Next up...a short one, just 90 pages long. I've never read "The Landlady" before, and, in fact, know nothing about it. Here's hoping it's better than "The Double"!
Day 1 (DDRD 2,236) December 15, 2023
Read to page 410.
This
"Then he walked into a dark, lofty, and deserted room, one of those dreary-looking rooms still to be found in old- fashioned family mansions that have been spared by time, and saw in it a grey-headed old man, hung with orders of distinction, who had been the friend and colleague of his father, and was his guardian. The old man handed him a tiny screw of notes. It turned out to be a very small sum: it was all that was left of his ancestral estates, which had been sold by auction to pay the family debts." (380)
struck me as a bit off. Especially the "screw of notes" bit. I looked it up via Google's just the phrase in quotation An every resulting hit referred to Dostoyevsky's "The Landlady." So I took a look at a different translation: the Dover version by our old friend C. J. Hogarth. Here's what C. J. did with this passage:
"In this room he had found himself confronted by a much-bemedalled, grey-haired dotard--the friend and colleague of Ordynov's father, and Ordynov's guardian--who had handed to his ward what seemed to the latter a very small sum, as representing a legacy derived from some property which had just been sold under the hammer, to liquidate a debt incident upon his grandfather's estate."
Well, I've got to give it to Constance for most of this, but still..."a very small sum" seems better than "a screw of notes." Funny, though, that at the end of this paragraph Constance refers to the protagonist as becoming "a complete recluse," but C. J. translates this as his becoming "a savage." Well. I guess I can put up with a screw of notes as long as they're not proffered by a savage.
Speaking of savages, here's a it more of that from Conference's version aka bit that I live dearly and which is quite close to the center of my being:
"There he shut himself up as though he were in a monastery, as though he had renounced the world. Within two years he had become a complete recluse. He had grown shy and unsociable without being aware of the fact; meanwhile, it never occurred to him that there was another sort of life — full of noise and uproar, of continual excitement, of continual variety, which was inviting him and was sooner or later inevitable." (Still 380)
Oh, I quit to soon. Check out this bit of beauty: "He was devoured by the deepest and most insatiable passion, which absorbs a man’s whole life and does not, for beings like Ordynov, provide any niche in the domain of practical daily activity."
Hey, mister, that's me up on the jukebox.
Katerina says to Vassily, “Life is sweet; is it sweet to you to live in the world?” (398)
And that's really the question, its it? There are flies and there are bees. For the flies, life is shit and rot. For the bees, life is sweet and buzzing with life. That was to be the central metaphor of a novel I tried to write. I did get a couple hundred pages out, but...well, my heart crapped out, I fell into the Slough of Despond.... There it is. But I have been better at being the bee. Sucking on the flowers. Buzzing around.
Ahem.
Thus far (30 pages in) I'd say this is quite an interesting story. Maybe even entrancing. And definitely a big step up from "The Double." Hmm. "The Double" was first published 30 January 1846, and "The Landlady" October and November of 1847. So close to two years between them. That might explain The Great Leap Forward.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,237) December 16, 2023
Read to page 450. Pretty interested, so if I can grab a moment later, I might finish this off today.
On page 416, Vassily is talking to his best friend about his landlord. Vassily mentions that the landlord has a daughter...or perhaps a wife...living with him, then says, "I know there is some woman with him. I have had a passing glimpse of her, but I did not notice.” (416) The funny thing is that not only did Vassiky " notice," but he's been absolutely smitten with this woman. It's very true to life to me...the way that we casually bullshit our way through the days, hiding our desires, perhaps frightened by them. Perhaps just so afraid of exposing our vulnerabilities that we'd rather hide behind a wall if bullshit. And that's me, too, of course. I'd have had a lot more sex if I hadn't been hiding behind that bullshit wall. Which may or nay not have been a good thing, but certainly is a thing I think about regularly. Was it my sense of morality that made me hide behind that walk of bullshit...or was it just fear? Or both, maybe...it doesn't have to be binary.
I guess I'm lying to myself...Lord, I miss you, chile.
There's some pretty heavy incestuous stuff running throughout this story. Several times Katrina has told Vassiky that he was to be her brother, then kissed him passionately. And at one point the old man says to them, "So you are brother and sister, born of the same mother! You are as fond of one another as lovers!” (444) 😟
Day 3 (DDRD 2,238) December 17, 2023
Well, that didn't happen. But today was it:
Read to page 469, aka The End.
At one point near the end of the story, Constance describes Vassily turning his head "like a plaster kitten to right and to left...." (457) Which I thought was an odd description. And what the neck is a plaster kitten with a moveable head, anyway? So I checked in with my other translation to see if that would shed any light.
C.J. says, "rolling his head from side to side...like a china dog."
Hmm. So I'm thinking it's like one of those https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804138066442.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt things you see in cars and in the houses if Very Old People. Funny how Constance said cat and C. J. said dog, though, isn't it?
At any rate...this was an interesting thing. Touches on the Sickness As A Means to Enlightenment that seems so prevalent in FD's works. Also the incomprehensible and possibly evil nature of women, who can either be the guide to salvation or the source of hideous suffering...possibly simultaneously. Well. I've been there, done that, and bought souvenirs.
Onward.
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
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