hold yourself more guilty than all?”
shoulder to shoulder.
means of regaining his honor, that that means was here, here on his
the bank, changed into notes of a hundred roubles, packed into a large
show you a trick that will make you die with laughing. A piece of meat,
to Smerdyakov, and he told me that he had seen the notes two days before
The peasant sat watching him and grinning. Another time Mitya might have
Jacob went to Laban and wrestled with the Lord in his dream and said,
“Excuse me....”
come!”
had pestered him terribly after the emancipation of the serfs. She was set
dining.
of‐war between two. I’m expressing it awkwardly, perhaps, but I’m not a
There was room for pity and good‐feeling just because his conscience had
church services, to the holy sacrament, gives him alms, and treats him
If he addressed them, he was brief, abrupt, strange, and almost always
fiery thirst of spiritual love which burns in me now, though I despised it
him. Altogether he was anything but friendly with Ivan on that occasion.
His coming, loved Him, hoped for Him, yearned to suffer and die for Him as
my little boy. He was the last one left. We had four, my Nikita and I, and
child. The hounds catch him, and tear him to pieces before his mother’s
object—to obtain the justification of something which cannot be justified.
“What grounds had you? What about the inheritance?” said Smerdyakov
must begin with. Oh, blind race of men who have no understanding! As soon
hundreds of persons in this town, and so prejudiced many people against
hard. The perspiration stood out on his face. But it was impossible to
“Perhaps I did. Enough, gentlemen. I won’t say how much I had.”
cases the first duty, the chief task of the investigating lawyers, is to
be admitted without difficulty. Things were managed in our little town, as
“_C’est du nouveau, n’est‐ce pas?_ This time I’ll act honestly and explain
hour of it. Of a truth, I am a lie, and the father of lies. Though I
Alyosha was carried away with joy as he uttered his last words, “And then
hands, then suddenly hid her face in them, began trembling all over and
question that faced him like some monstrous thing. And he looked at this
“Where have you taken him away? Where have you taken him?” the lunatic
past that any object of the kind would serve as a weapon, so he instantly,
she kissed Grushenka’s hand first, on purpose, with a motive? No, she
finished at the gymnasium and entered the university. As Yefim Petrovitch
down again, and put the wet towel round his head. He sat down beside him.
because I wanted to punish myself to the bitter end. She would not forgive
how to address you properly, but you have been deceived and you have been
“Yes, my dear, I am called, too, called and bidden,” he heard a soft voice
“I shall show them at the court to‐morrow,” he said.
dreams than we. They aim at justice, but, denying Christ, they will end by
He really was late. They had waited for him and had already decided to
my own! And how can you imagine a dog could be alive after swallowing a
another twelve versts and you come to Tchermashnya.”
Petrovitch when he was hardly thirteen, entering a Moscow gymnasium, and
absurd and ridiculous. And did you hear his stupid theory just now: if
struck himself with his fist on the breast?”
and you will remember how a whole edifice of psychology was built on that
his face. Alyosha was even more disconcerted and vexed. At last he turned
confusion of free thought, of their science and cannibalism. For having
of life.
Nothing but yesterday’s insult.” Madame Hohlakov obviously had not
besides, he was in such a frenzy.... He really may have done nothing but
“There’s nothing to finish. It’s all clear. It’s the same old tune,
appearance of it, and it is often looked upon among them as something
“You are not ill‐natured, but distorted,” said Alyosha with a smile.
them. She sent a message to me that she wasn’t coming to me at all, and
life like a child’s game, with children’s songs and innocent dance. Oh, we
pardon, to blame himself, to say something, for his heart was full and he
“Voltaire believed in God, though not very much, I think, and I don’t
hundred. And now, too, when you got hold of the money you had yesterday,
let out horses, too.”
... that is like me alone. That was a mistake, like me alone, me alone!...
point again. You see, I’m mixing everything up. I am in such a hurry. Why
They were awaiting Mitya with impatience in the shop. They had vivid
Chapter XII. And There Was No Murder Either
I am surprised at you, brother! Jump in, jump in! Let him pass, Ivan. It
Why, I thought you were only thirteen?”
Satan, with scorched wings, in thunder and lightning. But he is not Satan:
I’d better tell you the whole truth. Of course, it’s very wrong to spy on
“But what for? What for?”
first to smother, but at last he sobbed aloud. When they began taking
(there is a screen in his lodgings).
persuading him to come away from the step, but suddenly he impulsively
spangles, and she kept turning round and round, only not for four hours
were, scales fall from his eyes and the blind man sees Him. The crowd
he dropped his voice so that no one could hear them, “I feel dreadfully
and I myself was put in such a position ... that I could not invite
“The fact is I didn’t give it to him, and it’s a long story,” answered
for some other reason, too.”
roof which could give shelter. God knows when this summer‐house was built.
That’s what I came for; that’s what I asked you to come out here for, to
to say good‐by and just then you passed.”
You kissed mine three times, but I ought to kiss yours three hundred times
itself! For they will remember only too well that in old days, without our
smiled. ‘I’ll complain to your masters of you, so that for the future you
brought against you,” said Nikolay Parfenovitch, impressively, and bending
Chapter VI. The Prosecutor Catches Mitya
innkeeper’s nose.
There was a general burst of laughter. Alyosha looked at them, and they at
and that Ivan disliked. It had first given rise to his aversion. Later on,
me for some reason, Alyosha?”
“If I see her I’ll ask her,” Alyosha muttered, embarrassed.
obligation involves confession to the elder by all who have submitted
Alyosha shook hands with her. Grushenka was still crying. He saw that she
Outraged morality, and still more outraged taste, is often relentless. We
full speed, so that it would arrive not more than an hour later than
little bed is still there—”
“Oh, no, you misunderstood me, Dmitri Fyodorovitch. In that case you
is a coward, the sight of the pistols has frightened him, no use to listen
must be noted that I report this in my own words, the doctor made use of
of the men were certainly hoping for the conviction of the criminal,
believes in that now. But there.... So now you are in a temper with your
Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and
have had no idea of committing a murder beforehand. And Smerdyakov may
happening. When they began filling up the grave, he suddenly pointed
not married, although she had had two suitors. She refused them, but was
youth, and now at forty she has lost what she had. ‘But she’s awfully
prophesied it!’ though it’s a poor sort of prophecy, flopping like that.
it first of all, simply hold it in cold water to stop the pain, and keep
But she lived in another province; besides, what could a little girl of
and all that at great length, with great excitement and incoherence, with
mistress.
“The realism of actual life, madam, that’s what it is. But allow me to
for a husband to mention in regard to his own married life. What seemed to
child. The hounds catch him, and tear him to pieces before his mother’s
children, though it does weaken my case. But, in the first place, children
impossible to believe.”
finger when he, Alyosha, asked him what he had done to hurt him. Now
years afterwards, some sensible monks were amazed and horrified, when they
and were not worse words and acts commonly seen in those who have
forgive me. Now the secret of my reputation, ruined perhaps for ever, is
smile, and blessed her tenderly. As she kissed his hand she suddenly
“Not an easy job.”
intrude for?” it seemed to say; “we settled everything then; why have you
true that that’s the whole secret, but isn’t that suffering, at least for
“Follow the regular course! Follow the regular course!” cried Nikolay
shameless snigger. I feel a physical repulsion. That’s what I’m afraid of.
long! I am suffering! Forgive me! I am suffering!”
eyes!... I believe the general was afterwards declared incapable of
thought, ‘I’ll fall on his neck at once.’ Then a stupid idea struck me, to
that he will get well,” Alyosha observed anxiously.
shall I describe the state the ladies were in? I thought they would create
drawn by three horses. The doctor remained at Fyodor Pavlovitch’s to make
perfection and freedom, if at the same time one gains the conviction that
late, nearly three o’clock. Alyosha’s whole soul turned to the monastery,
the prisoner’s character. He suddenly evinces an irresistible desire for
doesn’t doubt of my obeying him, though I showed him all my heart as I
“So no one knew of the signals but your dead father, you, and the valet
made the most indifferent person, meeting her casually in a crowd in the
then, and wasted here in two days half that damned three thousand, but the
seized the money, too. But did he murder him after all? The charge of
“I say, I’ve been looking for you for the last two hours. You suddenly
every man is a scoundrel, but not every one can be a thief, it takes an
now? What do you think?”
interrupting. It’s hard to do, you know. You see, a month ago, I was sent
Foundation was created to provide a secure and permanent future for
performing something. It was the only way she could be amused; all the
far above them, and waited on her, hand and foot. But Agafya told her of
misfortune, why repeat what we all know already? What did my client meet
envelope and the notes in it, and therefore of the prisoner’s having
Chemist or what?”
Alyosha looked at him in silence.
“And what about your officer? And the priceless message from Mokroe?”
forty, but might have been only twenty, with a long thin face. And in her
before him.
will be fun. He can lie somewhere at our feet. Will you lie at our feet,
applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be interpreted to make
give it to him and bring an answer back, too. If you were forty, you would
blindly in its mysterious significance. Mysterious, and perhaps awful.
just now.” (Alyosha began to cry, he had been on the verge of tears for a
“One minute, gentlemen, for God’s sake, one minute; I will run to her—”
went off into a roar of laughter. “Would you like to go to the mines,
the greatest possible fullness of life for himself; but meantime all his
thing you haven’t made clear yet: you are still betrothed all the same,
better make it up to Grusha somehow, without begging pardon. I worship
looking back. He was trembling with delight.
terribly cast down and glanced timidly in one another’s faces, when they
by Alyosha’s evidence on the public was most disappointing. There had been
stinking dog? Of the murderer? We’ve talked enough of him. I don’t want to
her—but only from her alone, not from Dmitri, who has abandoned her. Nor
mother till I come back, or she’ll be sure to think it’s gunpowder, and
about our affairs. Show yourself to him.”
evidently in the background, and his remarks were treated with neglect,
“Where was he sending you just now? He shouted ‘Go’ as he ran away.”
And can Katerina Ivanovna, with her intelligence, her morbid
From whom do you think? Shall I say, Mitya?”
is still time, I hasten to protect myself, and so I renounce the higher
waited for him to come out for several days. Alyosha did not wonder why
cousin’s keeping, but as the latter had no family of his own, and after
delusion! Alyosha, darling, how did you escape from them, those women? Did
horses. A light lunch was brought in, with brandy. When Fyodor Pavlovitch
going for the sake of principle. But you are a little pig like Fyodor
“Have you told it in confession?”
eyes shone and he looked down.
fingers and calling it, “Perezvon, Perezvon!”
that I love you madly,” she moaned in anguish, and suddenly pressed his
they have heard from him, they will of their own accord help him in his
since he had thrown earth upon her coffin, and in the course of years had
first wife he’s talking about. But his second wife, do you know, ran away,
though I was not on earth. I woke up, and my dear one is close to me. How
In despair he hid his face in his hands.
“Most pious and holy elder,” he cried, pointing to Ivan, “that is my son,
Madame Hohlakov was a wealthy lady, still young and attractive, and always
“All will understand your sacrifice,” I said to him, “if not at once, they
indeed, he is cheerful now—but when he shakes his head like that, you
“Bravo!” cried Ivan, delighted. “If even you say so.... You’re a pretty
service here, began to be a regular visitor at the house. You met him here
“Oh, well, my boy, your Zhutchka’s lost and done for!”
Yes, I think the ladies who came to see the spectacle must have been
“The strength of the Karamazovs—the strength of the Karamazov baseness.”
rest for ever, Thou didst choose all that is exceptional, vague and
Smerdyakov in the course of it.
“And what tortures have you in the other world besides the quadrillion
another. His father was awfully pleased to see us. You know he will simply
have on Mitya, and he muttered a few words of admonition to him, but Mitya
in the drawing‐room directly he went in, he shouted to him, waving his
contrary, his self‐confidence increased with the increase of danger. It
“But if there were none but the ecclesiastical court, the Church would not
existence is incomplete. They are wide, wide as mother Russia; they
“Listen, listen!” cried Kalganov, bubbling over, “if he’s telling lies—and
authority. Yet it was perfectly simple and happened quite naturally.
listening to the conversation with silent contempt, still only impressed
and eating sweets.
at once passed on the document to the judges, the jury, and the lawyers on
can’t stay here to be their keeper, can I? I’ve finished what I had to do,
something crazy about his gestures and the words that broke from him. “Old
Ignatyevna would run up, or something else might happen. I don’t remember
now? Hush, hush, Alexey Fyodorovitch, for I have so much to say to you
ladies, too, for they’ll take it greedily, that must be admitted, and be
“What is it you want of me, sir?” said the old man, deliberately,
“I don’t agree,” said Alyosha, with a faint smile.
smiled dreamily and a little cruel line showed in her smile. “Mitya told
altogether.”
death. I was impressed by all this at the time, but not too much so,
sententiously. “Well, how are things over there? How is your elder?”
kept me pure, and it wasn’t that I was afraid of Kuzma, but that I might
hand and began feeling it. He remembered afterwards clearly, that he had
if he did kill him, or else he wouldn’t have written it. For he knew I
of his destiny. He drove away any other idea, in fact. But for that ending
‘something important to tell you.’ His honor has shown me them several
work to us. Thou hast promised, Thou hast established by Thy word, Thou
at once, with a sort of insolent defiance. “He was my benefactor; he took
brilliant career if you keep him here.” They suggested I should be sent to
“On the contrary, I am struck by a coincidence,” cried Ivan, warmly and
So much for your money!”
mete it shall be measured to you again,’ or how does it go? Anyhow, it
come again.’ Those were His very words ...”
sensible is to be suspected and is of little worth—that’s my opinion!
before night, I shall be back at night and the thing is done. Could the
we will always be brothers.... No, it’s not a dream!”
“ ‘Not you’! What do you mean by ‘not you’?” Ivan was thunderstruck.
“Very good,” Maximov whispered joyfully, and he ran back again. Mitya,
fence, Fenya, and, never mind.... You’ll hear to‐morrow and understand ...
“He’s no money; not a farthing. I’ll settle down for the night, and think
“I met Andrey as I ran to you, and told him to drive straight here to the
not know himself what orders to give and why he had run out. He only told
and bewildered the spectators, or at least some of them. The monks, with
“That you are just as young as other young men of three and twenty, that
only observed in silence by those who came in and out and were evidently
“Reverend Father, kindly do me a favor. Convey my deepest respect to the
and generous like Kolya (though he will be ever so much cleverer when he
Zossima, had broken into the monastery chest and “made tracks from the
already decided, even if he marries that—creature,” she began solemnly,
was at least a temporary change for the better in his condition. Even five
waiting for Mitya’s arrival to nail it down and put it in the cart. Pyotr
at me and bit my finger badly, I don’t know why.”
something.
“I did that for a good reason. For if a man had known all about it, as I
protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project Gutenberg™
descriptions as bold as Dante’s. Our Lady visits hell, and the Archangel
Alyosha, as though he, too, could think of nothing but his regret at
her feet. That was the beginning of the passion. At the same time the
open eyes at the investigating lawyer.
made up his mind how to take it. There was, so to speak, a discordant note
above, somewhere about the thirteenth. That’s how I see it. But it’s all
They remembered that ice had been put on his head then. There was still
Moscow, two years before. Lise was extremely touched by his story. Alyosha
head aches and I am sad.”
To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free
mistrustfully, looking with a forced smile into his eyes. Ivan still gazed
“But, gentlemen of the jury, why do I tell you all this, all these
infernal wickedness, but to put you to shame, and you’ll be surprised
plaintive “O—oh!” and then was silent. Ivan stepped up to him. He was
shuddered inwardly. “That girl is truthful and sincere,” he thought, “and
black horse, he insists on its being black, and we will set off as we
earth.... And the longer the monk lives in his seclusion, the more keenly
before, perhaps only a moment before he came in, and not for the first
garden, he must have murdered him.’ In those few words: ‘since he _was_,
the witness was alive or not, yet he had left in his murdered father’s
this. “It’s a pity I didn’t count the money at the time, but I was
rather than absurd? Because his father has been found murdered, because a
“You agree. Then it must be so, if you agree. It’s true, isn’t it,
people! The younger generation are the one prop of our suffering country.
people want thrashing, as Fyodor Pavlovitch said very truly yesterday,
“As though he would! I know he won’t. Do you know the meaning of despair,
“Oh, drop mysticism, do!” cried some one else; “think of Ippolit and his
drawn by the witness was a gloomy and sinister one, and greatly
“Ye—es,” answered Ilusha in a long whisper, gasping for breath.
“That’s just the way with mad fellows like that: ‘I shall kill myself to‐
don’t leave anything out!”
know that I love you and at this moment wish for your happiness more than
he made me listen to him. He fooled me like a boy. He told me a great deal
expansive mood. So he told them how Samsonov had made a fool of him two
to understand anything. Everything seems mixed up in a sort of tangle. I
_Lives of the Saints_, for the most part sitting alone and in silence, and
inmates of the hermitage. Meantime it was daylight. People began coming
women only a few days ago, and that sickly prosecutor are not worth my
with me. It’s like this. Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a
“No one else. He will let me know if she goes to the old man.”
in at us. But he had time to whisper to me:
the end always avenges it on itself. And so unrest, confusion and
‘wisp of tow.’ Schoolboys are a merciless race, individually they are
fell perhaps in her youth, ruined by her environment. But she loved much,
there’s no need, it’s too late for talking. Where’s my money? Where have I
the first directly he arrived. He galloped here from Moscow at once, of
“Yes; it’s a funny habit.”
“How does he fly down? In what form?”
forget Ilusha and one another. And whatever happens to us later in life,
first glance, at the first word, that all the tragedy of her position in
with him! And then I shall be left alone.... I shall come to you, Lise....
The psychological Ippolit Kirillovitch heard this with a subtle smile, and
were left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise
lips protruding, with a pale and frenzied face. His lips were moving as
mistress.
to the hermitage; the door‐keeper let him in by a special entrance. It had
first room from the entrance with a buffet along the wall. Waiters were
incoherent, almost wild enthusiasm. He was thrown off his balance and
Smerdyakov went on. “I am speaking of your parent and your brother Dmitri
sick man and sitting by him day and night. Varvinsky and Herzenstube were
“Where is yonder? Tell me, will you be here long? Can’t you go away?” Ivan
of Thine elect, but Thou hast only the elect, while we give rest to all.
Kindly leave me at once.... I am a mother.... I ... I—”
When Alyosha happened for a moment to leave the cell, he was struck by the
the thought in his mind. And if such a business man as Samsonov (a most
stolen—three thousand roubles—but whether those roubles ever existed,
standing in the doorway. There was a wrathful note in Kolya’s voice. He
“No, you’d better wait a little,” the priest pronounced at last, “for he’s
not as man’s,” Father Païssy heard suddenly. The first to give utterance
evidence of Katerina Ivanovna, which I will describe directly. Indeed,
as a sheet, in fact—and all at once, not impetuously but softly, gently,
one for the three thousand.” It was half‐past seven when he rang at the
back to me. Here’s your money ... because I am in great need of them ...
the world and of humanity—dost Thou believe that all the wisdom of the
only quarreled with a shopman in the tavern, because a Karamazov could not
stupid of me to speak of it—”
I know it all by heart. It bores me. If I am ever poor, I shall murder
him.”
Nevertheless, he went to see Mitya ten days before the trial and proposed
“From Tchermashnya, too ... you could be sent for,” Smerdyakov muttered,
“But to return to the eldest son,” Ippolit Kirillovitch went on. “He is
room and it was extremely hot. The walls were gay with blue paper, which
instructions, and so refuse to let Alyosha come into the garden, or might
difficult and laborious duty, which occupied him two years, and being a
were light and some were very severe. Fyodor Pavlovitch strictly forbade
about you. Your face haunted my heart. ‘He despises me,’ I thought; ‘he
but she betrayed herself, too. And no sooner had she given full expression
There will be much to do. But I don’t doubt of you, and so I send you
result has been only grotesque. Remember this especially, young man, since
because if you really haven’t understood till now, as I see for myself,
back into the house, Grigory lighted a lantern, took the garden key, and
giving his whole face a peculiarly spiteful and irritable look. The old
“Yes.”
uneasiness. The little Pole turned out to be a retired official of the
those new ones, however dear the new ones might be? But he could, he
abject? Shall I run to him or not? And I’ve been in such a rage with
of his life. If the question is asked: “Could all his grief and
feel sorry for him? What then?”
like a woman. And the farmer kept shouting that you could kill any number
positively accused of having committed murder for the sake of robbery, and
that they don’t see me. Where are they? In the blue room?”
disappeared.
answering Fyodor Pavlovitch’s questions, and was well aware of it, and
there is something else, gentlemen of the jury, something that cries out
“No, I wouldn’t consent,” said Alyosha softly.
but what if he slandered him unconsciously? What if, finally unhinged by
“Well, there you are again.... Come, cheer up, cheer up!” Grushenka said
in the family of my talented friend, the prosecutor.”
“You are stupid, awfully stupid,” said Ivan peevishly. “Fib more cleverly
doesn’t kill me but only cripples me: I couldn’t work, but I should still
“Nice; I sometimes imagine that it was I who crucified him. He would hang
did it through me. I tortured him and drove him to it. I tortured that
“To be sure!”
“Alyosha, I tell you, it’s awfully important,” Lise went on, with really
The figure of the young officer, frivolous and profligate, doing homage to
though he had been at no loss for a word. “And I bought him a pound of
up at all. It’s a stupid expression.”
“Well, I’ve come to do the same again, do you see?”
wrapped all the notes in the rag and stuffed it deep down in the hole. And
me of my God! I know myself, I shall rebel! My heart is heavy, gentlemen
finery is for, Rakitin! Perhaps I shall see him and say: ‘Have you ever
“Make haste with the lint and the lotion, mamma. That’s simply Goulard’s
the hat, I won’t have the hat.” Smurov picked it up and carried it after
and down. Then, without a word, she went straight to the cottage to the
Your slave and enemy,
He turned to the cart and pulled out the box of pistols.
rigid a fast as Father Ferapont should “see marvels.” His words seemed
shot for the satisfaction of our moral feelings? Speak, Alyosha!”
pillow.
my comrades heard of the affair at once and gathered together to pass
Ultramontanism and Rome, and your interpretation, and is only the glorious
most people exactly as one would for children, and for some of them as one
anxious to hear?” cried Madame Hohlakov. There was a sarcastic, angry note
“How strange it is! On the way here it seemed all right, and now it’s
The elder turned round and all at once looked attentively at Alyosha. The
from me, his brother, nor from any one else, but from her, only from her!
“No, no. The Polish gentleman spoke the truth.” Kalganov got excited
“Damn you! Speak out what you want!” Ivan cried angrily at last, passing
“As you like,” Mitya submitted gloomily; “only, please, not here, but
her a letter from Siberia which had been awaiting her. But that was not
confirmed by documentary evidence; but for the present we will only note
Mitya, began with dignity, though hurriedly:
“Where was he sending you just now? He shouted ‘Go’ as he ran away.”
I waited for an opportunity and succeeded in insulting my “rival” in the
we shall remind them of everything again,” Alyosha suggested.
excitement.
“Why haven’t you been to see us for so long, Pavel Fyodorovitch? Why do
“He did speak about it, and it’s that more than anything that’s crushing
“He had, besides, a strong presentiment that something terrible would be
afraid I shall be taken for an accomplice of his when he does something
selected as of most interest what was of secondary importance, and may
nonsense. Don’t cry, Grigory, we’ll reduce him to smoke and ashes in a
great sin, akin to sorcery. Only for your ignorance it is forgiven you.
gladness and self‐satisfaction passed in one instant.
affairs, and yet she had given in to him in everything without question or
“Yes. But not from my father. Not from my father, don’t be uneasy. I
generation—to develop them, to be of use to them, and I assure you this
brought close to those who have loved when he has despised their love. For
“A sham one, naturally. I shammed it all. I went quietly down the steps to
the house was at least fifty paces away.
“Till to‐morrow!” Ivan cried again, and he walked out of the cottage.
“When you come, pretend you’ve come of your own accord to ask after me.
with wine, singing and dancing and laughing to him! Secondly, the hope in
too; in the spring there was an outbreak of smallpox and I went and was
even how there could have been light on the first day when the sun, moon,
me. “It’s all your doing,” they said. I was silent and indeed rejoiced at
It was exactly eleven o’clock when he entered Madame Hohlakov’s house. He
come?’—as though I were to blame for it. On the other side it’s no better.
his betrothed, could not, we are told, have set aside half and sewn it up,
Parfenovitch, who happened to stand nearest to him, with a sudden, almost
might well have seen that the court would at once judge how far he was
Ivan before and he could not endure a certain carelessness Ivan showed
been in Fetyukovitch’s place, I should simply have said straight out: ‘He
destination of that sum—a sum which would have made his career—must have
the famous doctor had, within the first two or three days of his presence
“ ‘Not you’! What do you mean by ‘not you’?” Ivan was thunderstruck.
children may be spared. Will it be just to ruin them with me? Aren’t we
Ivanitch is his name. Tchizhov, Alexey Ivanitch.”
their own eager rhetoric. At this moment in his speech he went off into a
“You lie, accursed one!” hissed Grigory.
the day before yesterday.... Nobody in the whole world knows what I am
Besides, too high a price is asked for harmony; it’s beyond our means to
on a couch. She was particularly smartly dressed and was evidently in a
thousand for the timber. So the old man keeps asking Ivan to help him by
with the flowers in his hands and suggested he should give them to some
rogue—but watch his beard! I’ll give you a note and you show it to him.
And lay aside thy doubts.
“Now, listen and remember. In an hour’s time the wine will arrive,
altogether to my talented colleague from Petersburg. I will speak the
me; the thought of her’s killing me, killing me. She was with me just
and that, if there had been any love on earth hitherto, it was not owing
was not a large room, and was divided in two parts by a red screen,
He ran out of the room.
knocked his back against the wall and stood up against it, stiff and
not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith.
d’une brosse frottait l’ombre d’une carrosse._’ How do you know there are
“Excuse me, you see ... I ... you’ve most likely heard from the forester
fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man. But a man always
companions. The conventional answer to this question is: ‘He begot you,
“But do you know, Karamazov, you must admit that you are a little ashamed
opportunity slip. Bending over his shoulder he began teasing him again in
For, even if the rival did disappear next day, he would invent another one
love of his, had been till the last moment, till the very instant of his
Pan Vrublevsky came up to the table, swaying as he walked.
I hasten to emphasize the fact that I am far from esteeming myself capable
dull. Before you came, Mitya, they were just as silent and kept turning up
used to drive all over the province, complaining tearfully to each and all
“There’s nothing to finish. It’s all clear. It’s the same old tune,
complete despair. The perspiration was streaming down his face. The priest
passing of the sentence was deferred till next day. The whole court was in
then?’ A weighty question, truly! And the facts to confirm it are
after prolonged disputes he came to a settlement with his father, and the
crowd of monks, together with many people from the town. They did not,
would probably have succeeded, merely from her moral fatigue and desire to
was very ill. He was very weak; he spoke slowly, seeming to move his
“And mushrooms?” asked Father Ferapont, suddenly.
the part of the monks he instantly changed his mind. With dignified
earnest_) that Grushenka is really perhaps not joking, and really means to
isn’t it? Now tell me, what have I done to you?”
nothing but an impudent satirical burlesque. I mention this incident
One day, quite unexpectedly indeed, after he had been talking with great
kneeling and the prayer. Ever since then—only yesterday I took it up—I’ve
reactionary bully—was continually involved in amorous intrigues, and
signals on the table, and when Nikolay Parfenovitch said that he supposed
labor question, it is before all things the atheistic question, the
care what she did.
Parfenovitch, fearfully excited too, “otherwise it’s absolutely
at this fatal and obscure moment. This new something was the harassing
“ ‘Four thousand! What do you mean? I was joking. You’ve been counting
distinct proof. Grigory’s description of the scene at the dinner‐table,
“I suppose so,” snapped Mitya.
loudly, but refused to leave the court, struggled, and besought them not
speak of the baby before him, and, even if Grigory were not present, she
“Upon my word. I’ll tell some one to prevent your going there,” said Pyotr
that just the same thing, in a different form, of course? And young
Christ holding out His arms to me and seeking me with those arms, I see it
“Not him, damn the monster!” Ivan shouted, in a frenzy. “Do you know that
Ivan rose from his seat.
though he’d dropped from another planet.
“And are you still reading nasty books?”
God. Again I say, Be not proud. Be proud neither to the little nor to the
are dying of!’ And then what a way they have sending people to
with a broad accent. He was dressed in a peasant’s long reddish coat of
Book III. The Sensualists
before all these people, telling of Mitya’s generous conduct, in the hope
must be sure to call him Gorstkin, “or you’ll do nothing with him; he
me now?”
“Alyosha! Alyosha! What do you say to that! Ah, you casuist! He must have
independence, “Or he’ll think of me as thirteen and take me for a boy,
the rich Miüsov family, in their private theater, where the actors were
sad, and if it were only possible to bring him back, I’d give anything in
“Why?”
it would turn out like that?”
looking tenderly and happily at him.
moment.
“Then you know what for. It’s different for other people; but we in our
FOOTNOTES
marked interest in Smerdyakov, and had even thought him very original. He
mistaken, that you confessed this yourself to some one, I mean that the
set up for being a classic, you see!” Mitya laughed suddenly.
down, put it on her lap. “A child of God—an orphan is akin to all,” he
“Fifty roubles for vodka if we’re only an hour behind them.”
which they say is to be built in Petersburg.”
Next came the account of Mitya’s sudden determination to “step aside” and
death, and the story is that he ran out into the street and began shouting
‘indulging.’ Sit down. I could take you in my arms, Alyosha, and press you
repulsion. Only one thing was strange, however. Alyosha persisted that
“Did he say it to you alone once, or several times?” inquired the
naïve and simple‐hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are, too.
‘So much the better.’ The banker throws the dice. Podvysotsky wins. ‘Take
forgive him. The moment of revenge had come upon her suddenly, and all
he had taken on the day he ran away, when he had lain all night dead drunk
something and unable to come to a decision. He was in great haste,
himself all the time he was studying. It must be noted that he did not
him to any one till to‐day. Only Smurov has known for the last fortnight,
But as for relationship, your brother, or even your father, is more likely
caustic lotion for wounds, what’s it called? We’ve got some. You know
“I shan’t ask him about the wisp of tow, for I expect you tease him with
boast I tell you about it. It’s only a story, but it’s a nice story. I
after getting to know Alyosha:
what is good and what is evil, having only Thy image before him as his
“Come, kiddies,” said Kolya, stepping into the room. “You’re terrible
have been there. I reveal it to you, as you are a stranger.”
but only recognized the elevation of her mind and character, which I could
understand. Stepan and Semyon heard it, and Pyotr Fomitch Kalganov, too,
and I went up to him. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my
Alyosha stood, gazed, and suddenly threw himself down on the earth. He did
sentence had been easier for him; at least it had seemed necessary,
last the chains were broken and Ivan leapt up from the sofa. He looked
“Damn it all! I ought to have questioned her just now,” he thought with
dissuade me, even to pity me: “What are you doing to yourself?”
hands pressed them violently. Several times they both strove to speak, but
he had ordered it in Moscow expressly for the occasion from his own
liberal irony was rapidly changing almost into anger.
in a regular peasant’s room. Though it was large, it was cumbered up with
him! These paragraphs ... I know ... the insulting things that have been
was overawed by his stern and gloomy character. But the more he was
old sinner, who can never draw the line—if they both let themselves go,
“So that everything might be destroyed. Ah, how nice it would be if
will be more thankful for taking it from our hands than for the bread
sympathy for the unhappy wife had become something sacred to him, so that
up, the more he sinks into self‐destructive impotence. For he is
Chapter I. The Fatal Day
feminine independence, to override class distinctions and the despotism of
“I don’t know.”
“He is a Pole, that officer of hers,” he began again, restraining himself;
for half an hour till it’s quite red and swollen, and what’s left in the
just one of those children who are distrusted, sometimes ridiculed, and
taking out the notes. ‘What’s the use of the envelope?’ he may have asked
you must come back, you must. Do you hear?”
Nikolay Parfenovitch bent his head in assent. His small face wore an
chains, but in vain. The knocking at the window grew louder and louder. At
forgive me. Now the secret of my reputation, ruined perhaps for ever, is
their seats with a deeply offended air.
“Ask away.”
case.
Perhaps, weighed down by all the hideous horror of his struggle with his
when they asked whether I was a Christian or not a Christian, seeing I had
judgment on me the same day.
She went out. Mitya was calm, and even looked more cheerful, but only for
for Grushenka. He began from the moment when the prisoner went to the
voice, bathed in tears, stretching out her clasped hands towards them. “He
the head.”
Ivan was angrily silent and would not begin the conversation. The visitor
at once forgot them and Fenya’s question.
name of our little town. I had hitherto kept it concealed.) It was brief,
never return. She was ashamed, and from her eyes he could see now whom she
landlady not to let out where he had gone, if any one came to inquire for
“You scold me, but you laugh—that’s a good sign. But you are ever so much
serfs. I remember my mother selling one of the four, the cook Afimya, who
“Well, you can go,” he said, with a wave of his hand. “Ivan Fyodorovitch!”
“By the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbor actively
at them both—“I had an inkling from the first that we should come to
three days’ time I was stripped bare, but a hero. Do you suppose the hero
great irritation; secondly, he writes of the envelope from what he has
it. What’s left of it, eight hundred roubles, is in your hands now,
knows what you’ve thought about, and what you know already! You are pure,
us?’ ”
grateful young man, for you have remembered all your life the pound of
jury.... Observe that we have only the statement of one witness as to that
humbleness. I came hither with little learning and here I have forgotten
dark whiskers and a shiny, shaven chin, wearing a bearskin coat. As he
stride walked to meet him. Mitya was well dressed, in a frock‐coat,
but two are much better, but he did not meet another head with wits, and
all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ works.
fastidiousness. He would sit before his soup, take up his spoon and look
to me. You look out for her,’ says he, ‘till midnight and later; and if
“Katerina Ivanovna!” Nikolay Parfenovitch exclaimed with wonder. The
head.”
“Madam, that’s not the point, not at all....” Mitya clasped his hands in
everybody. The Tsar will reward me, I will come back here and then no one
about freedom? Is that the way to understand it? That’s not the idea of it
Then the prisoner was allowed to speak. Mitya stood up, but said very
loved him only for those five years, and I, how do I come in? What right
“I sent your brother, Dmitri Fyodorovitch, some sweets in prison. Alyosha,
made no response.
abject? Shall I run to him or not? And I’ve been in such a rage with
last ‘I am yours,’ and to fly with her far from their fatal surroundings.
very anxious to be back at the monastery as soon as I can.”
“Yes, from your gait. You surely don’t deny that character can be told
words with difficulty. Suddenly he staggered violently; but Alyosha was in
holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls the trigger in the
awful thing! It is terrible because it has not been fathomed and never can
overcoat made of yellow cotton material. “I can still pass for a man at
and Pyotr Ilyitch remembered it afterwards). But the young official
think I certainly shall go) and we meet again, don’t say a word more on
facts about him, without which I could not begin my story.
right shoulder, but she did not notice it and did not put it back till she
point._ You’d better remain anonymous,’ they advised me. What use is a
“I can’t answer for a madhouse and for madmen,” Miüsov answered at once
Plotnikov’s, they close late—to see if they won’t change it. Here, Misha!”
that he did stop, instead of passing by, as he meant to the minute before,
on the floor. All because it was Karamazov, not Smerdyakov, he didn’t
firmly convinced that the object of his affections was with him. No, that
assurance from Father Païssy that “the teacher would get up, and as he had
doubt only at that moment of angry silence, the fiction of the little bag
property....”
Grushenka favors neither of them, she’s still playing with them, and
shall have a long time to wait,” she ended suddenly. “Tell me rather why
up, the more he sinks into self‐destructive impotence. For he is
to remove the object of his affections from being tempted by his father,
meet you with gratitude, but worried you with his whims, without valuing
“Yes, a brat. What is it to you if I’m late; if I’m late, you may be sure
old noodle for turning him out of the house. And he had written this
must get better first. I understand the queen of impudence. That’s her all
him to mass. Perhaps the slanting sunlight and the holy image to which his
eyes on her and could not take them off. Here she was, that awful woman,
through his spectacles; then he slowly took them off and rose from the
from his bedroom. There were already in the cell, awaiting the elder, two
indulged in this diversion, probably feeling dull or wishing to amuse
entertain the company, ostensibly on equal terms, of course, though in
well pleased with them, as it was, and did not want to worry them with
afternoon Dmitri Fyodorovitch borrowed ten roubles from me, and I know for
found him.... You see, old man, he couldn’t have swallowed what you gave
thought fit.
afterwards what need there was to say this then to Smerdyakov.
repeated a “certain prayer” over him, after which he had gone to bed.
attain the answer on earth, and may God bless your path.”
tribune, gentlemen of the jury, ought to be a school of true and sound
a question—for instance, what year it is?”
family. Another personage closely connected with the case died here by his
this, he sees that he must follow the counsel of the wise spirit, the
moment he reached it, Grushenka was on her way to Mokroe. It was not more
first to smother, but at last he sobbed aloud. When they began taking
at least, he didn’t give them less. And what a lot of money was simply
stained hands the fine and spotless linen with which the bed had been
“Alexey Fyodorovitch,” he said, with a cold smile, “I can’t endure
diverting entertainment for them. He could have made them stand side by
months before had thrown stones at Ilusha. He was the one who told Alyosha
noted in passing that he was a young man of sturdy character.
But of this later. His mother still fretted and trembled, but the more
notes. They were very much crushed and crumpled, and had been pressed into
sight of it—a man who’s done a lot of nasty things, but has always been,
mad prank seemed to have broken the ice, and Dardanelov was rewarded for
there had been the scandals with his brother Dmitri—they discussed that,
reflected at the time) not owing to his arrest or his fright, but a chill
the usual time, at last he whistled to him. The dog jumped up and began
tea away; he wouldn’t have any.”
the room to receive his guests. He was a tall, thin, but still vigorous
declared that he meant the money spent a month ago, and that that was how
every one knew that she had taken in Grushenka as a lodger, four years
Sounds of approval and laughter, at the expense of the prosecutor, were
quarrels and altercations in defense of him and succeeded in bringing some
a man like that, who has wasted his whole life in the desert and yet could
trying to allay Mitya’s excitement by his own composure. “Before we go on
not next day to inform his benefactor Fyodor Pavlovitch of this curious
I have a charming pamphlet, translated from the French, describing how,
another twenty years yet, as that dear good woman from Vishegorye, with
remember afterwards. “Love God’s people. Because we have come here and
would have felt dreary without them. When the children told some story or
Suddenly he let go of the bell, turned back with a curse, and walked with
loved Mityenka for one hour, and that I was going now to love ... another.
Ivan. He had rubbed himself all over with vodka mixed with a secret, very
hurried through the copse that divided the monastery from the hermitage,
recalling something, he added:
asked you to sit down, and for a whole minute I pondered. If I had killed
these influences—first, the influence of drink, of noise and excitement,
“Ah, that’s true! I understand that perfectly now. Ah, Alyosha, how do you
pronounced, again there is a suggestion of mystery. There is something
called Korovkin, it was at Moscow.... The anecdote is so characteristic
a kiss.
know, when children are silent and proud, and try to keep back their tears
held up their heads proudly. “There was no smell of corruption from the
picture of what Snegiryov had described to him that day, how Ilusha,
Fetyukovitch’s make of such a desperate case; and so they followed his
like it, too), or that you’re so sorry for your brother that you are
hate her. Remember that! I can talk about it gayly still. Sit down here by
stood still in silence and with an ironical air watched his son going
course, I’m to blame, and I shall have to answer for it. But if there
madness. I turned back and joined the ranks of those _who have corrected
enjoyment.
criminal, they say, rarely repents, for the very doctrines of to‐day
women only a few days ago, and that sickly prosecutor are not worth my
kitchen garden. She used at least once a week to turn up “at home,” that
and a little sallow, though she had for the past fortnight been well
Don’t tell any one I told you to. Don’t say a word to Ivan.”
pale, with quivering voice and flashing eyes. “_Ici_, Perezvon!”
of emotion in earnest, although at that very moment, or a second later,
“No, it was not open.”
sing‐song voice, looking at the coffin of the dead elder:
that he had taken out the money? Who heard what he said? The weak‐minded
“Yes, I want disorder. I keep wanting to set fire to the house. I keep
“By all means, gentlemen. I’ll turn out all my pockets, if you like.”
Smerdyakov knew I didn’t like my father and perhaps believed that I
“Perhaps he will. Let us come together, you and I, that will be enough, to
the false Church. I, a thief and murderer, am the only true Christian
waited with sinking hearts; though that is, perhaps, too much to say, for
love it.”
published in one of the more important journals a strange article, which
subtlety and talent by the prosecutor. But while I admire his talent I
“Ah, an irreverent expression! Well, what of it? Anyway, what does that
it happened so. It was a horrid thing, but a good thing too.” Grushenka
though people have made an agreement to lie about it and have lied about
There was a bright moon in the sky. A nightmare of ideas and sensations
student, leaving Mitya, a child of three years old, in her husband’s
beforehand, but you can always have a presentiment of it.”
“I would advise you,” Alyosha went on warmly, “not to send him to school
CONTENTS
one, in a black silk dress, with a dainty lace fichu on her head, which
boys hurriedly took leave. Some of them promised to come again in the
mechanical!—or else I’ll put out one eye, let my beard grow a yard, and I
reflections and preceded by an excellent and devout dedication to the
that is, his fixed idea about the three thousand. Yet I think one might
fall down the cellar stairs in a fit, if you didn’t sham a fit on
school in the capital. This second daughter is Katerina Ivanovna, and she
talking to herself. “Perhaps my heart is only getting ready to forgive. I
saints, the angels, Christ, and God himself were brought on the stage. In
The prosecutor is charmed with his own romance. A man of weak will, who
live to that moment, or rise again to see it, I, too, perhaps, may cry
fall in with everything, I’ll win them by politeness, and ... and ... show
depress you, or you may lose your head and say the wrong thing in your
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