# Book 8 Chapter 1 - Kuzma Samsonov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Librivox Audiobook

An episode of [Brothers Karamazov, The by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1795736404), 11 Sep 2026, 32 min.

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## Transcript

[0:03] Speaker 1: Book Eight, Chapter One of The Brothers Karamazov. This is
[0:07] Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
[0:13] Speaker 1: For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording
[0:20] Speaker 1: by Martin Giesen. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated
[0:28] Speaker 1: by Constance Garnett. Book Eight, Mitya. CHAPTER I. KUSMA SAMSONOV
[0:39] Speaker 1: But Dmitri, to whom Grushenka, flying away to a new life,
[0:43] Speaker 1: had left her last greetings, bidding him remember the hour
[0:47] Speaker 1: of her love for ever, knew nothing of what had
[0:50] Speaker 1: happened to her, and was at that moment in a
[0:52] Speaker 1: condition of feverish agitation and activity. For the last two
[0:57] Speaker 1: days he had been in such an inconceivable state of
[1:00] Speaker 1: mind— that he might easily have fallen ill with brain fever,
[1:04] Speaker 1: as he said himself afterwards. Alyosha had not been able
[1:08] Speaker 1: to find him the morning before, and Ivan had not
[1:11] Speaker 1: succeeded in meeting him at the tavern on the same day.
[1:15] Speaker 1: The people at his lodgings, by his orders, concealed his movements.
[1:23] Speaker 1: He had spent those two days literally rushing in all directions,
[1:27] Speaker 1: struggling with his destiny and trying to save himself, as
[1:31] Speaker 1: he expressed it himself afterwards. And for some hours he
[1:35] Speaker 1: even made a dash out of the town on urgent business,
[1:38] Speaker 1: terrible as it was to him to lose sight of
[1:40] Speaker 1: Grushenka for a moment. All this was explained afterwards in detail,
[1:46] Speaker 1: and confirmed by documentary evidence. But for the present we
[1:50] Speaker 1: will only note the most essential incidents of those two
[1:54] Speaker 1: terrible days immediately preceding the awful catastrophe that broke so
[1:59] Speaker 1: suddenly upon him. Though Grushenka had, it is true, loved
[2:04] Speaker 1: him for an hour, genuinely and sincerely, yet she tortured him,
[2:08] Speaker 1: sometimes cruelly and mercilessly. The worst of it was that
[2:13] Speaker 1: he could never tell what she meant to do. To
[2:17] Speaker 1: prevail upon her by force or kindness was also impossible.
[2:20] Speaker 1: She would yield to nothing. She would only have become
[2:24] Speaker 1: angry and turned away from him altogether. He knew that
[2:27] Speaker 1: well already. He suspected, quite correctly— that she too was
[2:32] Speaker 1: passing through an inward struggle, and was in a state
[2:35] Speaker 1: of extraordinary indecision, that she was making up her mind
[2:39] Speaker 1: to something, and unable to determine upon it. And so,
[2:44] Speaker 1: not without good reason, he divined with a sinking heart
[2:48] Speaker 1: that at moments she must simply hate him and his passion.
[2:52] Speaker 1: And so perhaps it was. But what was distressing Grushenka
[2:56] Speaker 1: he did not understand. For him the whole tormenting question was,
[3:01] Speaker 1: lay between him and Fyodor Pavlovich. Here we must note,
[3:09] Speaker 1: by the way, one certain fact. He was firmly persuaded
[3:12] Speaker 1: that Fyodor Pavlovich would offer, or perhaps had offered Grushenka
[3:16] Speaker 1: lawful wedlock, and did not for a moment believe that
[3:20] Speaker 1: the old voluptuary hoped to gain his object for three
[3:23] Speaker 1: thousand roubles. Mitya had reached this conclusion from his knowledge
[3:28] Speaker 1: of Grushenka and her character. that was how it was
[3:32] Speaker 1: that he could believe at times that all grushenka's uneasiness
[3:35] Speaker 1: rose not from knowing which of them to choose which
[3:38] Speaker 1: was most to her advantage strange to say during those
[3:43] Speaker 1: days it never occurred to him to think of the
[3:45] Speaker 1: approaching return of the officer that is of the man
[3:49] Speaker 1: who had been such a fatal influence in grushenka's life
[3:52] Speaker 1: and whose arrival she was expecting with such emotion and
[3:55] Speaker 1: dread it is true that of late Grushenka had been
[4:00] Speaker 1: very silent about it. Yet he was perfectly aware of
[4:04] Speaker 1: a letter she had received a month ago from her seducer,
[4:08] Speaker 1: and had heard of it from her own lips. He
[4:11] Speaker 1: partly knew, too, what the letter contained. In a moment
[4:14] Speaker 1: of spite Grushenka had shown him that letter, but to
[4:18] Speaker 1: her astonishment he attached hardly any consequence to it. It
[4:23] Speaker 1: would be hard to say why this was. Perhaps weighed
[4:26] Speaker 1: down by all the hideous horror of his struggle with
[4:29] Speaker 1: his own father for this woman, he was incapable of
[4:32] Speaker 1: imagining any danger more terrible at any rate for the time.
[4:37] Speaker 1: He simply did not believe in a suitor who suddenly
[4:40] Speaker 1: turned up again after five years' disappearance, still less in
[4:44] Speaker 1: his speedy arrival. Moreover, in the officer's first letter which
[4:49] Speaker 1: had been shown to Mitya, the possibility of his new
[4:52] Speaker 1: rival's visit was very vaguely suggested. The letter was very indefinite, high-flown,
[4:58] Speaker 1: and full of sentimentality. It must be noted that Grushenka
[5:03] Speaker 1: had concealed from him the last lines of the letter,
[5:07] Speaker 1: in which his return was alluded to more definitely. He had, besides,
[5:12] Speaker 1: noticed at that moment, he remembered afterwards, a certain involuntary
[5:16] Speaker 1: proud contempt for this missive from Siberia on Grushenka's face.
[5:23] Speaker 1: Grushenka told him nothing of what had passed later between
[5:26] Speaker 1: her and this rival, so that by degrees he had
[5:29] Speaker 1: completely forgotten the officer's existence. He felt that whatever might
[5:35] Speaker 1: come later, whatever turn things might take, his final conflict
[5:41] Speaker 1: with Fyodor Pavlovich was close upon him, and must be
[5:44] Speaker 1: decided before anything else. With a sinking heart he was
[5:49] Speaker 1: expecting every moment Grushenka's decisions. always believing that it would
[5:53] Speaker 1: come suddenly, on the impulse of the moment. All of
[5:57] Speaker 1: a sudden she would say to him,' Take me, I'm
[6:00] Speaker 1: yours forever,' and it would be all over. Then he
[6:04] Speaker 1: would bear her away at once, as far, far away
[6:07] Speaker 1: as possible, to the farthest end of Russia, if not
[6:10] Speaker 1: of the earth. Then he would marry her, and settle
[6:14] Speaker 1: down with her incognito, so that no one would know
[6:17] Speaker 1: anything about them, there, here, or anywhere. Then, oh then,
[6:21] Speaker 1: a new life would begin at once. Of this different, reformed,
[6:26] Speaker 1: and virtuous life, it must, it must be virtuous. He
[6:31] Speaker 1: dreamed feverishly at every moment. He thirsted for that reformation
[6:37] Speaker 1: and renewal. The filthy morass in which he had sunk,
[6:40] Speaker 1: of his own free will, was too revolting to him.
[6:44] Speaker 1: And like very many men in such cases, he put
[6:47] Speaker 1: faith above all in change of place. If only it
[6:51] Speaker 1: were not for these people, if only it were not
[6:54] Speaker 1: for these circumstances, if only he could fly away from
[6:57] Speaker 1: this accursed place, he would be altogether regenerated, would enter
[7:03] Speaker 1: on a new path. That was what he believed in,
[7:06] Speaker 1: and what he was yearning for. But all this could
[7:10] Speaker 1: only be on condition of the first, the happy solution
[7:13] Speaker 1: of the question. There was another possibility, a different and
[7:17] Speaker 1: awful ending. Suddenly she might say to him, Go away.
[7:22] Speaker 1: I have just come to terms with Fyodor Pavlovich. I
[7:26] Speaker 1: am going to marry him and don't want you. And then...
[7:30] Speaker 1: But then... But Mitya did not know what would happen then.
[7:35] Speaker 1: Up to the last hour he didn't know. That must
[7:38] Speaker 1: be said to his credit. He had no definite intentions,
[7:43] Speaker 1: had planned no crime. He was simply watching and spying
[7:47] Speaker 1: in agony. while he prepared himself for the first happy
[7:50] Speaker 1: solution of his destiny. He drove away any other idea,
[7:55] Speaker 1: in fact, but for that ending a quite different anxiety arose,
[8:00] Speaker 1: a new, incidental, but yet fatal and insoluble difficulty presented itself.
[8:07] Speaker 1: If she were to say to him, I'm yours, take
[8:09] Speaker 1: me away, how could he take her away? Where had
[8:13] Speaker 1: he the means, the money, to do it? It was
[8:16] Speaker 1: just at this time that all sources of revenue from
[8:19] Speaker 1: Fyodor Pavlovich, doles which had gone on without interruption for
[8:23] Speaker 1: so many years, ceased. Grushenka had money, of course, but
[8:28] Speaker 1: with regard to this Mitya suddenly evinced extraordinary pride. He
[8:33] Speaker 1: wanted to carry her away and begin the new life
[8:36] Speaker 1: with her himself, at his own expense, not at hers.
[8:41] Speaker 1: He could not conceive of taking her money. and the
[8:44] Speaker 1: very idea caused him a pang of intense repulsion. I
[8:48] Speaker 1: won't enlarge on this fact or analyse it here, but
[8:51] Speaker 1: confine myself to remarking that this was his attitude at
[8:54] Speaker 1: the moment. All this may have arisen indirectly and unconsciously
[9:00] Speaker 1: from the secret strings of his conscience for the money
[9:03] Speaker 1: of Katerina Ivanovna that he had dishonestly appropriated. I've been
[9:08] Speaker 1: a scoundrel to one of them, and I shall be
[9:11] Speaker 1: a scoundrel again to the other directly. That was his
[9:14] Speaker 1: feeling then, as he explained after. And when Grushenka knows,
[9:18] Speaker 1: she won't care for such a scoundrel. Where, then, was
[9:22] Speaker 1: he to get the means? Where was he to get
[9:24] Speaker 1: the fateful money? Without it, all would be lost, and
[9:28] Speaker 1: nothing could be done. And only because I hadn't the money. Oh,
[9:32] Speaker 1: the shame of it! To anticipate things, he did perhaps
[9:37] Speaker 1: know where to get the money, knew perhaps where it
[9:40] Speaker 1: lay at that moment. i will say no more of
[9:42] Speaker 1: this here as it will all be clear later but
[9:46] Speaker 1: his chief trouble i must explain however obscurely lay in
[9:49] Speaker 1: the fact that to have that sum he knew of
[9:52] Speaker 1: to have the right to take it he must first
[9:55] Speaker 1: restore katerina ivanovna's three thousand if not I'm a common pickpocket,
[10:01] Speaker 1: I'm a scoundrel, and I don't want to begin a
[10:04] Speaker 1: new life as a scoundrel, Mitya decided. And so he
[10:08] Speaker 1: made up his mind to move heaven and earth to
[10:11] Speaker 1: return Katerina Ivanovna that three thousand, and that first of all.
[10:19] Speaker 1: The final stage of this decision, so to say, had
[10:22] Speaker 1: been reached only during the last hours, that is, after
[10:25] Speaker 1: his last interview with Alyosha, two days before, on the
[10:29] Speaker 1: high road, on the evening when Grushenka had insulted Katerina Ivanovna.
[10:35] Speaker 1: And Mitya, after hearing Alyosha's account of it, had admitted
[10:38] Speaker 1: that he was a scoundrel, and told him to tell
[10:41] Speaker 1: Katerina Ivanovna so, if it could be of any comfort
[10:44] Speaker 1: to her. After parting from his brother on that night...
[10:48] Speaker 1: He had felt in his frenzy that it would be
[10:50] Speaker 1: better to murder and rob someone than fail to pay
[10:54] Speaker 1: my debt to Katya. I'd rather everyone thought me a
[10:57] Speaker 1: robber and a murderer. I'd rather go to Siberia than
[11:00] Speaker 1: that Katya should have the right to say that I
[11:02] Speaker 1: deceived her and stole her money, and used her money
[11:06] Speaker 1: to run away with Grushenka and begin a new life.
[11:09] Speaker 1: That I can't do. So Mitya decided, grinding his teeth.
[11:15] Speaker 1: And he might well fancy at times that his brain
[11:17] Speaker 1: would give way. But meanwhile he went on struggling. Strange
[11:23] Speaker 1: to say, though one would have supposed there was nothing
[11:25] Speaker 1: left for him but despair, for what chance had he,
[11:29] Speaker 1: with nothing in the world, to raise such a sum?
[11:32] Speaker 1: Yet to the very end he persisted in hoping that
[11:35] Speaker 1: he would get that three thousand, that the money would
[11:38] Speaker 1: somehow come to him of itself, as though it might
[11:41] Speaker 1: drop from heaven. That is just how it is with
[11:44] Speaker 1: people who, like Dmitri, have never had anything to do
[11:48] Speaker 1: with money, except to squander what has come to them
[11:50] Speaker 1: by inheritance, without any effort of their own, and have
[11:54] Speaker 1: no notion how money is obtained. A whirl of the
[11:58] Speaker 1: most fantastic notions took possession of his brain immediately after
[12:03] Speaker 1: he had parted with Alyosha two days before, and threw
[12:06] Speaker 1: his thoughts into a tangle of confusion. This is how
[12:11] Speaker 1: it was he pitched first on a perfectly wild enterprise.
[12:15] Speaker 1: and perhaps to men of that kind in such circumstances,
[12:19] Speaker 1: the most impossible fantastic schemes occur first, and seem most practical.
[12:26] Speaker 1: He suddenly determined to go to Samsonov, the merchant who
[12:30] Speaker 1: was Grushenka's protector, and to propose a scheme to him,
[12:34] Speaker 1: and by means of it to obtain from him at
[12:36] Speaker 1: once the whole sum required. Of the commercial value of
[12:41] Speaker 1: his scheme he had no doubt, not the slightest. and
[12:44] Speaker 1: was only uncertain how Samsonov would look upon his freak,
[12:48] Speaker 1: supposing he were to consider it from any but the
[12:50] Speaker 1: commercial point of view. Though Mitya knew the merchant by sight,
[12:55] Speaker 1: he was not acquainted with him, and had never spoken
[12:58] Speaker 1: a word to him. But for some unknown reason he
[13:01] Speaker 1: had long entertained the conviction that the old reprobate, who
[13:05] Speaker 1: was lying at death's door, would perhaps not at all
[13:08] Speaker 1: object now to Grushenka's securing a respectable position. and marrying
[13:13] Speaker 1: a man to be depended upon. And he believed not
[13:17] Speaker 1: only that he would not object, but that this was
[13:20] Speaker 1: what he desired, and if opportunity arose, that he would
[13:23] Speaker 1: be ready to help. From some rumour, or perhaps from
[13:27] Speaker 1: some stray word of Grushenka's, he had gathered further that
[13:31] Speaker 1: the old man would perhaps prefer him to Fyodor Pavlovich
[13:35] Speaker 1: for Grushenka. Possibly many of the readers of my novel
[13:41] Speaker 1: will feel that in reckoning on such assistance, and being
[13:44] Speaker 1: ready to take his bride, so to speak, from the
[13:47] Speaker 1: hands of her protector, Dmitri showed great coarseness and want
[13:51] Speaker 1: of delicacy. I will only observe that Mitya looked upon
[13:55] Speaker 1: Grushenka's past as something completely over. He looked on that
[14:00] Speaker 1: past with infinite pity, and resolved with all the fervour
[14:04] Speaker 1: of his passion that when once Grushenka told him she
[14:07] Speaker 1: loved him and would marry him, It would mean the
[14:09] Speaker 1: beginning of a new Grushenka and a new Dmitri, free
[14:13] Speaker 1: from every vice. They would forgive one another, and would
[14:17] Speaker 1: begin their lives afresh. As for Kuzma Samsonov, Dmitri looked
[14:23] Speaker 1: upon him as a man who had exercised a fateful
[14:26] Speaker 1: influence in that remote past of Grushenka's, though she had
[14:30] Speaker 1: never loved him, and who was now himself a thing
[14:33] Speaker 1: of the past, completely done with, and so to say, non-existent. Besides,
[14:40] Speaker 1: Mitya hardly looked upon him as a man at all,
[14:43] Speaker 1: for it was known to everyone in the town that
[14:45] Speaker 1: he was only a shattered wreck, whose relations with Grushenka
[14:48] Speaker 1: had changed their character, and were now simply paternal, and
[14:53] Speaker 1: that this had been so for a long time. In
[14:57] Speaker 1: any case, there was much simplicity on Mitya's part in
[15:00] Speaker 1: all this, for in spite of all his vices, he
[15:03] Speaker 1: was a very simple-hearted man. It was an instance of
[15:07] Speaker 1: this simplicity. that Mitya was seriously persuaded that, being on
[15:11] Speaker 1: the eve of his departure for the next world, old
[15:14] Speaker 1: Kuzma must sincerely repent of his past relations with Grushenka,
[15:20] Speaker 1: and that she had no more devoted friend and protector
[15:22] Speaker 1: in the world than this now harmless old man. After
[15:29] Speaker 1: his conversation with Alyosha at the crossroads, he hardly slept
[15:33] Speaker 1: all night, and at ten o'clock next morning he was
[15:36] Speaker 1: at the house of Samsonov and telling the servant to
[15:40] Speaker 1: announce him. It was a very large and gloomy old
[15:44] Speaker 1: house of two stories, with a lodge and outhouses. In
[15:48] Speaker 1: the lower story lived Samsonov's two married sons with their families,
[15:52] Speaker 1: his old sister and his unmarried daughter. In the lodge
[15:56] Speaker 1: lived two of his clerks, one of whom also had
[15:59] Speaker 1: a large family. Both the lodge and the lower story
[16:03] Speaker 1: were overcrowded, but the old man kept the upper floor
[16:06] Speaker 1: to himself. and would not even let the daughter live
[16:09] Speaker 1: there with him, though she waited upon him, and in
[16:13] Speaker 1: spite of her asthma was obliged at certain fixed hours,
[16:17] Speaker 1: and at any time he might call her, to run
[16:20] Speaker 1: upstairs to him from below. This upper floor contained a
[16:25] Speaker 1: number of large rooms, kept purely for show, furnished in
[16:29] Speaker 1: the old-fashioned merchant style, with long monotonous rows of clumsy
[16:34] Speaker 1: mahogany chairs along the walls, with glass chandeliers under shades
[16:38] Speaker 1: and gloomy mirrors on the walls. All these rooms were
[16:42] Speaker 1: entirely empty and unused, for the old man kept to
[16:47] Speaker 1: one room, a small, remote bedroom, where he was waited
[16:51] Speaker 1: upon by an old servant with a kerchief on her head,
[16:54] Speaker 1: and by a lad who used to sit on the
[16:56] Speaker 1: locker in the passage. Owing to his swollen legs, The
[17:01] Speaker 1: old man could hardly walk at all, and was only
[17:04] Speaker 1: rarely lifted from his leather armchair, when the old woman
[17:08] Speaker 1: supporting him led him up and down the room once
[17:10] Speaker 1: or twice. He was morose and taciturn, even with this
[17:15] Speaker 1: old woman. When he was informed of the arrival of
[17:20] Speaker 1: the captain, he at once refused to see him. But
[17:24] Speaker 1: Mitya persisted and sent his name up again. Samsonov questioned
[17:29] Speaker 1: the lad minutely. What he looked like, whether he was drunk,
[17:33] Speaker 1: was he going to make a row? The answer he
[17:37] Speaker 1: received was that he was sober but wouldn't go away.
[17:42] Speaker 1: The old man again refused to see him. Then Mitya,
[17:45] Speaker 1: who had foreseen this and purposely brought pencil and paper
[17:49] Speaker 1: with him, wrote clearly on the piece of paper the words,
[17:53] Speaker 1: On most important business closely concerning Agrafena Alexandrovna, and sent
[17:59] Speaker 1: it up to the old man. After thinking a little,
[18:03] Speaker 1: Samsonov told the lad to take the visitor to the drawing-room,
[18:07] Speaker 1: and sent the old woman downstairs, with a summons to
[18:09] Speaker 1: his younger son to come upstairs to him at once.
[18:13] Speaker 1: This younger son, a man of over six foot and
[18:16] Speaker 1: of exceptional physical strength, who was closely shaven and dressed
[18:20] Speaker 1: in the European style, though his father still wore a
[18:24] Speaker 1: kaftan and a beard, came at once without a comment.
[18:29] Speaker 1: All the family trembled before the father. The old man
[18:33] Speaker 1: had sent for this giant not because he was afraid
[18:35] Speaker 1: of the captain— he was by no means of a timorous
[18:38] Speaker 1: temper— but in order to have a witness in case of
[18:42] Speaker 1: any emergency. Supported by his son and the servant-lad, he
[18:46] Speaker 1: waddled at last into the drawing-room. It may be assumed
[18:50] Speaker 1: that he felt considerable curiosity. The drawing-room in which Mitya
[18:55] Speaker 1: was awaiting him was a vast, dreary room that laid
[18:59] Speaker 1: a weight of depression on the heart. It had a
[19:02] Speaker 1: double row of windows, a gallery, marbled walls, and three
[19:07] Speaker 1: immense chandeliers with glass lusters covered with shades. Mitya was
[19:13] Speaker 1: sitting on a little chair at the entrance, awaiting his
[19:16] Speaker 1: fate with nervous impatience. When the old man appeared at
[19:20] Speaker 1: the opposite door, seventy feet away, Mitya jumped up at once,
[19:25] Speaker 1: and with his long military stride walked to meet him.
[19:29] Speaker 1: Mitya was well-dressed, in a frock coat, buttoned up. with
[19:33] Speaker 1: a round hat and black gloves in his hands, just
[19:36] Speaker 1: as he had been three days before at the Elder's,
[19:39] Speaker 1: at the family meeting with his father and brothers. The
[19:43] Speaker 1: old man waited for him, standing dignified and unbending, and
[19:48] Speaker 1: Mitya felt at once that he looked him through and
[19:50] Speaker 1: through as he advanced. Mitya was greatly impressed, too, with
[19:54] Speaker 1: Samsonov's immensely swollen face. His lower lip, which had always
[19:59] Speaker 1: been thick, hung down now, looking like a bun. He
[20:04] Speaker 1: bowed to his guest in dignified silence, motioned him to
[20:07] Speaker 1: a low chair by the sofa, and and leaning on
[20:10] Speaker 1: his son's arm, he began lowering himself onto the sofa opposite,
[20:14] Speaker 1: groaning painfully, so that Mitya, seeing his painful exertions, immediately
[20:20] Speaker 1: felt remorseful and sensitively conscious of his insignificance in the
[20:25] Speaker 1: presence of the dignified person he had ventured to disturb.'
[20:28] Speaker 1: What is it you want of me, sir?' said the
[20:35] Speaker 1: old man, deliberately. distinctly, severely, but courteously, when he was
[20:41] Speaker 1: at last seated. Mitya started, leapt up, but sat down again.
[20:48] Speaker 1: Then he began at once speaking with loud, nervous haste, gesticulating,
[20:52] Speaker 1: and in a positive frenzy. He was unmistakably a man
[20:56] Speaker 1: driven into a corner on the brink of ruin, catching
[21:00] Speaker 1: at the last straw, ready to sink if he failed.
[21:04] Speaker 1: Old Samsonov probably grasped all this in an instant, though
[21:08] Speaker 1: his face remained cold and immovable as a statue's. Most
[21:13] Speaker 1: honoured sir, Kuzma Kuzmich, you have no doubt heard more
[21:16] Speaker 1: than once of my disputes with my father, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov,
[21:20] Speaker 1: who robbed me of my inheritance from my mother. Seeing
[21:24] Speaker 1: the whole town is gossiping about it, for here everyone's
[21:27] Speaker 1: gossiping of what they shouldn't. And besides, it might have
[21:30] Speaker 1: reached you through Grushenka, I beg your pardon, through Agrafena Alexandrovna,
[21:35] Speaker 1: Agrafena Alexandrovna, the lady of whom I have the highest
[21:38] Speaker 1: respect and esteem. So Mitya began and broke down at
[21:43] Speaker 1: the first sentence. We will not reproduce his speech word
[21:47] Speaker 1: for word, but will only summarise the gist of it.
[21:51] Speaker 1: Three months ago, he said, he had of express intention
[21:55] Speaker 1: Mitya purposely used these words instead of intentionally consulted a
[21:59] Speaker 1: lawyer in the chief town of the province. A distinguished lawyer,
[22:03] Speaker 1: Kuzma Kuzmich, Pavel Pavlovich Korniplodov. You have perhaps heard of him.
[22:09] Speaker 1: A man of vast intellect, the mind of a statesman.
[22:13] Speaker 1: He knows you, too, spoke of you in the highest terms.
[22:17] Speaker 1: Mitya broke down again. But these breaks did not deter him.
[22:22] Speaker 1: He leapt instantly over the gaps and struggled on and on.
[22:27] Speaker 1: This Korniplodov, after questioning him minutely and inspecting the documents
[22:32] Speaker 1: he was able to bring him, Mitya alluded somewhat vaguely
[22:36] Speaker 1: to these documents, and slurred over the subject with special haste,
[22:40] Speaker 1: reported that they certainly might take proceedings concerning the village
[22:44] Speaker 1: of Chermashnya, which ought, he said, to have come to him, Mitya,
[22:48] Speaker 1: from his mother, and so checkmate the old villain his father,
[22:53] Speaker 1: because every door was not closed, and justice might still
[22:56] Speaker 1: find a loophole. In fact, he might reckon on an
[23:00] Speaker 1: additional sum of six or even seven thousand roubles from
[23:04] Speaker 1: Fyodor Pavlovich, as Chermashnya was worth at least twenty-five thousand,
[23:09] Speaker 1: he might say, twenty-eight thousand, in fact. Thirty! Thirty, Kuzma Kuzmich!
[23:15] Speaker 1: And would you believe it, I didn't get seventeen from
[23:17] Speaker 1: that heartless man! So he, Mitya, had thrown the business
[23:22] Speaker 1: up for the time, knowing nothing about the law. but
[23:26] Speaker 1: on coming here was struck dumb by a cross-claim made
[23:30] Speaker 1: upon him. Here Mitya went adrift again, and again took
[23:34] Speaker 1: a flying leap forward.' So will not you, excellent and
[23:38] Speaker 1: honoured Kuzma Kuzmich, be willing to take up all my
[23:41] Speaker 1: claims against that unnatural monster, and pay me a sum
[23:45] Speaker 1: down of only three thousand? You see, you cannot in
[23:49] Speaker 1: any case lose over it. On my honour, my honour,
[23:52] Speaker 1: I swear that.'' Quite the contrary.' You may make six
[23:56] Speaker 1: or seven thousand instead of three. Above all, he wanted
[24:00] Speaker 1: this concluded that very day. I'll do the business with
[24:05] Speaker 1: you at a notary's, or whatever it is. In fact,
[24:07] Speaker 1: I'm ready to do anything. I'll hand over all the deeds.
[24:10] Speaker 1: Whatever you want, sign anything, and we could draw up
[24:13] Speaker 1: the agreement at once. And if it were possible, if
[24:16] Speaker 1: it were only possible, that very morning, you could pay
[24:19] Speaker 1: me that three thousand, for there isn't a capitalist in
[24:22] Speaker 1: this town to compare with you. and so would save
[24:26] Speaker 1: me from, save me, in fact, for a good, I
[24:29] Speaker 1: might say, an honourable action. For I cherish the most
[24:33] Speaker 1: honourable feelings for a certain person whom you know well,
[24:37] Speaker 1: and care for as a father. I would not have come, indeed,
[24:41] Speaker 1: if it had not been as a father. And, indeed,
[24:45] Speaker 1: it's a struggle of three in this business, for it's fate.
[24:49] Speaker 1: That's a fearful thing, Kuzma Kuzmich, a tragedy, Kuzma Kuzmich,
[24:52] Speaker 1: a tragedy. And as you've dropped out long ago, it's
[24:56] Speaker 1: a tug-of-war between two. I'm expressing it awkwardly, perhaps, but
[25:01] Speaker 1: I'm not a literary man. You see, I'm on one side,
[25:05] Speaker 1: and that monster on the other. So you must choose.
[25:08] Speaker 1: It's either I or the monster. It all lies in
[25:11] Speaker 1: your hands, the fate of three lives, and the happiness
[25:15] Speaker 1: of two. Excuse me, I'm making a mess of it,
[25:18] Speaker 1: but you understand. I see from your venerable eyes that
[25:22] Speaker 1: you understand.' And if you don't understand, I'm done for.
[25:26] Speaker 1: So you see.' Mitya broke off his clumsy speech with that,'
[25:33] Speaker 1: So you see,' and, jumping up from his seat, awaited
[25:36] Speaker 1: the answer to his foolish proposal. At the last phrase
[25:41] Speaker 1: he had suddenly become hopelessly aware that it had all
[25:44] Speaker 1: fallen flat, above all that he had been talking utter nonsense.'
[25:50] Speaker 1: How strange it is, on the way here it seemed
[25:52] Speaker 1: all right, and now it's nothing but nonsense. The idea
[25:56] Speaker 1: suddenly dawned on his despairing mind. All the while he'd
[26:00] Speaker 1: been talking, the old man sat motionless, watching him with
[26:04] Speaker 1: an icy expression in his eyes. After keeping him for
[26:08] Speaker 1: a moment in suspense, Kuzma Kuzmich pronounced at last, in
[26:12] Speaker 1: the most positive and chilling tone,' Excuse me, we don't
[26:17] Speaker 1: undertake such business.' Mitya suddenly felt his legs growing weak
[26:22] Speaker 1: under him.' What am I to do now, Kuzma Kuzmich?'
[26:25] Speaker 1: he muttered with a pale smile.' I suppose it's all
[26:29] Speaker 1: up with me. What do you think?'' Excuse me.' Mitya
[26:34] Speaker 1: remained standing, staring motionless. He suddenly noticed a movement in
[26:39] Speaker 1: the old man's face. He started.' You see, sir, business
[26:43] Speaker 1: of that sort's not in our line,' said the old
[26:46] Speaker 1: man slowly. There's the court and the lawyers. It's a
[26:50] Speaker 1: perfect misery. But if you like, there is a man
[26:54] Speaker 1: here you might apply to. Good heavens, who is it?
[26:58] Speaker 1: You're my salvation, Kuzma Kuzmich, faltered Mitya. He doesn't live here,
[27:04] Speaker 1: and he's not here just now. He is a peasant.
[27:07] Speaker 1: He does business in timber. His name is Yagavi. He's
[27:12] Speaker 1: been haggling with Fyodor Pavlovich for the last year over
[27:15] Speaker 1: your cops at Chermashnya. They can't agree on the price.
[27:20] Speaker 1: Maybe you've heard. Now he's come back again and is
[27:23] Speaker 1: staying with the priest at Iliinskoje, about twelve verts from
[27:28] Speaker 1: the Volovia station. He wrote to me, too, about the
[27:31] Speaker 1: business of the cops, asking my advice. Fyodor Pavlovich means
[27:36] Speaker 1: to go and see him himself. So if you were
[27:39] Speaker 1: to be beforehand with Fyodor Pavlovich and to make Lyagave
[27:43] Speaker 1: the offer you've made me, he might possibly... A brilliant idea,
[27:50] Speaker 1: Mitya interrupted ecstatically. He's the very man. It would just
[27:54] Speaker 1: suit him. He's haggling with him for it, being asked
[27:57] Speaker 1: too much, and here he would have all the documents
[28:00] Speaker 1: entitling him to the property itself. Ha, ha, ha! And
[28:05] Speaker 1: Mitya suddenly went off into his short, wooden laugh, startling Samsonov.
[28:12] Speaker 1: How can I thank you, Kuzma Kuzmich? cried Mitya effusively.
[28:17] Speaker 1: Don't mention it. said Samsonov, inclining his head. But you
[28:22] Speaker 1: don't know. You've saved me. Oh, it was a true
[28:25] Speaker 1: presentiment brought me to you. So now to this priest.
[28:30] Speaker 1: No need of thanks. I'll make haste there and fly there.
[28:35] Speaker 1: I'm afraid I've overtaxed your strength. I shall never forget it.
[28:39] Speaker 1: It's a Russian, says that Kuzma Kuzmich. Russian. To be sure,
[28:45] Speaker 1: Mitya seized his hand to press it. but there was
[28:48] Speaker 1: a malignant gleam in the old man's eye. Mitya drew
[28:52] Speaker 1: back his hand, but at once blamed himself for his mistrustfulness.
[28:57] Speaker 1: It's because he's tired, he thought. For her sake, for
[29:01] Speaker 1: her sake, Kuzma Kuzmich, you understand that it's for her,
[29:06] Speaker 1: he cried, his voice ringing through the room. He bowed,
[29:10] Speaker 1: turned sharply round, and with the same long stride walked
[29:14] Speaker 1: to the door without looking back. He was trembling with delight.
[29:19] Speaker 1: Everything was on the verge of ruin, and my guardian
[29:22] Speaker 1: angel saved me, was the thought in his mind. And
[29:26] Speaker 1: if such a businessman as Samsonov, a most worthy old man,
[29:30] Speaker 1: and what dignity, had suggested this course, then success was assured.
[29:36] Speaker 1: He would fly off immediately. I will be back before... night.
[29:41] Speaker 1: I shall be back at night, and the thing is done.''
[29:42] Speaker 1: Could the old man have been laughing at me?' exclaimed Mitya,
[29:49] Speaker 1: as he strode towards his lodging. He could, of course,
[29:53] Speaker 1: imagine nothing but that the advice was practical from such
[29:56] Speaker 1: a businessman.' with an understanding of the business, with an
[30:00] Speaker 1: understanding of this Lyagave, curious surname. Or the old man
[30:06] Speaker 1: was laughing at him. Alas, the second alternative was the
[30:13] Speaker 1: correct one. Long afterwards, when the catastrophe had happened, old
[30:18] Speaker 1: Samsonov himself confessed laughing that he had made a fool
[30:22] Speaker 1: of the captain. He was a cold, spiteful and sarcastic man,
[30:27] Speaker 1: liable to violent antipathies. Whether it was the captain's excited face,
[30:33] Speaker 1: or the foolish conviction of the rake and spendthrift, that he, Samsonov,
[30:38] Speaker 1: could be taken in by such a cock-and-bull story as
[30:41] Speaker 1: his scheme, or his jealousy of Grushenka, in whose name
[30:45] Speaker 1: this scapegrace had rushed in on him with such a
[30:48] Speaker 1: tale to get money, which worked on the old man,
[30:52] Speaker 1: I can't tell. But at the instant when Mitya stood
[30:56] Speaker 1: before him, feeling his legs grow weak under him, and
[31:00] Speaker 1: frantically exclaiming that he was ruined, at that moment the
[31:05] Speaker 1: old man looked at him with intense spite, and resolved
[31:09] Speaker 1: to make a laughing-stock of him. When Mitya had gone,
[31:14] Speaker 1: Kuzma Kuzmich, white with rage, turned to his son and
[31:18] Speaker 1: bade him see to it that that beggar be never
[31:20] Speaker 1: seen again, and never admitted even into the yard of
[31:24] Speaker 1: or else he did not utter his threat. But even
[31:30] Speaker 1: his son, who often saw him enraged, trembled with fear,
[31:34] Speaker 1: for a whole hour afterwards the old man was shaking
[31:37] Speaker 1: with anger, and by evening he was worse, and sent
[31:41] Speaker 1: for the doctor. In hazel mare Surrey.

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