Category: Novels
MY DEAREST BARBARA ALEXIEVNA,--How happy I was last night--how immeasurably, how impossibly happy! That was because for once in your life you had relented so far as to obey my wishes. At about eight o’clock I awoke from sleep (you know, my beloved one, that I always like to sl...
MY DEAREST BARBARA ALEXIEVNA,--How happy I was last night--how immeasurably, how impossibly happy! That was because for once in your life you had relented so far as to obey my w...
2. Chapter 2Today I am not well. By turns I shiver and flush with heat, and Thedora is greatly disturbed about me.... Do not scruple to come and see me, Makar Alexievitch. How can it concer...
3. Chapter 3All these cares and worries and disappointments tortured my poor father until he became moody and distrustful. Next he began to neglect his health, with the result that, catchin...
4. Chapter 4Indeed, Pokrovski was very angry. “What? Have you not done enough?” he cried. “Are you not ashamed to be for ever indulging in such pranks? Are you NEVER going to grow sensible?...
5. Chapter 5My misfortunes began with the illness and death of Pokrovski, who was taken worse two months after what I have last recorded in these memoirs. During those two months he worked...
6. Chapter 6What a splendid thing is literature, Barbara--what a splendid thing! This I learnt before I had known Rataziaev even for three days. It strengthens and instructs the heart of ma...
7. Chapter 7Rubbish, rubbish, Barbara!--What you say is sheer rubbish. Stay here, rather, and put such thoughts out of your head. None of what you suppose is true. I can see for myself that...
8. Chapter 8MY PRICELESS BARBARA ALEXIEVNA,--What am I to say to you, now that all is over, and we are gradually returning to our old position? You say that you are anxious as to what will...
9. Chapter 9MY BELOVED BARBARA ALEXIEVNA,--These unlooked-for blows have shaken me terribly, and these strange calamities have quite broken my spirit. Not content with trying to bring you t...
10. Chapter 10MY DEAREST BARBARA ALEXIEVNA,-Yes, I AM ashamed to meet you, my darling--I AM ashamed. At the same time, what is there in all this? Why should we not be cheerful again? Why shou...
11. Chapter 11To tell you the truth, my darling, I have written the foregoing not merely to relieve my feelings, but, also, still more, to give you an example of the excellent style in which...
12. Chapter 12Even now I cannot wholly collect my faculties, so upset am I by recent events.... Have you any fuel to go on with, Barbara? You must not expose yourself to cold. Also, you have...
13. Chapter 13P.S.--I am so ashamed to trouble you with my commissions! This is the third morning that you will have spent in running about for my sake. But what else am I to do? The whole pl...