Selected short stories -1892-1895- translated by Constance Garnett

The next day I got a letter from him. He congratulated me on the satisfactory settlement of the question. Pekarsky knew a lady, he wrote, who kept a school, something like a kindergarten, where she took quite little children. The lady could be entirely depended upon, but before concluding anything with her it would be as well to discuss the matter with Krasnovsky -- it was a matter of form. He advised me to see Pekarsky at once and to take the birth certificate with me, if I had it. 'Rest assured of the sincere respect and devotion of your humble servant. . . .'

I read this letter, and Sonya sat on the table and gazed at me attentively without blinking, as though she knew her fate was being decided.

NOTES

kammer-junker: aristocrat

addressed as 'thou': that is, as a menial, his 'superiors' could use the intimate 'you' with him, as they would a dog

Eliseyev's: Eliseev's was a very expensive food store in St. Petersburg

Gogol or Shtchedrin: two leading Russian satirists

actual civil councillor: grade 4 in the Russian Civil Service

Senate: the Russian Senate functioned as a Supreme Court and interpreted the laws

Prutkov's: 'Kuzma Prutkov' was a pseudonym for the brothers Zhemchuzhnikov, collaborating with A. K. Tolstoy; 'Prutkov' wrote satires directed against the government

'What does the coming day bring to me?': from Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, Canto VI, verse xxi

the immortals: the members of the French Academy were known as the 'Forty Immortals'

Diogenes: Diogenes (c. 412 B. C. - 343 B. C.) was a Greek philosopher and cynic

C?sar and Cicero: Roman emperor who lived c. 102 B. C - 44 B. C.; Cicero was a famous Roman orator (c. 102 B. C. - 43 B. C.)

Cato: Cato the Elder (243 B. C. - 149 B. C.)

increase and multiply: cf. Genesis 1:22

cedars of Lebanon: the phrase is repeated often in the Bible; see for example Psalms 92:13

Faust: of the many versions of the story, Chekhov probably had in mind the opera 'Faust' (1859) by Charles Gounod (1818-1893)

seventh commandment: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'

Turgenev teaches: I. S. Turgenev (1818-1883), the well-known Russian novelist; for example, the heroine of On the Eve (1860) offers to follow the hero to 'the ends of the earth'

Three Meetings: Turgenev's 1852 story

Vieni pensando a me segretamente: Come, thinking of me in secret (Turgenev used this as the epigram of the story 'Three Meetings')

free Bulgaria: in Turgenev's novel On the Eve (1860), the hero is a Bulgarian trying to gain his country's freedom

sous: French coins worth 1/100 franc each

Othello: in Shakespeare's play Othello the title hero is a needlessly jealous husband

Shtchedrin's heroes: one of the comic civil servants who form the main targets of the satirist Shchedrin

cutting a book: in the 19th century the pages of books, particularly French books, were not always cut, so the reader had to do it

Sidors and the Nikitas: typical Russian peasant names

Saint-Saens's 'Swan Song: French composer (1835-1921); 'Le Cygne' is from Le Carnaval des animaux (1886)

Samson: see Judges 16:3

novel of Dostoevsky's: the incident occurs in The Insulted and Injured (1861), Part I, Chapter 13

thief: Luke 23:39-43

Petersburg Side: the older part of the city, to the north of the Neva River

driving on wheels: as opposed to the sleigh-runners used in winter

'The Parisian Beggars': the 1859 drama Les Pauvres de Paris by Brisebarre and Nus was acted in Chekhov's hometown when he was a boy

bijoux: jewels

Pere Goriot: Le Pere Goriot, by Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)

Desdemona: the murdered heroine of Shakespeare's Othello has traditionally been associated with the Palazzo Contarini-Fasan in Venice

Canova: Antonio Canova (1757-1822) was an Italian sculptor

Marino Faliero: Marino Faliero (1274-1355) was a Doge of Venice who rebelled against the nobility; he was beheaded and his portrait defaced