قراءة كتاب The House of the Dead; or, Prison Life in Siberia with an introduction by Julius Bramont

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‏اللغة: English

The House of the Dead; or, Prison Life in Siberia with an introduction by Julius Bramont

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المؤلف:

Dostoyevsky Fyodor

دار النشر: Project Gutenberg

الصفحة رقم: 2

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IV. First Impressions (continued) 43 V. First Impressions (continued) 61 VI. The First Month 80 VII. The First Month (continued) 95 VIII. New Acquaintances—Petroff 110 IX. Men of Determination—Luka 125 X. Isaiah Fomitch—The Bath—Baklouchin 133 XI. The Christmas Holidays 152 XII. The Performance 171

PART II

I.	The Hospital	194
II.	The Hospital (continued)	209
III.	The Hospital (continued)	225
IV.	The Husband of Akoulka	248
V.	The Summer Season	264
VI.	The Animals at the Convict Establishment	286
VII.	Grievances	302
VIII.	My Companions	325
IX.	The Escape	344
X.	Freedom!	363

PRISON LIFE IN SIBERIA.

PART I.

CHAPTER I. TEN YEARS A CONVICT

In the midst of the steppes, of the mountains, of the impenetrable forests of the desert regions of Siberia, one meets from time to time with little towns of a thousand or two inhabitants, built entirely of wood, very ugly, with two churches—one in the centre of the town, the other in the cemetery—in a word, towns which bear much more resemblance to a good-sized village in the suburbs of Moscow than to a town properly so called. In most cases they are abundantly provided with police-master, assessors, and other inferior officials. If it is cold in Siberia, the great advantages of the Government service compensate for it. The inhabitants are simple people, without liberal ideas. Their manners are antique, solid, and unchanged by time. The officials who form, and with reason, the nobility in Siberia, either belong to the country, deeply-rooted Siberians, or they have arrived there from Russia. The latter come straight from the capitals, tempted by the high pay, the extra allowance for travelling expenses, and by hopes not less seductive for the future. Those who know how to resolve the problem of life remain almost always in Siberia; the abundant and richly-flavoured fruit which they gather there recompenses them amply for what they lose.

As for the others, light-minded persons who are unable to deal with the problem, they are soon bored in Siberia, and ask themselves with regret why they committed the folly of coming. They impatiently kill the three years which they are obliged by rule to remain, and as soon as their time is up, they beg to be sent back, and return to their original quarters, running down Siberia, and ridiculing it. They are wrong, for it is a happy country, not only as regards the Government service, but also from many other points of view.

The climate is excellent, the merchants are rich and hospitable, the Europeans in easy circumstances are numerous; as for the young girls, they are like roses and their morality is irreproachable. Game is to be found in the streets, and throws itself upon the sportsman's gun. People drink champagne in prodigious quantities. The caviare is astonishingly good and most abundant. In a word, it is a blessed land, out of which it is only necessary to be able to make profit; and much profit is really made.

It is in one of these little towns—gay and perfectly satisfied with themselves, the population of which has left upon me the most agreeable impression—that I met an exile, Alexander Petrovitch Goriantchikoff,