU always find one of them, unless they are playing some Pirogov’s quahties. Man is such a wondrous being that it is never Filatkas,® which are highly insulting to their fastidious taste. They pdssible to count up all his merits at once. The more you study are constantly in the theater. For theater managers, these are the fhiin, the more new particulars appear, and their description would most profitable people. In plays, they especially like good, poetry; be-endless. they also like very much to call loudly for the actors; many of And so Pirogov would not cease his pursuit of the unknown them, being teachers in government schools, or preparing students âdy, entertaining her now and then with questions to which for them, in the end acquire a cabriolet,and a pair of horses. Then she rephed sharply, curdy, and with some sort of vague sounds. their circle widens: they finally arrive at marrying a merchant’s Through the dark Kazan gate they entered Meshchanskaya-Street, daughter who can play the piano, with a hundred thousand or so the street of tobacco and grocery shops, of German artisans and in cash and a. heap of bearded relations. However, this honor they Finnish nymphs. The blonde ran more quickly and fluttered cannot attain before being promoted to the rank of colonel at the hfough the gates of a rather dingy house. Pirogov followed her. very least. Because our Russian beards, though still giving ofi" a he ran up the narrow, dark stairway and went in at a door, whiff of cabbage, have no wish for their daughters to marry any ' through which Pirogov also boldly made his way. He found him- but generals, or colonels at the very least. These aredhe main fea elf in a big room ^th black walls and a soot-covered ceding, tures of this sort of young men. But Lieutenant Pirogov had a host here was a heap of iron screws, locksmith’s tools, shiny cof of talents that belonged to him personally. He declaimed verses feepots and candlesticks on the table; the floor was Httered with firom Dmitri Donskoy and Woe from Wit^ superbly well, and pos opper and iron shavings. Pirogov reaHzed at once that this was sessed a special art of producing smoke rings from his pipe so skill 'n artisan’s dweUing. The unknown lady fluttered on through a fully that he could suddenly send ten of them passing one through pde door. He stopped to think for a moment, but, following the another. He could very pleasandy teU a joke about a cannon being mssian rule, resolved to go ahead. He entered a room in no way one thing and a unicorn something else again. However, it is rather esembhng the first, very neatly decorated, showing that the owner difficult to enumerate all the talents fate had bestowed on Pirogov. yvas a German. He was struck by an extraordinardy strange sight. C O- L .b E G T E T A L E 5 NeOjky P^'ospe.ct 2 70 2 71 Before him sat Schiller:—not the. Schiller who wrote Wilhelm being under the inebriating fumes of beer and wine, he felt- it Tell and the History of the Thirty Years ^ War, but the well-known somewhat indecent to be in the -presence of an outside witness Schiller, the ‘tinsmith of Meshchanskaya Street. N^xt' to Schiller while looking and behaving in such a fashion. Meanwhile PirogoV stood Hoffinann—not the writer Hofhnann, but a rather .good bowed slightly and said with his usual pleasantness: cobbler from Ofitserskaya Street, a- great friend of Schiller’s.^® “You will excuse me . . .” Schiller w^s drunk and sat on a chair stamping his,foot and heat “Get out!” Schiller drawled. edly* saying something'. AU this would not have been so surprising This puzzled Lieutenant Pirogov. Such treatment was com- 'to Pirogov, but what did surprise him was the extremely strange pletely'new to him. The smile that had barely appeared on his face posture of.the figures. Schiller was sitting, his rather fat nose stuck suddenly vanished. With a sense of distressed dignity, he said: out and his head raised, while Hoffmann was hplding him by this “I find it strange, ,my dear sir . . . you must have failed, to nose with two fingers and waggling the blade of his cobbler’s knife notice ... I am an officer . . .” justabpve the surface of it. Both personages were speaking in Ger “What is an officer! I am a Swabian German. Mineself” .(here man, and therefore Lieutenant Pirogov, whose ‘only German was Schiller banged his fist on the table) “Lean be an officer: a year and “Gut Morgen,” was able to understand nothing of this whole story. a half a Junker,“ two years a sub-lieutenant, and tomorrow I’m Schiller’s words, however, consisted of the following: right away an officer. But I don’t want to serve. I’ll do this to an “I don’t want; I have no need, of a nose!” he said, waving his officer—^poof!” Here Schiller held his hand to his mouth and arms. “For .this one nose I need three pounds of snuff a month. poofed on it. And I pay' in the Russian vile shop, because the German shop Lieutenant Pirogov saw that there was nothing left for him but doesn’t have Russian snuff, I pay in the Russian vile .shop forty to withdraw. Nevertheless, such treatment, not at aU befitting his kop^hs for each pound; that rpakes one rouble tvyenty kopecks; rank, was disagreeable to him. He stopped’ several times on the twelve times one rouble twenty kopecks rtiakes fourteen roubles stairs, as if wishing to collect his wits and think how to make forty kopecks. Do you hear, Hoffmann my friend? Fpr this one SchiUer sensible of his insolence. He finally concluded that Schillef nose, fourteen roubles forty kopecks! Yes, and on feast days I snuff 'could be excused because his head was full of beer; besides, he pic rappee, because I don’t want to snuff Russian vile tobacco on feast tured the pretty blonde and decided to Consign it aji to oblivion. days. I snuff twP pounds of rappee a year, two roubles a pound. Six Next morning, Lieutenant Pirogov showed up very early at the plus fourteen—twenty roubles forty kopecks on snuff alone. That’s tinsmith’s shop. In thj2 front room he was met by the pretty blonde, highway robbery! I ask you, Hofimann my friend, is it not so?’ who' asked in a rather stern voice that was very becoming to her Hofimann, who was drunk himself, answered in the affirmative. Htde face: “Twenty roubles forty kopecks! I’m a Swabian Germa^; I have a “What can I do for you?” king in Germany. I don’t want a nose! Cut my nose< off!,Here’s my ‘Âh, good morning, my little dear! You don’t recognize me? Sly noSe!” • i thing, such pretty eyes you have!” at which Lieutenant Pirogov And had it not been for the sudden appearance of Lieutenant was going to chuck her nicely under the chin with his finger. Pirogov there is no doubt that Hofimann would have ciit Schiller’s But the blonde uttered a timorous exclamation and asked with nose off just Hke that, because he was already holding his knife in the same sternness: such a position as if he were about to cut out a shoe sole. “What can I do for you?” Schiller found it extremely vexing that an unknown, uninvited “Let me look at you, that’s aU,” Lieutenant Pirogov said with a person had suddenly hindered them so inopportunely. Despite his very pleasant smile, getting closer to her; but, noticing that the 2 72 COLLECTED TAL^S Nevsky Prospect 2 7.3 timorous blonde wanted to sUp out the door, he added. “I’d Hke to TôT for me? ^ “Geh’n Sie to the kitchen!” pretty han'^r^ The blonde withdrew. “In two weeks, then?” said Pirogov. ofttoso““ courteous in conversations “Yes, in two weeks,” Schiller rephed ponderingly. “I have a lot q£ work now.” rU call my husbdnd right now,” the German lady cried and left > “Good-bye! I’ll be back.” ^Jlôgov saw Schiller come out with sleepy “Good-bye,” answered SchiUer, locking the door behind him. e^s, btuely recovered fiom yesterday’s drinking. Looking at the Lieutenant Pirogov decided not to abandon his quest, even dt h; rhadâppen^S- though the German lady had obviously rebuffed him. He did not y. He did not remember how it had been, but felt that L had understand how he could be resisted, the less so as his courtesy and a vety sten ^r ® btiUiant rank gave him full right to attention. It must be said, how ever, that Schiller’s wife, for all her comeUness, was very stupid. to iTd’o?l? *r ““““ wishing Though stupidity constitutes a special charm in a pretty wife. I, at to get rid of Pimgov, because as an honorable German he was very ( least, have known many husbands who are deUghted with their ^hamed to look at anyone who had seen him in an improper posZ .wives’ stupidity and see in it all the tokens of childlike innocence. ►Beauty works perfect miracles. All inner shortcomings in a beauty, three friendT " d witnesses, with two or mstead of causing repugnance, become somehow extraordinar ily attractive; vice itself breathes comeHness in them; but if it “Why so much?” Pirogov asked benignly. were to disappear, then a woman would have to be twenty times cwZ^“aT SchiUer uttered coolly, stroking his more inteUigent than a man in order to inspire, if not love, at least m. A Russian vôuld make them for two roubles ” ..jespect. However, Schiller’s wife, for all her stupidity, was always Very well to prove that I like you and want to become faithful to her duty, and therefore Pirogov was hard put to succeed acquainted with you, I’U pay the fifteen roubles ” in his bold enterprise; but pleasure is always combined with the maZ^Z rZ* ^ -"““cnt: being an honest Ger ’overcoming of obstacles, and the blonde was becoming more and man, he felt a, bit ashamed. Wishing to talk him out of the order more interesting for him day by day. He began inquiring about the spurs quite frequently, so that Schiller finally got tired of it. He them. But Pirogov, without ai,y objection, declared his consent bent every effort towards quickly finishing the spurs he had begun; finally the spurs were ready. dn hi pondering how to bles ir^b ^>ctuaUy be worth fifteen rou- “Ah, what excellent workmanship!” Lieutenant Pirogov ex beZn ™î“hop and claimed when he saw the spurs. “Lord, how well made! Our gen eral doesn’t have such spurs.” coffeepots The heutenant took advantage of Schiller’s thoughtfiil- A sense of self-satisfaction spread all through Schiller’s soul. His thT’b^° ?-u “™’ '"hich was bare% to eyes acquired a very cheerful look, and he was completely recon the shoulder. Schiller did not Hke that at all. ^ ciled with Pirogov. “The Russian officer is an inteUigent man,” he Mein’Frau!” he cried. thought to himself. Was wollen Sie dock?” answered the blonde. “So, then, you can also make a sheath, for instance, for a dagger or something else?’’ 274 COLLECTED TALES Neusky Prospect 275

“Oh, very much so,” Schiller said with a smile. gov’s behavior still aroused soniething like jealousy in him. He “Then make me a sheath for a dagger. I’ll bring it. I have a very racked his brain and could not figure out how to get rid of thi«; good Turkish dagger, but I’d like to make a different sheath for it.” Russian officer. Meanwhile, Pirogov, as he was smoking his pipe in Schiller was as if hit by a bomb. His brows suddenly knitted. a'circle of his comrades^—^because Providence has so arranged it “There you go!” he thought, denouncing himself inwardly for that where there are' officers there are also pipes—smoking his pipe having called down niore work on himself. He cdnsidered it dis in a circle of his comrades, hinted significantiy ^nd with a pleasant honest to refuse now; besides, the Russian officer had praised his smile at a little intrigue with a pretty German lady with whdm, in work. Shaking his head a little, he gave his cfonSent;- but the kiss his words, he was already on quite close terms and whom in reality Pirogov brazenly planted right on the Hps of the pretty blonde he had all but lost hope of attracting to himself. threw him into total perplexity. One d^y, while strolling along Meshchanskaya, he kept glancing I consider it not superfluous to acquaint the reader a little more ,at the house adorned by SchiUqr’s shingle with its cofieepots and closely with Schiller. SchiUer was a perfect German in the full samovars, to his great joy, he saw the blonde’s head leaning out the sense of this whole word. From the age of twenty, that happy time window and watching the passers-by. He stopped, waved liis hand, when a Russian lives by hit-or-miss, SchiUer had already measured and said: ‘'Gut Morgen!” The blonde greeted him as an acquain out his entire life, and on no account would he make any excep tance. tions. He had resolved to get up at seven, to have dinner at two, to “Say, is your husband at home?” be precise in aU things, and to get drunk every Sunday. He had “Yes,” answered the blonde. resolved to put together a capital of fifty thousand in teii years, and ^ “And when is he not at home?” this was as sure and irresistible as fate, because a clerk wiU sooner He s not at home on Sundays,” the stupid blonde answered. forget to leave his card with his superior’s doorman^^ than a Ger “Not bad,” Pirogov thought to himself, “I must take advantage man wiU decide to go back on his word. On no account would he dfit.” increase his expenses, and if the price of potatoes went up too And next Sunday, out of the blue, he appeared before the much compared to usual, he did not spend a kopeck more but blonde. Schiller was indeed not at home. The pretty hostess got merely decreased the quantity, and though he occasionaUy went a frightened, but this time Pirogov behaved quite prudently, treated bit hungry, he would nevertheless get used to it. His accuracy went her very respectfully and, bowing, showed all+the beauty of his so far as the decision to kiss his wife not more than twicd a day, and tightly fitted waist. *He joked very pleasantiy and deferentially, to avoid somehow kissing her an extra time, he never put more but the silly German woman repHed to everything in monosylla than one teaspoon of pepper in his soup; on Sundays, however, bles. Finally, having tried to get at her from all sides and seeing this rule was not fulfilled so strictly, because Schiller then drank that nothing would amuse her, he offered to dance. The German two botdes of beer and one bottle of caraway-seed vodka, which woman accepted at once, because German women are always he nevertheless always denounced. He drank not at all like an eager to dance. Pirogov placed great hopes in this: first, she already Englishman, who bolts his door right after dinner and gets potted ^ Enjoyed it; second, it would demonstrate his tournure and adroit by himself. On the contrary, being a German, he always drank ness, third, while dancing he could get closer and embrace the inspiredly, either with the cobbler Hoffmann or with the cabinet pretty German, and thus start it all going—^in short, the result maker Kuntz, also a German and a big drinker. Such was the char would be complete success. He started some sort of gavotte, acter of the noble Schiller, who was finally put into an extremely knowing that German women need gradualness. The pretty Ger difficult position. Though he was phlegmatic and a German, Piro man stepped out into the middle of the room and raised her beau- CO’LLECTED TA L" E S Nevsky Prospect 177 276 rifol Httle foot. This posilion.o deUghted Pirogov that he rushed to But all this ended somehow strangely: he stopped at a pastry kiss het. The German woman began to scremi, *ere V shop on his way, ate* two puff pastries, read something from The her loveUness stiU more in Pirogov’s eyes; he Northern Bee, and left the place already in a less wrathful state. kisses When suddenly the door opened and m- came Scbller wit Besides, the rather pleasant, cool evening induced him to take a Hoffinann and the cabjnetmaker Euntz. These worthy artisans Httle stroll on Nevsky Prospect; toward nine o’clock he calmed "" down and decided it was not nice to trouble the general on a Sun were all drunk "as* cobblers. y But I wiU let my readers judge of Schiller s wrath and indign - day, and besides he had undoubtedly been summoned somewhere; and therefore he went to a soiree given by one of the heads of the tion for themselves. ^ ■ “Ruffian!” he cried in the greatest indignation. How dare you college of auditors, where there was a very pleasant gathering of kiss my wife? You are a scoundrel, not a Russian officer. Devi e functionaries and officers. He enjoyed the evening he spent there, it, HoLann my friend, I am a German, not a Russian swme! and so distinguished himself in the, mazurka that not only the Hoffmann responded in the affirmative. ladies but even their partners were delighted. “Oh 1 will not the horns have! Take him by the collar; H - “Marvelous is the working of our world,” I thought as I walked maim my friend, I will not,” he went on, swinging his arms vio- down Nevsky Prospect two days ago, calling to mind these two lendy, and his face was close in color to the red flannel of s events. “How strangely, how inconceivably our fate plays with us! waistcoat. “1 have hved in Petersburg for eight years, I Do we ever get what we desire? Do we ever achieve that for which mother in Swabia and my uncle in Nuremberg 1 am a German, our powers seem purposely to prepare us? Everything happens in a not a horned beef! Off with everything, Hoffinann my friend. contrary way. To this one fate gave wonderful horses, and he drives Hold his arm and leg, Kuntz my comrat! ” around indifferently without ever noticing their beauty— while Arid the Germans seized Pirogov by his arms and legs: another, whose heart burns with the horse passion, goes on foot He vainly tried to fight them off; the three arusans were the and contents himself with merely cHcking his tongue as a trotter is most stalwart feUows of aU the Petersburg Germans, ffiey led past him. This one has an excellent cook, but unfortunately so behavedso rudely and impohtely with him that 1 confess 1 can small a mouth that it cannot let pass more than a couple of tidbits; another has a mouth as big as the archway of general headquarters, no words to describe this sorry event. r,m sure that Schiller was in a bad fever the next day, that he but, alas! has to be satisfied with some German dinner of potatoes. trembled.like a leaf, expecting the police to come eve^ How strangely our fate plays with Us!” that he would have given Gdd knows what for all of yesterday But strangest of all are the events that take place on Nevsky events to have been a dream. But what’s done Prospect. Oh, do not beHeve this Nevsky Prospect! I always wrap Nothing could compare with Pirogov’s wrath ^ myself tighter in my cloak and try not to look at the objects I meet The very thought of such a terrible insult drove him to fury. He at all. Everything is deception, everything is a dream, everything is thought Siberia and the lash the very least of punishments for not what it seems to be! You think this gentleman who goes about SchiUer He flew home so that, having changed, he could go in a finely tailored frock coat is very rich? Not a bit of it: he con straight to the general and describe for, him in the sists entirely of his frock coat. You imagine that these two fat men ors the violence of the German amsans. He also wanted to peti who stopped at the church under construction are discussing its tion general headquarters at the same time. And if *e architecture? Not at all: they’re talking about how strangely two of general headquarters was insufficient, he would go straig crows are sitting facing each other. You think that this enthusiast the state council, or else to the sovereign himself. waving his arms is telling how his wife threw a Httle ball out the 27 8 COLLlE-CTED TALES window at a completely unlmown officer? Not at all, he's talking about Lafayette..^^ You think these ladies . . . but least of all beUeve the ladies. Peer less at the shdp windows: the knickknacks dis played in them are beautiful, but, they smell* of a -terrible quantity of banknotes. But God forbid you should peer under the ladies’ hats! However a beauty’scloak may flutter behind her, hshall never follow curiously after her.. Further away, for God’s -sake^ fiirther away from the street lamp! pass it by more quickly, as quickly as possible. You’ll be lucky to get away with it pouring its stinking oil on your foppish frock coat. But, along with the street lamp, every thing breathes deceit.. It lies all the time, this Nevsky Prospect, but The Diary of a Madman most of aU at the time, when night heaves ite dense mass upon it and sets off the* white and pale yellow walls of the houses, when the whole city turns into a rumbhng and brilliance, myriads of carriages tumble from the bridges, postilHons shout and bounce on their horses, and the devil himself hghts the lamps only so as to ' October 3. show everything not as it really looks. ,ODAY AN EXTRAORDINARY adventure took place. I got up rather late in the morning, and when Mavra brought me my pol- d§hed boots, I asked what time it was. On hearing that it h^d long since struck ten, 1 quickly hastened to get dressed. I confess, I wouldn’t have gone to the office at all, knowing beforehand what a sbur face the section chief would make. He has long been saying to .me: “Why is it you’ve got such a hotchpotch in your head, brothfer? You rush about* frantically, you sometimes confuse a case so much the devil himself couldn’t sort it out, you start the title in lowercase, forget thq; date or number.” Cursed* stork! He must be envious that-1 sit dn the director’s study and sharpen pens for His Excellency. In short, I wouldn’t have gone to the office if it weren’t for the hope of seeing the treasurer and maybe cajoling at least some of my pay out of that Jew in advance. What a creature! For him to hand out any money a month ahead—^Lord God, the Last Judgment would come sooner! Even if you beg on your life, even if you’re destitute—he won’t hand out anything, the hoary devil! Yet at home his own cook slaps him in the face. The whole world knows it. I don’t see the profit of working in my depart ment. Absolutely no resources. In the provincial government, in the civil courts and treasuries, it’s quite a different matter: there, lo H 279