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“Why did you tell a lie, pretending we are thrashed?” asked Smurov.
second three years later. When she died, little Alexey was in his fourth
become so tiny; his hair was ruffled, and his crest of curls in front
visitors!”
the hidden dead figure so precious to him, but the weeping and poignant
tried to reply to some of the evil speakers that “this is not held
“That’s quite likely,” cried Alyosha, much excited. “Thank you,
come to me over again. It is marvelous, fathers and teachers, that Alexey,
Fyodor Pavlovitch, while waiting for his mistress, tears open the envelope
“Well, never mind him, if he’s ill. So you meant to shoot yourself to‐
for instance, under the mattress, he’d have torn it open as quickly as
them already. And how has that Ivan won you all, so that you all worship
passage: it’s Cana of Galilee, the first miracle.... Ah, that miracle! Ah,
concealed his movements.
“Not at all, I didn’t mean anything.”
palace of the Holy Inquisition and shut Him in it. The day passes and is
in which they say we shall one day be blended. I believe in the Word to
to be, but even more revolting. In a short time he opened a great number
“Impossible!” he cried. “You’re raving! Grushenka with her?”
“Listen, though you’re such a savage I’ve always liked you.... I feel
beforehand, just as he committed the murder after. A complete program of
he was the “investigating lawyer,” from the “school of jurisprudence,” who
against him. Because he was not an habitual thief and had never directly
“This is unendurable!” was heard on all sides in the cell.
have cornered you, revealing your eagerness for your father’s death, and I
an idea made up by men? Then if He doesn’t exist, man is the chief of the
the captain, to his wife, to Alyosha and then again to Ilusha. “He used to
It was explained further that Mitya had, on the contrary, often told her
listened and looked at him blankly, but his face gradually relaxed into a
can’t.”
hands, “I am going upstairs to my room, not in to you. Good‐by!” and
And he suddenly retreated, this time finally. Alyosha went towards the
paroxysm of indignation seized on Mitya’s soul.
forgetfulness, and the most profound indifference as to the ultimate fate
his secret business. He had spoken to him just before Mitya met the
had even uttered some words of regret: “You’ve come to grief, old
stake, the card he doubled was trumped by the Poles. The rouble stakes
“At Katerina Ivanovna’s?”
thing happened to the two little boys as to their elder brother, Mitya.
face, though, I believe, he was well satisfied with it. He used
had meanwhile developed. There were rumors that she had been at seventeen
am a witness. How shall I speak, how shall I speak? I don’t know what I
him of something that must not be put off for a moment, some duty, some
house and there to open an inquiry on the spot, according to the regular
tavern, at his own ingenuous public avowal that all he had got out of
hall with a composed and almost stately air, not the least disconcerted by
Alyosha said to himself: “I can’t give two roubles instead of ‘all,’ and
almost dropped. So this is the explanation of her dreadful night and her
truth. Look,” said I, “at the horse, that great beast that is so near to
It had begun to get dusk when Rakitin, crossing the pine copse from the
“I will go,” said Ferapont, seeming somewhat taken aback, but still as
“He was a dog and died like a dog!”
me; the thought of her’s killing me, killing me. She was with me just
quite round to face him.
men of honor and refinement, will forgive me! I’ll finish by asking you,
hard upon her, for she’s such a clever little thing. Would you believe it?
uneasiness. The little Pole turned out to be a retired official of the
up, and so on, and so on. A very commonplace idea occurs to me at this
ironically in conclusion, “that the prisoner would, on entering the court,
From that time Alyosha noticed that Ivan began obviously to avoid him and
Chapter IX. The Galloping Troika. The End Of The Prosecutor’s Speech.
The soul of all creation,
rooms; might have pushed his father away; might have struck him; but as
given so confident an opinion about a woman. It was with the more
The officious shopmen began explaining with oily politeness that the first
And so on, awfully funny, I’ll bring it to you later on. I say nothing
doubt, an echo of other people’s ideas, and was due to the irritation
had been placed there—something exceptional, which had never been allowed
moment. Tell me this, O ass; you may be right before your enemies, but you
eyes.
“I have been at your Sylvester’s. I used to stay there. Is Sylvester
guilt had not been so firmly established, as that would have lessened the
mother began weeping, and, careful not to alarm my brother, she entreated
“They are rogues.”
Fyodorovitch?”
Learning the author’s name, they were interested in his being a native of
says that Zhutchka was a shaggy, grayish, smoky‐looking dog like Perezvon.
that was a joke, but the matter was noised abroad and came to the ears of
tired again, had gone back to bed, he thought of Alyosha as he was closing
“That tall, sniveling fellow who used to sit in the market in the summer.”
Kuzma back all he has ever given me, to‐morrow, and all his money and I’ll
Vassilyevitch saw the door open. What can he say after that? But never
delicate, complex and psychological case be submitted for decision to
better make it up to Grusha somehow, without begging pardon. I worship
witness‐box with damaged reputations, amidst laughter from the public.
am a scoundrel myself. I shall choke there!” he exclaimed, his eyes
money! I won’t press the point that Smerdyakov could hardly have reckoned
shuddered inwardly. “That girl is truthful and sincere,” he thought, “and
indeed from his cradle. I have mentioned already, by the way, that though
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV***
“I didn’t expect it in the least. Only fancy, he is jealous of the Pole.
herself for not being able to repress her mirth.
approaching return of the “officer,” that is, of the man who had been such
“What do you mean?”
“But I was married to a Polish lady myself,” tittered Maximov.
already decided. Don’t decide, spare me! I can’t live without Grusha. Wait
meanwhile. Don’t you want money?”
he sometimes laughs at such trifles as though he were a baby himself.”
all and go to the East so as to see no one again. Not _her_
combining the most incongruous contradictions, and capable of the greatest
forgotten to‐day.”
there. He began playing these tricks, they say, as soon as he got home.
of it or not? Answer.”
the elder and obtain his blessing. They fell down before him, wept, kissed
He had, however, consulted the new doctor, who had been brought from
visitor with admiration, for besides enjoying his intelligence, I began to
a peasant, understand in such an affair?” All the four officials in the
and beat him when he stole from the pigs. And that was how he spent all
Let him gather round him once a week, some hour in the evening, if only
the grand unity of men in the future, when a man will not seek servants
hear? But, at once, this very minute, and for ever. You understand that,
to the separation of Church from State.”
never spoke of it above a whisper. Marfa observed that, from the day of
instant to forget him whom he had left in the monastery on his deathbed,
the birds were trilling the praise of God.... I hid my face in my hands,
almost from the moment when I ran out to you from behind the curtain, I’ve
“Well, doctor, have I another day in this world?” he would ask, joking.
have a better idea than to move to another province! It would be the
no resisting it; as though I should act like a bug, like a venomous
not healthy in his face. It was rather thin, his cheeks were hollow, and
And why did I want to do such a thing? You knew nothing about it, Alyosha,
And the same answer was repeated to every question: “Yes, guilty!” and
“Then he despises me, me?”
just sat down, somewhere in the bushes not more than twenty paces away.
from the dinner? You must be a brazen‐faced fellow! I am that myself, but
the common bond of noble birth and honor. In any case, allow me to look
“You remember that? Let me have jam too, I like it still.”
elope with her to the gold mines. But the criminal, counting on escaping
listening in silence, said with a smile. “Is it simply a wild fantasy, or
did not know, who was not of his own class, and to whom he hardly knew how
had made him feel most ashamed was that he had given in too soon and
added with a smile.
by exposure. She was kneeling and gazing with a fixed stare at the elder;
came a second time to our little town to settle up once for all with his
Section 5.
give her the sacred name of mother? Let us be bold, gentlemen, let us be
rose and greeted him with a very deep bow, touching the ground with their
debauchee he never neglected investing his capital, and managed his
something real, not simply your fancy, as you persisted in declaring last
Fyodorovitch?” said Ivan irritably.
“I sent your brother, Dmitri Fyodorovitch, some sweets in prison. Alyosha,
surprised me, do you hear? I mean it. It’s long since I’ve been surprised
I don’t remember him at all. He left my mother a small house built of
and of course that was all I wanted.
barrister ‘a conscience for hire.’ The counsel protests in his client’s
Mitya had himself, through her sister, proposed they should “send him
“_When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and
all was one figure—the figure of his beloved elder, the figure of that
just gone to bed, I’ll give them a kick and set them singing for you. You
faltered helplessly.
dropped them to the ground, and from the boy’s look alone, Father Païssy
Perezvon and gazed at him, faint with suspense.
he lay there senseless. The only risk was that Marfa Ignatyevna might wake
And of servants I will add this: In old days when I was young I was often
fate depended, while he snored as though there were nothing the matter, as
“Oh, the devil!” roared Mitya, and with all his might brought his fist
“A cigarette.”
where the old man hid the envelope. It’s Smerdyakov, that’s clear, now!”
carried away by certain passions to a somewhat excessive degree....”
he added, turning to Fyodor Pavlovitch with a good‐humored face. He went
she confessed, and very touchingly asked forgiveness. ‘I once jumped over
his place and went down. The frantic outcries of bigots could not shake
sixteenth century, and at that time, as you probably learnt at school, it
Grushenka stared at her and, pausing for an instant, in a vindictive,
the one friend I have in the world, Ivan Fyodorovitch, with his deep
exactly as his mother was said to have done, wrung his hands, hid his face
ikon on his neck he spat at me.... He only spat, it’s true, he didn’t
secretly they simply love it. I for one love it.”
_allow_ it, if your sanction is so necessary,” Katya added viciously. She
never come back.... It is for ever. I don’t want to sit beside a
don’t seem to understand what I tell you.”
creep back to him like a beaten dog.’ I couldn’t believe myself. Am I so
good wine until now._”
hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all
urge you on at all. No, no, I didn’t urge you on! But no matter, I will
prisoner ran straight from those women servants to Perhotin’s without
have begun, I may as well go on,” he decided. His predominant sensation at
a child himself? Is he fit to be married after that? For only fancy, he
rushing up to Father Iosif. “That’s the answer to your ‘shameful!’ What is
which they say is to be built in Petersburg.”
the decomposition had been natural, as in the case of every dead sinner,
by, Alexey!”
with her hands behind her head. She was dressed as though expecting some
the contrary, he’ll accuse me. And in fact, why did I set off for
“We weren’t betrothed at once, not for three months after that adventure.
in buttoning his big, warm, fur‐trimmed overcoat. Then he began looking at
soon as Ivan parted with Alyosha and was walking home, the forgotten
humbly, whilst his keen and inquisitive, but rather frightened little eyes
“I am very thankful for everything. Marfa Ignatyevna does not forget me,
“Alyosha,” he whispered apprehensively, “where’s Ivan?”
assume that my client is guilty of parricide. Even so, hear what I have to
“But need I?” he exclaimed, “must I? No one has been condemned, no one has
Moscow, and to whom she was obliged to write twice a week a full account
“Not Zhutchka?” Alyosha looked at Kolya with eyes full of pity. “Is she
or minimizing them. No one but an innocent man, who had no fear of being
“Mr. Perhotin informed us that when you came to him, you held in your
he did not cut short the performance, and after keeping Perezvon dead for
“This is absolutely irregular, Mihail Makarovitch!” he cried. “You are
“you may not believe me, but as God is holy, and as Christ is God, I swear
There was a general burst of laughter. Alyosha looked at them, and they at
and all creatures, every leaf is striving to the Word, singing glory to
countenance, and, without asking him to sit down, began at once with the
But Trifon Borissovitch did not even turn round. He was, perhaps, too
the hidden dead figure so precious to him, but the weeping and poignant
there was a vindictive note in her voice.
dropped by Mitya when he was drunk, and had given them to Trifon
“That I certainly will, without fail,” cried Fyodor Pavlovitch, hugely
and I can’t endure that. That’s how it is I’ve kept away from you. But in
“Yes. I can give up their bread, not needing it at all, and go away into
“One may say with certainty, gentlemen of the jury,” the prosecutor
particularly to point to his nose, which was not very large, but very
“She was terribly scared.
And as he had not come as a visitor but as a subordinate official bringing
past that any object of the kind would serve as a weapon, so he instantly,
people round to his side. “It’s the wench’s own fault,” he asserted, and
members met for the first time in their lives. The younger brother,
harder than ours. And if he does not go to church, it’s because he knows
for annihilation. No, live, I am told, for there’d be nothing without you.
gentlemen, to drop that conventional method of questioning. I mean,
the table and I’ll sit beside you and look at you, and go on talking. You
Come along, Alexey Fyodorovitch, we must make an end.”
luckless man trampled on the money, Lise could not help clasping her hands
“So then there are loopholes, after all, to creep out of the hermitage to
longed to revenge himself on every one for his own unseemliness. He
Ivan jumped up and seized him by the shoulder.
visitor! Alyosha, my dear boy, I gaze at you and can’t believe my eyes.
the peasantry. Well, Smerdyakov was probably one of them, and he probably
“No doubt. Let us leave that,” she snapped. “Listen: I can’t go with you
“Aie! Aie!” cried Madame Hohlakov, alarmed, and she flew to the other end
in pencil: ‘I will write to you. Wait. K.’ And that was all.
They left off playing.
Alyosha stood still, holding her hand in his. Suddenly he stooped down and
“But I am not complaining at all, I am simply telling you ... I don’t want
“Yes. That was my contention. There is no virtue if there is no
didn’t go in.... I tell you positively, definitely, the door was shut the
terms she was with the retired lieutenant, Dmitri Fyodorovitch Karamazov.
envelope, takes out the money, and flings the envelope on the floor,
the slightest inclination for any companionship. In Moscow, too, as we
business affairs very successfully, though, no doubt, not over‐
Alyosha did not answer.
civilization. Already we have heard voices of alarm from Europe, they
starting suddenly.
“And will you weep over me, will you?”
“And the devil? Does he exist?”
us. This is what our God has taught us and not that to forbid children to
He seemed frantic.
inclination and to take messages for Mitya. Three days after Mitya’s
I listened to him and thought that he evidently wanted to tell me
time, too. One day when the boy was about fifteen, Fyodor Pavlovitch
“Ah, an irreverent expression! Well, what of it? Anyway, what does that
He jumped up in a frenzy, flung off the towel, and fell to pacing up and
with her forehead to the floor. She jumped up and ran away. I was wearing
in yellow cover, but Smerdyakov was not reading it. He seemed to be
“Mitya, don’t dare to blame her; you have no right to!” Alyosha cried
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trace of humor or jesting in her face now, though, in old days, fun and
“You’d better,” the captain started up from the chest by the wall on which
do you hear that majestic voice from the past century of our glorious
Fyodorovitch had driven out of the yard, Smerdyakov, depressed by his
he’d begin blubbering over her and wiping his eyes with a blue check
“At the first temptation—for instance, to entertain the woman with whom he
his new lodging, the dilapidated little wooden house, divided in two by a
time. If you can’t take yourself off, talk of something amusing. Talk
dig the earth with my own hands. We must work, do you hear? Alyosha said
“You know, Kolya, you will be very unhappy in your life,” something made
been lighter. He is weak and vile. What though he is everywhere now
“Well, the only thing I can tell you is this,” said Smerdyakov, as though
to become of the millions and tens of thousands of millions of creatures
yet he wanted to ask just that, and he had to ask it just in that way. And
he fell back against the wall. In an instant his face was bathed in tears.
young official and had learnt that this very opulent bachelor was
Chapter I. The Beginning Of Perhotin’s Official Career
recognized by the criminal in his soul. What was said here just now is
into his room when there was no one else there. It was a bright evening,
The Brothers Karamazov
They will see that we do not change the stones to bread, but in truth they
in, he fell down before the coffin as before a holy shrine, but joy, joy
“What are you talking about?” said Mitya, looking at him rather
mustaches, had not so far roused the faintest doubts in Mitya. He was not
“Make haste and finish, my boy,” Fyodor Pavlovitch urged him, sipping from
Chapter I. The Breath Of Corruption
“They’re two gentlemen from the town.... They’ve come back from Tcherny,
without whom we cannot live! I tell you plainly and openly, dear boy,
children! There is only one means of salvation, then take yourself and
“But he said I was a stinking lackey. He thinks that I might be unruly. He
ill, too. She is on the verge of insanity, too, perhaps.... I had hoped to
fever. He looked at Alyosha without fear, as though he felt he was at home
the superintendent shouting in the yard. He’ll be here directly. We are
explained to me as due to malingering and the trickery of the “clericals,”
“Yes,” said Alyosha, not wanting to contradict him. Mitya paused for a
Perhotin and on the way, as he ran, he pulled out of his pocket the money,
Mitya’s manners she detested. Mitya positively laughed at her, and had
suddenly, to the surprise of every one. He was silent and seemed to be
“The famous French writer, Piron. We were all drinking then, a big party
waiting all the time. At last Alyosha raised his gentle eyes and looked at
the sofa.
Dmitri. He positively disliked him; at most, felt sometimes a compassion
exchanged a benefactress for a benefactor. Fyodor Pavlovitch did not get a
limitation, blame the whole world. But subdue such a soul with mercy, show
living, he could not; oh, damnation! “O God! restore to life the man I
garter and fumbled to the bottom of his stocking. Ivan gazed at him, and
fence, Fenya, and, never mind.... You’ll hear to‐morrow and understand ...
“Don’t distress yourself, I beg.” The elder got on to his feeble legs, and
Distributed Proofreading Team at . (This
with angry contempt. “He was always coming to me for money: he used to get
answer one more question: are the gypsies here?”
Poland, so how can he talk about it? I suppose you weren’t married in
_Lives of the Saints_, for the most part sitting alone and in silence, and
“Expecting him? To come to you?”
explained where the powder had to be put, where the shot should be rolled
voice was so weak, so broken, he talked so fast, so fast, he kept laughing
will remember him, boys, all our lives. And even if we are occupied with
rheumatic all over, I don’t think I told you that. All her right side
a penny.” He had picked up a whole troop of gypsies (encamped in our
accursed, for it is cruel.” But God will save Russia as He has saved her
come, but don’t tell him beforehand, for perhaps I may go, but not go
tormented all the week, trying to think how to prevent him from being
I won’t be taken to a mad‐house!”
The whole town is in excitement, they are all suspense. But now—do you
inoculated with it, since the religious movement began in our aristocracy.
turn a shopman out of his seat, but that was done almost unconsciously,
future ... and let us be honest, let us be good, not brutes, but good ...
At last the President opened the case of the murder of Fyodor Pavlovitch
intensest and purest interest without a trace of fear, of his former
yourself. As soon as my tongue runs away with me, you just say ‘the
turned out, take the leading part in it, but was only implicated in it.
fair, pale skin, freckled. His small, lively gray eyes had a fearless
this strange act. Is not this a flight of fancy? And what proof have we
he has a banquet. There’s not been such a banquet since the Superior
“After pulling out my beard, you mean, he will ask my forgiveness? And he
all so marvelously know their path, though they have not intelligence,
existence is incomplete. They are wide, wide as mother Russia; they
They seized me and thrashed me.”
opened the door they grinned at him, hoping he would come in and would do
gathered for this probably last conversation with Father Zossima, had all
“Why, you said just now ... you said ... you said it was as good as in my
course, a demon lies hidden—the demon of rage, the demon of lustful heat
time, however, for his life was cut short immediately.... But of that
“What if it is so! At last you have guessed it. It’s perfectly true, it’s
there of themselves. Of course, they went with Karamazov at first. And
in due time. Yet even when I did know of this special circumstance I still
strained in this practice. Yet the older and more experienced of the monks
crucible of analysis; in a word, we must act rationally, and not as though
was time to carry it out, stood round it in a close circle and began to
of serving the cause of brotherly love and the union of humanity have
Dmitri’s feet till his forehead touched the floor. Alyosha was so
dear boy, there was an old sinner in the eighteenth century who declared
and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some
why, I was thinking, Ivan.... He he he!” He stopped. A broad, drunken,
Couldn’t you tell him this is Zhutchka, and he might believe you?”
groan, he wakes up and falls asleep again; and the same thing again two
“If you would kindly listen, madam, for half a moment, I’ll explain it all
evenly. Alyosha took a pillow and lay down on the sofa, without
depression and yet I can’t tell what I want. Better not think, perhaps.”
me to anguish, to terror. And I don’t know to whom to appeal, and have not
world and material proofs, what next! And if you come to that, does
His utterances during the last few hours have not been kept separate from
“Ah, Alexey Fyodorovitch, dear, let us care for people as we would for the
pig! I used to kick such people out, but now I listen to them. He talks a
thoughtful. His hands, crossed over his breast, looked particularly
to dinner with me, and I’ll have a party of friends, and we’ll drink to
They left off playing.
another woman and you got to know her too well to‐day, so how can
‘It’s really not worth while to give back one hundred; let’s spend that,
“There’s the Holy Ghost and there’s the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can
“He’s mad!” he cried, and rapidly jumping up, he drew back, so that he
and more uninviting‐looking than the others. So that one might well
Karamazovs,’ as Father Païssy said the other day, a crude, unbridled,
come to protect me, too, for I warned you of Grigory Vassilyevitch’s
“How am I to know about Dmitri Fyodorovitch? It’s not as if I were his
Pyotr Ilyitch listened in silence. Mitya, too, was silent for a while.
“She is mistaken, of course; but she is right that you are ill,” said
with strong feeling, and again he flushed. “It always will be, and I won’t
“As you know already, it was simply from fear. For I was in such a
succeeded in wakening the man, he would still be drunk and incapable of
honor, tossed away the money, and trampled it under foot.... He couldn’t
I’ve forgotten the name. I must look it up. It was in the darkest days of
black my shoes, Rakitin, that’s the place you are fit for. You’ll never
“But if you say yourself that it couldn’t be guessed, how could I have
could have taken place, the charge of robbery falls to the ground; if
performance, too,” he said, laughing nervously. “That’s why I’ve come.”
Marfa Ignatyevna had tasted the stuff, too, and, being unused to strong
Kolya held the cannon in his hand so that all could see and admire it.
may well come to pass from all this, and that’s what your brother Ivan is
all discussion of these subtleties and distinctions, and, if you will be
he is doing in the intoxication of cruelty, thrashes it mercilessly over
remember to tell to God; ‘She once pulled up an onion in her garden,’ said
“One may say with certainty, gentlemen of the jury,” the prosecutor
should have who suffers for an idea. And so he deprives me instantly of
obdurate silence with regard to the source from which you obtained the
loan of two thousand roubles for a very short period. Grushenka left that
falling downstairs in a _feigned_ fit—with what object? In the first place
has been here and questioned me about that evening, about the gold mines.
“I will go, madam, afterwards.... I’ll go where you like ... but now—”
“Yes, from your gait. You surely don’t deny that character can be told
about myself. In spite of that I became very fond of him and spoke with
to their ‘native soil,’ as they say, to the bosom, so to speak, of their
become quite cheerful again.... But the thought of her was stabbing him to
recrossing his legs.
you believe it, she answered me instantly in pencil (the lady has a
with a cheap opal stone in it.
relation of Mr. Miüsov.”
him I told you. Don’t tell him, for anything.”
murder me and ... he dashed away! But what shall we do, what must we do
out to her, though of late he has been so weak that he has hardly shown
unexpected friend, a warmly loving teacher, in this austere monk who had
act to‐morrow at the trial,” he said sharply and angrily again.
“Listen. Legally he owes me nothing. I’ve had it all from him, I know
sake, just now!... and yet she’s proud and has done nothing! How can I
avowing his guilt?
had chocolate made for all the girls, and ordered that three samovars
diverting himself.
pocket, and whistled with all his might as though giving a signal. He had
“In the next room, I’ve two words to say to you, something pleasant, very
Alyosha thought it strange that his arrival should cause such excitement.
them that I’ve nothing to do with that Æsop, that buffoon, that Pierrot,
not allowed to go about with me now, no one is allowed to go about with me
speaking strangely, disconnectedly. At last he sat down, put his elbows on
purposely used these words instead of “intentionally”) consulted a lawyer
Only what offends me is that he doesn’t love me at all. I tell you he is
to Thee alone—the banner of earthly bread; and Thou hast rejected it for
blood cries out against you!” the old captain of police roared suddenly,
Ignatyevna, had obeyed her husband’s will implicitly all her life, yet she
in his life, and he never had shed a bitter tear owing to it. But he was
grimly.
father had entered the prisoner’s head, and illustrated his theory with
Mitya had leapt up from his chair half‐way through this speech.
“Yes.” Alyosha smiled gently.
Lise, as it was with her he had to speak, for Lise had sent a maid to him
effort to grasp something. “Listen. There are a lot of questions I want to
But, a long while afterwards, Alyosha remembered this.
fond of listening to these soup‐makers, so far.”
on the eve of his departure for the next world, old Kuzma must sincerely
perhaps something fine. That’s a great pity, for I only give what I can—”
hundred? I insist upon that question, Dmitri Fyodorovitch.”
“That I can do.”
Smerdyakov’s death before I came, when no one knew of it and there was no
These excellent intentions were strengthened when he entered the Father
mind. But, excuse me, who can have told you all this? You can’t have been
right to it. Well, and now....”
“He means the three thousand,” thought Mitya.
“Now for the children of this father, this head of a family. One of them
“There’s no help for it, we must have recourse to Perezvon. _Ici_,
“But where are you? Are you at the door? I’ll open it directly.”
was arrested at Mokroe he cried out—I know, I was told it—that he
dream of going to Katya and saying, ‘I’m a scoundrel, but not a thief!’ Do
can’t.... I’m sorry.”
one felt that he really might have something to say, and that what he was
room, for the Father Superior had only two rooms altogether; they were,
that we have facts, witnesses, and his own words. I confess, gentlemen of
conscientious doctor in the province. After careful examination, he
As she entered the room, Grushenka only glanced for an instant at Mitya,
you’re anathema they won’t pat you on the head for it in hell. What do you
“Well, there you are again.... Come, cheer up, cheer up!” Grushenka said
the jury,” he added, “that till to‐day I have been uncertain whether to
Alyosha mechanically let himself be led out. In the yard stood a covered
dumb, pitiless laws of nature?
one side love and kindness, and on the other penitence and eager desire to
run; but he had not run five steps before he turned completely round and
taverns in the course of that month, it was perhaps because he was
Chapter I. The Beginning Of Perhotin’s Official Career
in a hurry, afraid of every sound, as always happens with murderers, or he
and happily. He slowly replaced the note in the envelope, crossed himself
and, with crape upon his hat, was drinking and behaving so shamelessly
endured scores of years in the barren, hungry wilderness, living upon
“Love one another, Fathers,” said Father Zossima, as far as Alyosha could
Alyosha did not look at him, but from a slight movement Rakitin at once
of heaven, full of soft, shining stars, stretched vast and fathomless
had passed between Afanasy and me, and how I had bowed down to the ground
“So you’re only stained, not wounded? You’d better wash,” said Pyotr
healed and come back again. And I will wait for you. I feel that you’re
me, and whether there’s any one in the world to do it. My dear boy, I’m
every hour and every moment thousands of men leave life on this earth, and
downwards. The spirit of isolation is coming upon the people too. Money‐
Do not love gold and silver, do not hoard them.... Have faith. Cling to
time—the position of the ecclesiastical courts. After discussing several
it and say that they’ve met, but still I won’t accept it. That’s what’s at
seemed to fetter his arms and legs. He strained every effort to break his
go.”
off, and how she had called out of the window to Alyosha to give him,
bear it. Now, I thought, he is all that binds me, and he is my judge. I
“How do I know? Now there’ll be a hubbub among them all day. I like to
“Well, go and enjoy yourself ...” she sent him away once more. “Don’t cry,
the condemned man, sitting on his shameful cart, must feel that he has
immediately after in this very court. Again I will not venture to
“That’s as one prefers.”
to us, “Make us your slaves, but feed us.” They will understand
Chapter I. Kuzma Samsonov
indeed than Russians. And he was very fond of using Russian proverbs,
voice of almost pathetic delight, “that every sincere and complete
nature. Oh, we shall persuade them at last not to be proud, for Thou didst
sixteen know about it, except that she would be better at the bottom of
heart that it almost swooned with suspense. It seemed as if there could be
Chapter I. The Breath Of Corruption
being harnessed, an omelette was prepared for him. He ate it all in an
and His servant crying out: “Blessed be Thy name although Thou dost punish
with all my might, ‘Aie! it’s Smerdyakov; he’s the murderer.’ Confess
And suddenly she hid her face in her hand and went off into irresistible,
at the “Metropolis,” where he got thoroughly drunk. Then he asked for pen
Dmitri looked upon him as a man who had exercised a fateful influence in
“What, after all, is this Karamazov family, which has gained such an
tell him you will come directly.”
pocket.
Church, and not against the State, that the criminal of to‐day can
convinced. He killed him, he must have done!’ And for the present he falls
so kind, get back to the point. And the point is, that you have still not
“And where are you flying to?”
that I shall lodge a complaint against you, that I will not let it pass.
we’ve been making....”
not believe in,” Alyosha added bitterly, and again he prayed for Ivan.
everything. “And others are praying for me too,” echoed again in his soul.
of the hospital. I went back to my bed, lay down and thought, ‘If Grigory
that he did stop, instead of passing by, as he meant to the minute before,
enthusiasm. Yet, when he mounted the steps of Madame Hohlakov’s house he
“So it’s you, Mitya,” cried Alyosha, in surprise, violently startled
“That’s true, gentlemen. I remember it was so.”
“Looking at you, I have made up my mind.”
feel it, you know. I can’t help feeling it.”
“If you want to talk to me, please change the subject,” he said suddenly.
so? And could anything truer be said than what he revealed to Thee in
“I am going away to Moscow to‐morrow, if you care to know—early to‐morrow
Pas même académicien.
impatience to search the rooms, to see whether she hasn’t escaped him on
The same thing happened with the Poles. They took up an attitude of pride
know well, and care for as a father. I would not have come, indeed, if it
“You frightened me, Rakitin, that’s what it is.” Grushenka turned with a
makes you say you will have one to‐morrow?” Ivan inquired, with a
with Mitya; that he looked upon them as part of the inheritance he had
“Karamazov, mamma, Karamazov. We are of humble origin,” he whispered
haste. “I was laughing, telling Mitya about it. ‘Fancy,’ I said, ‘my Pole
But Smerdyakov did not get through ten pages of Smaragdov. He thought it
young men were good fellows, but they behaved badly, and I worst of all.
The garden was about three acres in extent, and planted with trees only
may persist, as every one knows, from an even earlier age, even from two
“Are you waiting for me?” asked Alyosha, overtaking him.
with uneasy curiosity.
the horrors of slavery and confusion to which Thy freedom brought them.
anything!” shouted Varvara, stamping her foot with passion.
destitution, without food or fuel, without cigarettes, in debt to their
“elders” is of recent date, not more than a hundred years old in our
been meaning for the last two years to come here on purpose to ask and to
unknown, sad, dejected that no one mourns for them or even knows whether
“You hit the mark, indeed. And you’d better be sensible.”
strange. It may be pretty certainly assumed that she herself did not know
“God, can that too be false?” I thought as I wept. “In truth, perhaps, I
“He has disgraced the uniform,” they said; “let him resign his
my servant be like my own kindred, so that I may take him into my family
little, for he argued that the theft had not been committed for gain but
eyes were shining. The effects of the glass she had just drunk were
part—as in a theater!”
of curiosity.... That doctor was with us yesterday and saw Lise.... I paid
friend to another and received by them for his companionable and
laughed blandly.
man, dear old man!” he exclaimed every minute, gazing at Ilusha. It was
woman in the market‐place just now.”
A mournful smile came on to his lips.
how can you? No, that’s just what you are going away for, to join them ...
inferior to them, and that now they had a perfect right to despise him.
even began challenging him to act upon it. The others repelled the idea
9 Gogol is meant.
“So you see, sir, who it is hell’s for,” said Andrey, whipping up the left
“Don’t you think so?”
his conscience: ‘I steal,’ he says, ‘but I don’t go against the Church.
his face joyfully again. “You love another woman, and I love another man,
ought not to leave their old master, whatever he might be, for “that was
Chapter VI. The First Interview With Smerdyakov
He looked about forty. His face would have been pleasant, if it had not
many such fairs in the year.
on earth. Whatsoever Thou revealest anew will encroach on men’s freedom of
“Was it your finger he bit?”
inappropriate.” But the doctor detected mania, above all, in the fact that
still saw in those eyes the same simple‐hearted, confiding expression, the
of his destiny. He drove away any other idea, in fact. But for that ending
when he had finished, he suddenly smiled.
sandwiches. It must be noted that all this time he had plenty of money. He
complete loss to understand what my age has to do with it? The question is
that earth which Thou didst come to save. And the wise spirit that tempted
Now can it be so? Tchitchikov made his journey, at the very latest, at the
“And why were you so surly with Alyosha just now? He is a dear; I’ve
unconscious man to be carried to her house, disregarding the inevitable
himself on tiptoe. All Fyodor Pavlovitch’s bedroom lay open before him. It
the same?”
everybody, look, Ilusha, look, old man; why aren’t you looking? He does
even that evening at my lodging ... but enough, enough. You’re unworthy
utterly inappropriate for a mind created with an idea of only three
heard of my cousin, Madame Belmesov. Her husband was ruined, ‘had come to
giving evidence. But before every one had completely regained their
Mitya’s position with Agrafena Alexandrovna had certainly improved, and
young gentleman that’s Mr. Miüsov’s relation ... I’ve forgotten his name.”
thought to put a pillow under his head; but his whole soul was quivering
Alyosha rose, but Fyodor Pavlovitch had already changed his mind.
there are twenty‐five saints being saved. They look at one another, and
“We have had as many holy fathers as they had. There they are among the
death was not far off and who actually died five months later.
“Listen,” Ivan suddenly got up from the table. “I seem to be delirious....
almost twenty‐four hours, fussing round this Lyagavy, wetting his head.
“Ech, every one is of use, Maximushka, and how can we tell who’s of most
there, and if so, what; and only to go to the police captain, as Pyotr
of the head, replied:
his point. Grigory’s honest, but a fool. Many people are honest because
is there? You know, I sometimes like him. He’s awfully low, but it’s
or tail of this?
“So you married a lame woman?” cried Kalganov.
soon. Yet Madame Hohlakov had made a rather agreeable impression on him,
He held it up and showed it to all in the room. “From where I stood I saw
Grushenka said all this in one breath in her agitation. Maximov, feeling
voice was so weak, so broken, he talked so fast, so fast, he kept laughing
them, a woman of little education, was that aunt of her half‐sister Agafya
unwillingly.
grows more and more eager for rank, and strives to show himself cultured
there, oh, there I will give a feast to the whole world, such as never was
made up his mind how to take it. There was, so to speak, a discordant note
magazine as a reviewer, that I shall write for the next ten years, and in
scene), and he is able to forgive infidelity almost conclusively proved,
lawsuit, almost as soon as he came into the estate, concerning the rights
they are destroying others with them. It’s ‘the primitive force of the
it first of all, simply hold it in cold water to stop the pain, and keep
it would be enough to put your finger on the ax and it would be the end of
Grushenka stared at her and, pausing for an instant, in a vindictive,
father’s, he ate it. It made him feel stronger.
man “to be depended upon.” And he believed not only that he would not
“That’s the best thing you can do,” he responded, as though he had
me. “It’s all your doing,” they said. I was silent and indeed rejoiced at
never tell what ears are listening. I will explain everything; as they
Suddenly he jerked up his head, listened a moment, and hearing nothing
him. Throughout their revels he kept close to his adored mistress, who was
words at the elder’s: “I always feel when I meet people that I am lower
thirty copecks, and she’d need to drink forty bottles perhaps; so I took
whom we have spoken already, the cousin of Fyodor Pavlovitch’s first wife,
going now—to Venice? Your Venice will keep another two days. I would have
performed his duties no worse than many others. To speak plainly, he was a
emphasis.
the monastery. It was nearly dark, and he felt almost frightened;
I’ll simply repeat what I have said above. He entered upon this path only
“I—there’s nothing the matter,” he turned suddenly to Grushenka, who had
On those cruel and hostile shores!
“I remember everything, Alyosha, I remember you till you were eleven, I
felt the spasm that always comes ... and so I went flying. All that and
far more than you do yourself, and there’s no need for you to tell me
Look, Alyosha, he’s sitting there opposite us, so offended that I didn’t
maybe they will cease one day to do so and will form a firm wall
position, shaking with fear, that I suspected every one. I resolved to
a table and two rows of chairs had been put ready for the jury. On the
gloomily and malignantly. He was feeling more and more ashamed at having
all, mends and washes, sweeps the floor, puts mamma to bed. And mamma is
very fond of emptying the pockets of a drunken guest, and remembering that
and I had to put in a word: ‘It’s a sin to kill,’ I said, ‘even in a
all Poland so. One _lajdak_ doesn’t make a Poland. Be quiet, my pretty
“I should think he might be, with the trial to‐morrow. And I went to him
cash down!” Mitya added, feeling something wrong. “What’s the matter,
Dmitri stood for a few moments in amazement. Bowing down to him—what did
Chapter III. The Confession Of A Passionate Heart—In Verse
statement was to himself. ‘He is an epileptic chicken,’ he declared about
tavern, at his own ingenuous public avowal that all he had got out of
particularly popular with certain ladies “who were pining in solitude.”
to finish what they were about. They had immediately to begin examining
decided, dismissing the subject.
and began to ask both sides to formulate their conclusions.
We’ve left off thrashing the peasants, we’ve grown so clever, but they go
punished with moral condemnation’ (‘Do you hear?’ he laughed then)—‘and
“Do you know, Karamazov, our talk has been like a declaration of love,”
upon all of them, have all these unhappy and turbulent souls in Thy
suddenly, about fifteen paces from the garden gate, he guessed what was
tried to reply to some of the evil speakers that “this is not held
forgive me for every one? Speak, simple peasant heart!”
that smiled in greedy expectation, were all brightly lighted up by the
Zossima and to entreat him for words of advice and healing, that he had
“I thought so, too!” said Mitya. But before he had uttered the words,
“His elder stinks.”
all, and that they all take me for a buffoon. So I say, ‘Let me really
Release Date: February 12, 2009 [Ebook #28054]
the condemnation of bloodshed a prejudice?’
injury with rods on the landowner Maximov in a drunken condition.’ Would
He told them exactly what every tap on the window meant, tapped the
Poles stated, that he had been excited at the time, and might indeed have
Alyosha’s account of it, had admitted that he was a scoundrel, and told
“He’s not young, and he’s not an officer, either. Not him, sir. It’s the
design, the prisoner swore that, if he could not get money next day, he
having only succeeded in obtaining a sum of money, and entering into an
sentence had been easier for him; at least it had seemed necessary,
recklessness.
Oh, there are some who remain proud and fierce even in hell, in spite of
girl looked with mild serenity at Alyosha. A man of forty‐five was sitting
to‐morrow for three days, eh?”
his face. He was in evening dress and white tie.
which they had just come.
spare myself. My first idea was a—Karamazov one. Once I was bitten by a
anything of Grushenka’s words. “Come, why are we sitting here? What shall
were many other marvelous and beautiful sayings of his, though we did not
them see how beautifully I dance....”
witty things.”
do homage to the Holy Places and then to go to the north to Siberia:
confession: that money was _my own_.” The lawyers’ faces lengthened. That
martyr’s cross when you are not ready for it. If you had murdered our
murdered him; but he is not guilty, hang it all!’ ”
you’re in the service here!”
“But why is it? Why?” foolish Mitya still persisted.
buffoon. Alyosha, do you believe that I’m nothing but a buffoon?”
“And there is something else I wanted to tell you,” Mitya went on, with a
dared to all my life. And now I am so bold as to ask you. Oh, God! What
much that was good in her young heart, but it was embittered too early.
those days it was done in all simplicity. In Victor Hugo’s _Notre Dame de
Mitya took his hands from his face and laughed. His eyes were confident.
dozed off and fell asleep as he sat. He seemed to have slept for two hours
it there, keep it there.... Make haste, mamma, some water in a slop‐basin.
three thousand, not fifteen hundred, everybody knows that.”
was listless and lazy, at other times he would grow excited, sometimes,
That’s why I see and then think, because of those tails, not at all
unbearable, but without the slightest sign of contempt or condemnation.
“Grigory?” cried Alyosha.
in the hymn. Don’t speak, don’t speak. I see how you look! You have
deciding to go to Katya—I was mean enough for that. But to go to her, to
crime. He was converted. He wrote to the court himself that he was a
deserved it!”
and nothing but the truth before him. Little by little, even with a sort
and suppress it, once for all, all over Russia, so as to bring all the
achievements, step by step, with concentrated attention.
“You should have asked me like that from the beginning,” cried Mitya,
evening—though he was an old man hard as flint, he fell in an instant! It
“Perhaps I haven’t forgiven him, though,” she said, with a sort of menace
Chapter III. The Second Marriage And The Second Family
hast not; that Thou mayest not add to what has been said of old, and
does it matter whether it has a ceiling or hasn’t? But, do you know,
mustn’t talk too freely; if I fall into his arms all at once, he may
to rest on his bed, though he did not fall asleep and his visitors did not
“We shall just do it. Shall we get the carriage out?”
“Quicker, Andrey! Quicker!” Mitya cried again, nervously.
“You—can see spirits?” the monk inquired.
for man loves to see the downfall and disgrace of the righteous. But I
but her benefactress, the general’s widow, who had been kept by illness in
only procrastinated as he always did in such cases, and was, indeed, at
knocks to you, by means of which one could go in to the deceased, and that
Who is responsible for his having received such an unseemly bringing up,
these details produced an overwhelming effect on the distracted lady, who
service of humanity, of brotherly love and the solidarity of mankind, is
of having actually carried out that robbery? This is encroaching on the
“That’s true, gentlemen. I remember it was so.”
them not nor they you. How touching it must be to a soul standing in dread
“Etcetera. And all dissolved in vodka?”
evidently of no use.
never known before in my life.
bear the pretty flower‐decked little coffin to the church without him. It
another twenty years yet, as that dear good woman from Vishegorye, with
one brief moment you did believe that I really exist,” the gentleman
remote part of Asia, and was threatened with an immediate agonizing death
captain, bent double, was bowing low before him.
“Did you show it to every one? He restored the son to his mother!”
a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved
round his head, while they’re all three busy putting ice on it. All at
The usher at once approached him. Alyosha jumped up and cried, “He is ill.
motherly exhortation of him. What is more, the Church even tries to
Katerina Ivanovna suddenly returned. She had two hundred‐rouble notes in
man, especially during the last few days. He had even begun to notice in
old servant’s composure in telling it, his parsimony of words and peculiar
speaking to a clever man’? So you were glad I went away, since you praised
One piece of Pyotr Ilyitch’s evidence made a great impression on the
Chapter VII. “It’s Always Worth While Speaking To A Clever Man”
chest with his fist with a strange air, as though the dishonor lay
are less noticed, or passed over in silence. And how surprised men would
deigned to speak with some openness, to a certain extent only, of course.
closing his eyes.
medium height, wearing a monk’s cap, who overtook them. Fyodor Pavlovitch
in.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
told him those secret signals that he might see my slavish devotion, and
what scorn of filthy lucre, he will fling it all away in the reckless
and not simply for the sake of instructing them, but as though thirsting
Are you asleep?”
firmness and intelligent purpose had developed in her face. There were
contrast to themselves, their unruliness, their ferocity—they thirst for
is: is it true that they were entrusted to him in such an insulting and
then, but wasted it, because, like a low brute, he couldn’t control
sensualists are watching one another, with their knives in their belts.
have committed his crime? Name that moment, or you can’t accuse him.
farther away, in the rain and mist, a row of poor, black, dismal huts,
“She was terribly scared.
hears this talk of ours now, except Providence itself, and if you were to
still for ten minutes, lost in thought. A physiognomist studying his face
his having killed his father.”
hands she suggested at once that he should walk with her to Samsonov’s,
believed in it. I want to see it, and if I am dead by then, let me rise
And that old man was always complaining of the disrespect and cruelty of
“She may be there behind the screen. Perhaps she’s asleep by now,” he
and ours is the only true Christianity which has been subjected to the
don’t like falsehood, Fathers, I want the truth. But the truth is not to
exclamation: “Hurrah for Karamazov!”
who had died seventy years before at the age of a hundred and five. He had
a farthing.”
“It’s impossible!”
prisoner and Smerdyakov, and the prosecutor dramatically exclaims that the
“Of my words later,” Ivan broke in again, apparently with complete self‐
in his excitement told them on the spot that his fate would be decided
Yes, he came up to him, to him, he, the little, thin old man, with tiny
“I am very thankful for everything. Marfa Ignatyevna does not forget me,
youthful inexperience, and it was all so fine, like you.... And the way he
said to him. “We’ll look after him. My brother gave you a terrible blow—on
“Forgive me, gentlemen, oh, allow me, allow me!” he cried. “You’ve the
after seeing the police captain and the prosecutor, and hearing the
taverns in the course of that month, it was perhaps because he was
hidden in the summer‐house, even if he had to wait there till evening. If,
And birds and beasts and creeping things
http://www.pglaf.org.
us.”
coherent explanation of the fact. He even succeeded in insulting Ivan
“Then you know what for. It’s different for other people; but we in our
and her gray head began twitching spasmodically over the coffin.
And that old man was always complaining of the disrespect and cruelty of
attracted general notice, on a subject of which he might have been
same man. She thought of you only when she had just received a similar
suffering.
The three of them are knocking their heads together, and you may be the
“Come, enough nonsense, now to business. Have you had anything to eat to‐
been a celebrated ascetic, rigid in fasting and silence, and his tomb was
by the handful on music, rioting, and gypsies. Sometimes I gave it to the
“My brothers are destroying themselves,” he went on, “my father, too. And
had got up from the floor, but still seemed stunned. Ivan and Alyosha ran
“It’s lite, _panovie_,” the Pole on the sofa responded, as it were