I On the morning of October 6, 1885, in the office of the Inspector of Police of the second division of S—- District, there appeared a respectably dressed young man, who announced that his master, Marcus Ivanovitch Klausoff, a retired officer of the Horse Guards, separated from his wife, had been murdered. While making this […]

THE Professor received a telegram from the Lyalikovs’ factory; he was asked to come as quickly as possible. The daughter of some Madame Lyalikov, apparently the owner of the factory, was ill, and that was all that one could make out of the long, incoherent telegram. And the Professor did not go himself, but sent […]

MASHENKA PAVLETSKY, a young girl who had only just finished her studies at a boarding school, returning from a walk to the house of the Kushkins, with whom she was living as a governess, found the household in a terrible turmoil. Mihailo, the porter who opened the door to her, was excited and red as […]

I WHEN visitors to the provincial town S—- complained of the dreariness and monotony of life, the inhabitants of the town, as though defending themselves, declared that it was very nice in S—-, that there was a library, a theatre, a club; that they had balls; and, finally, that there were clever, agreeable, and interesting […]

IT is, as a rule, after losing heavily at cards or after a drinking-bout when an attack of dyspepsia is setting in that Stepan Stepanitch Zhilin wakes up in an exceptionally gloomy frame of mind. He looks sour, rumpled, and dishevelled; there is an expression of displeasure on his grey face, as though he were […]

I ANDREY VASSILITCH KOVRIN, who held a master’s degree at the University, had exhausted himself, and had upset his nerves. He did not send for a doctor, but casually, over a bottle of wine, he spoke to a friend who was a doctor, and the latter advised him to spend the spring and summer in […]

AT five o’clock one Sunday afternoon in summer, Volodya, a plain, shy, sickly-looking lad of seventeen, was sitting in the arbour of the Shumihins’ country villa, feeling dreary. His despondent thought flowed in three directions. In the first place, he had next day, Monday, an examination in mathematics; he knew that if he did not […]

IN the course of the maneuvres the N—- cavalry regiment halted for a night at the district town of K—-. Such an event as the visit of officers always has the most exciting and inspiring effect on the inhabitants of provincial towns. The shopkeepers dream of getting rid of the rusty sausages and “best brand” […]

GRISHA, a fat, solemn little person of seven, was standing by the kitchen door listening and peeping through the keyhole. In the kitchen something extraordinary, and in his opinion never seen before, was taking place. A big, thick-set, red-haired peasant, with a beard, and a drop of perspiration on his nose, wearing a cabman’s full […]

IT had been a long business. At first Pashka had walked with his mother in the rain, at one time across a mown field, then by forest paths, where the yellow leaves stuck to his boots; he had walked until it was daylight. Then he had stood for two hours in the dark passage, waiting […]

GRISHA, a chubby little boy, born two years and eight months ago, is walking on the boulevard with his nurse. He is wearing a long, wadded pelisse, a scarf, a big cap with a fluffy pom-pom, and warm over-boots. He feels hot and stifled, and now, too, the rollicking April sunshine is beating straight in […]

I NEED no great effort of memory to recall, in every detail, the rainy autumn evening when I stood with my father in one of the more frequented streets of Moscow, and felt that I was gradually being overcome by a strange illness. I had no pain at all, but my legs were giving way […]

MORNING. Brilliant sunshine is piercing through the frozen lacework on the window-panes into the nursery. Vanya, a boy of six, with a cropped head and a nose like a button, and his sister Nina, a short, chubby, curly-headed girl of four, wake up and look crossly at each other through the bars of their cots. […]

BETWEEN eight and nine o’clock in the morning. A dark leaden-coloured mass is creeping over the sky towards the sun. Red zigzags of lightning gleam here and there across it. There is a sound of far-away rumbling. A warm wind frolics over the grass, bends the trees, and stirs up the dust. In a minute […]

“VOLODYA’S come!” someone shouted in the yard. “Master Volodya’s here!” bawled Natalya the cook, running into the dining-room. “Oh, my goodness!” The whole Korolyov family, who had been expecting their Volodya from hour to hour, rushed to the windows. At the front door stood a wide sledge, with three white horses in a cloud of […]

“PAVEL VASSILITCH!” cries Pelageya Ivanovna, waking her husband. “Pavel Vassilitch! You might go and help Styopa with his lessons, he is sitting crying over his book. He can’t understand something again!” Pavel Vassilitch gets up, makes the sign of the cross over his mouth as he yawns, and says softly: “In a minute, my love!” […]

FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF AN OLD MAN I THERE is in Russia an emeritus Professor Nikolay Stepanovitch, a chevalier and privy councillor; he has so many Russian and foreign decorations that when he has occasion to put them on the students nickname him “The Ikonstand.” His acquaintances are of the most aristocratic; for the last […]

Translated by Julius West. CHARACTERS STEPAN STEPANOVITCH CHUBUKOV, a landownerNATALYA STEPANOVNA, his daughter, twenty-five years oldIVAN VASSILEVITCH LOMOV, a neighbour of Chubukov, a large andhearty, but very suspicious landowner ——————————————–RUSSIAN WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND MONEY EMPLOYED IN THE PLAYS, WITH ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS 1 verst = 3600 feet = 2/3 mile (almost)1 arshin = 28 inches1 […]

CHARACTERS IVAN IVANOVITCH TOLKACHOV, the father of a familyALEXEY ALEXEYEVITCH MURASHKIN, his friend The scene is laid in St. Petersburg, in MURASHKIN’S flat ———————–RUSSIAN WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND MONEY EMPLOYED IN THE PLAYS, WITH ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS 1 verst = 3600 feet = 2/3 mile (almost)1 arshin = 28 inches1 dessiatin = 2.7 acres1 copeck = […]

CHARACTERS ANDREY ANDREYEVITCH SHIPUCHIN, Chairman of the N—- Joint StockBank, a middle-aged man, with a monocleTATIANA ALEXEYEVNA, his wife, aged 25KUSMA NICOLAIEVITCH KHIRIN, the bank’s aged book-keeperNASTASYA FYODOROVNA MERCHUTKINA, an old woman wearing an old-fashioned cloakDIRECTORS OF THE BANKEMPLOYEES OF THE BANK The action takes place at the Bank. RUSSIAN WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND MONEY […]