Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories

The Novels Of Ivan Turgenev KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK And Other Stories

Translated From The Russian

By

Constance Garnett

CONTENTS

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

THE INN

LIEUTENANT YERGUNOV'S STORY

THE DOG

THE WATCH

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

A STUDY

I

We all settled down in a circle and our good friend Alexandr

Vassilyevitch Ridel (his surname was German but he was Russian to the

marrow of his bones) began as follows:

I am going to tell you a story, friends, of something that happened to

me in the 'thirties ... forty years ago as you see. I will be

brief--and don't you interrupt me.

I was living at the time in Petersburg and had only just left the

University. My brother was a lieutenant in the horse-guard artillery.

His battery was stationed at Krasnoe Selo--it was summer time. My

brother lodged not at Krasnoe Selo itself but in one of the

neighbouring villages; I stayed with him more than once and made the

acquaintance of all his comrades. He was living in a fairly decent

cottage, together with another officer of his battery, whose name was

Ilya Stepanitch Tyeglev. I became particularly friendly with him.

Marlinsky is out of date now--no one reads him--and even his name is

jeered at; but in the 'thirties his fame was above everyone's--and in

the opinion of the young people of the day Pushkin could not hold

candle to him. He not only enjoyed the reputation of being the

foremost Russian writer; but--something much more difficult and more

rarely met with--he did to some extent leave his mark on his

generation. One came across heroes a la Marlinsky everywhere,

especially in the provinces and especially among infantry and

artillery men; they talked and corresponded in his language; behaved

with gloomy reserve in society--'with tempest in the soul and flame in

the blood' like Lieutenant Byelosov in the 'Frigate Hope.'

Women's hearts were 'devoured' by them. The adjective applied to them

in those days was 'fatal.' The type, as we all know, survived for many

years, to the days of Petchorin. [Footnote: The leading character in

Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time.--Translator's Note.] All

sorts of elements were mingled in that type. Byronism, romanticism,

reminiscences of the French Revolution, of the Dekabrists--and the

worship of Napoleon; faith in destiny, in one's star, in strength of

will; pose and fine phrases--and a miserable sense of the emptiness of

life; uneasy pangs of petty vanity--and genuine strength and daring;

generous impulses--and defective education, ignorance; aristocratic

airs--and delight in trivial foppery.... But enough of these general

reflections. I promised to tell you the story.

II

Lieutenant Tyeglev belonged precisely to the class of those 'fatal'

individuals, though he did not possess the exterior commonly

associated with them; he was not, for instance, in the least like

Lermontov's 'fatalist.' He was a man of medium height, fairly solid