The Complete Novels

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I look upon the generally accepted opinion concerning the folly and the grossness of hoping to win at gambling as a thing even more absurd.

mere relaxations which have been arranged solely for his amusement.

Money must be so subservient to gentility as never to be worth a thought.

from the first I have been consistent in having an intense aversion to any trial of my acts and thoughts by a moral standard.

“Possibly my certainty about winning may seem to you ridiculous;

she had one of those faces which one is afraid of.

she seemed to me almost destitute of education, and even of wits, though cunning and suspicious.

Indeed, it surprised and amused me to observe what a passion for intrigue I was developing. But how I loathed it all!

though I knew he was dying to join us. Even when invited to do so, he would refuse.

“How far you may be right in what you have said I do not know,” remarked the General moodily; “but I DO know that you are becoming an insufferable farceur whenever you are given the least chance.”

At his age it is a dangerous thing to fall in love.”

have a curious, senseless idea that I am bound to win at the gaming-tables.

But I do not remember the details very well.

I must confess that this puerile explanation gave me great pleasure.

I replied with that calmness which he never could abide,

I wish but to disabuse the Baron of what is, to me, a shameful supposition — namely, that I am under the guardianship of a person who is qualified to exercise control over my free will.

Russians, when abroad, are over-apt to play the poltroon, to watch all their words, and to wonder what people are thinking of their conduct,

“Mais le Baron est si irascible — un caractere prussien, vous savez! Enfin il fera une querelle d’Allemand.”

I retorted with absolute calm.

“Yes, we will measure our strength together.”

somehow he must be holding her as in a vice.

as brisk, aggressive, self-satisfied, bolt-upright, loudly imperious, and generally abusive as ever.

No sooner was my first surprise abated than I found myself rejoicing in the shock which we were about to administer to the General.

Mr. Astley, as usual, remained in the background, and gazed calmly and decorously at the scene.

“What? You were not expecting me?”

when occasion arose, he could speak with fluency, gravity, and a certain effect,

“Enough! All this is empty chatter. You are talking the usual nonsense.

“How well English people know how to answer one!” she remarked. “That is why I like them so much better than French.

“Mais, madame, cela sera un plaisir,”

To all these questions the landlord could return no satisfactory reply, despite his floundering endeavours.

trente-et-quarante

how that devilish visage of hers could change!

Let the cricket stick to its hearth.

Yet now the actual crisis has passed away like a dream. Even my passion for Polina is dead. Was it ever so strong and genuine as I thought?

melancholy the little towns of Germany can be!), I find myself taking no thought for the future, but living under the influence of passing moods,

Every gambler knows how a person may sit a day and a night at cards without ever casting a glance to right or to left.

“Thanks for your disinterested assistance,”

If the spirit has passed through a great many sensations, possibly it can no longer be sated with them, but grows more excited, and demands more sensations, and stronger and stronger ones, until at length it falls exhausted.

“No. The quicker it goes the better.”

though you are a very learned tutor, you are a very stupid man.

For still, I may discover the man in myself, if only my manhood has not become utterly shattered.

I was perfectly well aware that I should only squander it upon

Even at a distance of two rooms I could hear the chink of that money — so much so that I nearly fell into convulsions.

General Epanchin was in the very prime of life; that is, about fifty-five years of age, — the flowering time of existence, when real enjoyment of life begins.

he so respected and feared his wife that he was very near loving her.

Aglaya sits and does nothing.

“The impression was forcible

“Since that evening I have been specially fond of donkeys. I began to ask questions about them, for I had never seen one before; and I at once came to the conclusion that this must be one of the most useful of animals — strong, willing, patient, cheap; and, thanks to this donkey, I began to like the whole country I was travelling through; and my melancholy passed away.”

With your quietism, one could live happily for a hundred years at least.

“It is difficult to judge when such beauty is concerned. I have not prepared my judgment. Beauty is a riddle.”