Home Life in Russia, Volumes 1 and 2 [Dead Souls]

On arriving at the inn, Tchichikoff ordered his coachman to halt, mainly for too reasons; on the one hand, he wished that his jaded horses should have a little rest, and on the...

Tchichikoff began to speak, but his argument was of a very obscure nature; he alluded in very general terms to the whole Russian Empire, and expressed himself in terms of great...

On driving up to the house, Tchichikoff soon perceived a human figure, who began to converse with the peasant who had just arrived with his telega. For a long while he could not...

After such strong arguments as those with which we concluded the last chapter, Tchichikoff could not doubt any longer that the old lady would give way and consent to his proposal.

On driving up to the entrance-hall, Tchichikoff perceived the lord of the mansion standing upon the door steps, clad in a long parrot-green coloured surtout, holding his hands o...

Such and similar conversations and discussions produced, however, the most beneficial consequences for the interest of Tchichikoff, and which he was far from anticipating; namel...

Tchichikoff assured the old miser of his readiness to conclude the contract that very minute, and only demanded a list of all the peasants that were now to become his property.

Tchichikoff's reserve funds had, however, dwindled down to a mere trifle; his splendidly furnished house with all its foreign refinements was taken from him and given as a rewar...

Whilst the head-waiter was still engaged in decyphering the words written on the slip of paper, Tchichikoff left his room and went into the street, to examine the town, with whi...

Having, as it were, finished their affair with her Excellency, the ladies felt inclined to join the party of the gentlemen, with the view of bringing them round to their own opi...

Ivan Antonovitch appeared as if he had not heard the question at all, and busied himself as completely as possible among his papers without saying a word in reply. It was eviden...

Our hero now, in his turn, peeped through an aperture of the door through which the old lady had popped her head a quarter of an hour before, and perceiving her sitting before a...

Tchichikoff was just awaking, and stretching out his hands and legs like a man preparing for gymnastics, he also began to be aware that he had slept uncommonly well. After lying...

On driving up to the entrance-hall, Tchichikoff beheld two faces at once, looking out through the window: the one was a feminine face, narrow and long, like a cucumber; the othe...

When Maniloff was convinced that he had rightly heard and understood what his friend had just spoken, he could not prevent his Turkish pipe dropping upon the floor and opening h...

Tchichikoff was reclining comfortably, and in an excellent temper of mind in his britchka, which was now rolling rapidly along the high road. In the preceding chapters a little...

"Well!" said Tchichikoff to himself, "it seems the bow could not stand the stretching. Tears will not amend the fault; I must betake myself to another task." And determined on b...

"Good Heaven! why am I sitting here like a silly girl! it's really absurd; but you don't know then, my dear Anna Grigorievna, what the cause of my early morning visit is?"

"What a stupid fellow!" said Nosdrieff, whilst standing at the window and looking after his brother-in-law's carriage as it was gradually disappearing in the distance. "Look her...

Tchichikoff remained after Nosdrieff's departure in the most unpleasant frame of mind. He was inwardly angry with himself; he scolded himself for having accepted Nosdrieff's inv...

This apparently absurd occurrence seemed nevertheless to annoy our hero considerably. However stupid the words of a fool might be, yet sometimes they are powerful, enough to dis...

Another woman, rather younger, but very much like the first in appearance, now made her exit from the house upon the landing-steps before it. She led the stranger into the house...

It is a very dubious circumstance whether the hero we have selected for our story will meet with much favour at the hands of our readers. Ladies he is sure not to please--and th...

More than a week had already passed away since Tchichikoff's arrival in Smolensk, during which time he had continued paying morning visits and attending dinner and evening parti...

One fine summer's afternoon a few years ago, a pretty, neat-looking, but small spring-britchka, drove into the court-yard of an inn, in the governmental town of Smolensk. The ve...

The travellers took their seats in their respective carriages. Tchichikoff's britchka drove in a line with that in which Nosdrieff was seated with his brother-in-law, and thus t...

When Tchichikoff left the school, he made his appearance in the world as a young man of very prepossessing appearance, and with a chin that already had begun to require the serv...

Early in the morning, considerably earlier even than is fashionable to pay visits in the town of Smolensk, the door of an orange painted house, with balconies and sky-blue pilla...

The simply amiable lady felt an irrepressible desire to ascertain if possible all the details of Tchichikoff's conspiracy, that is to say the particular day and hour, in fact, s...

On their entrance in the dining-hall, they found Madame Maniloff waiting with her two little sons. These children were of that tender age when parents are induced to seat them a...

"Holloa, he! twelve o'clock," Tchichikoff said at last, looking at his watch, "how could I so utterly forget myself? if at least there had been any business-like result in these...

This was the most difficult passage during the whole course of Tchichikoff's eventful career. Thenceforward his progress towards position and fortune became easier, and in cours...

Such seems to be the course of life in this world, and therefore it appears also that Tchichikoff, for a few minutes of his existence, suddenly became a poet, but the appellatio...

Our hero was still considerably terrified at the thought of his narrow escape. Although the britchka was literally flying at a fearful speed, and Nosdrieff's village nearly lost...

The next day the _employés_ or officers of the crown, holding various appointments in the public offices of Smolensk, mustered in great numbers at the house of the Commissioner...

We will not attempt to conceal from our reader that reflections like those which concluded the last chapter preoccupied the mind of our friend Tchichikoff, at the time when he w...

It is thus that Tchichikoff entertained the ladies, or rather, and better, it is thus that the ladies entertained and surrounded him on all sides with their chit-chat, intersper...

Whilst a lively conversation continued to be carried on between the parties assembled in the President's office, the witnesses began to arrive one by one: among the earlier arri...

The purchases made by our friend Tchichikoff became the gossip of the day, and created a great sensation in Smolensk. The whole town conversed freely on the subject, opinions we...

Nosdrieff's guests were obliged to return by the same wet and muddy road on which they came. When they had arrived at the house, Nosdrieff led them into his private cabinet, in...

Nothing, however, of all that Tchichikoff had projected on the preceding evening, so happened on the following morning. In the first instance, he awoke considerably later than h...

The first toast proposed after luncheon, was as our reader may easily and naturally imagine, to the health and prosperity of the noble landed proprietor from the government of K...

The appearance of our hero at the ball of the Governor of Smolensk created considerable sensation. Every one present turned round to receive him, some even held their playing-ca...

This resolution, the last they had come to, was a very strange one indeed, because they knew perfectly well that Nosdrieff was a professed story-teller, and it was impossible to...

"The proverb says, 'for a friend seven miles even are no distance,'" said Nosdrieff as he entered the room and took off his hat. "I was just passing the inn, saw a light in your...

It was with an indefinable feeling that Tchichikoff now began to look round him, at the houses, walls, gardens and streets, which on their part seemed also to be tossing about,...

As for Pavel Ivanovitch Tchichikoff, he had not the slightest idea of the reports that were circulating on his account, and, as if misfortunes never come alone, it so happened,...

Our hero, however, felt happy and in the best disposition of mind without the old man's watch. For such an unexpected acquisition of stock was in his opinion a most valuable gif...