embassies, poets, novelists, even Socialists, to see her; but
not one of them all made the faintest impression upon
Nastasia. It was as though she had a pebble in place of a
heart, as though her feelings and affections were dried up
and withered for ever.
She lived almost entirely alone; she read, she studied,
she loved music. Her principal acquaintances were poor
women of various grades, a couple of actresses, and the
family of a poor schoolteacher. Among these people she
was much beloved.
She received four or five friends sometimes, of an
evening. Totski often came. Lately, too, General Epanchin The Idiot
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had been enabled with great difficulty to introduce himself
into her circle. Gania made her acquaintance also, and
others were Ferdishenko, an ill- bred, and would-be witty,
young clerk, and Ptitsin, a money- lender of modest and
polished manners, who had risen from poverty. In fact,
Nastasia Philipovna’s beauty became a thing known to all
the town; but not a single man could boast of anything
more than his own admiration for her; and this reputation
of hers, and her wit and culture and grace, all confirmed
Totski in the plan he had now prepared.
And it was at this moment that General Epanchin
began to play so large and important a part in the story.
When Totski had approached the general with his
request for friendly counsel as to a marriage with one of
his daughters, he had made a full and candid confession.
He had said that he intended to stop at no means to obtain
his freedom; even if Nastasia were to promise to leave him
entirely alone in future, he would not (he said) believe and
trust her; words were not enough for him; he must have
solid guarantees of some sort. So he and the general
determined to try what an attempt to appeal to her heart
would effect. Having arrived at Nastasia’s house one day,
with Epanchin, Totski immediately began to speak of the
intolerable torment of his position. He admitted that he The Idiot
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was to blame for all, but candidly confessed that he could
not bring himself to feel any remorse for his original guilt
towards herself, because he was a man of sensual passions
which were inborn and ineradicable, and that he had no
power over himself in this respect; but that he wished,
seriously, to marry at last, and that the whole fate of the
most desirable social union which he contemplated, was in
her hands; in a word, he confided his all to her generosity
of heart.
General Epanchin took up his part and spoke in the
character of father of a family; he spoke sensibly, and
without wasting words over any attempt at sentimentality,
he merely recorded his full admission of her right to be the
arbiter of Totski’s destiny at this moment. He then
pointed out that the fate of his daughter, and very likely of
both his other daughters, now hung upon her reply.
To Nastasia’s question as to what they wished her to
do, Totski confessed that he had been so frightened by
her, five years ago, that he could never now be entirely
comfortable until she herself married. He immediately
added that such a suggestion from him would, of course,
be absurd, unless accompanied by remarks of a more
pointed nature. He very well knew, he said, that a certain
young gentleman of good family, namely, Gavrila The Idiot
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Ardalionovitch Ivolgin, with whom she was acquainted,
and whom she received at her house, had long loved her
passionately, and would give his life for some response
from her. The young fellow had confessed this love of his
to him (Totski) and had also admitted it in the hearing of
his benefactor, General Epanchin. Lastly, he could not
help being of opinion that Nastasia must be aware of
Gania’s love for her, and if he (Totski) mistook not, she
had looked with some favour upon it, being often lonely,
and rather tired of her present life. Having remarked how
difficult it was for him, of all people, to speak to her of
these matters, Totski concluded by saying that he trusted
Nastasia Philipovna would not look with contempt upon
him if he now expressed his sincere desire to guarantee her
future by a gift of seventy-five thousand roubles. He added
that the sum would have been left her all the same in his
will, and that therefore she must not consider the gift as in
any way an indemnification to her for anything, but that
there was no reason, after all, why a man should not be
allowed to entertain a natural desire to lighten his
conscience, etc., etc.; in fact, all that would naturally be
said under the circumstances. Totski was very eloquent all
through, and, in conclusion, just touched on the fact that
not a soul in the world, not even General Epanchin, had The Idiot
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ever heard a word about the above seventy-five thousand
roubles, and that this was the first time he had ever given
expression to his intentions in respect to them.
Nastasia Philipovna’s reply to this long rigmarole
astonished both the friends considerably.
Not only was there no trace of her former irony, of her
old hatred and enmity, and of that dreadful laughter, the
very recollection of which sent a cold chill down Totski’s
back to this very day; but she seemed charmed and really
glad to have the opportunity of talking seriously with him
for once in a way. She confessed that she had long wished
to have a frank and free conversation and to ask for
friendly advice, but that pride had hitherto prevented her;
now, however, that the ice was broken, nothing could be
more welcome to her than this opportunity.
First, with a sad smile, and then with a twinkle of
merriment in her eyes, she admitted that such a storm as
that of five years ago was now quite out of the question.
She said that she had long since changed her views of
things, and recognized that facts must be taken into
consideration in spite of the feelings of the heart. What
was done was done and ended, and she could not
understand why Totski should still feel alarmed. The Idiot
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She next turned to General Epanchin and observed,
most courteously, that she had long since known of his
daughters, and that she had heard none but good report;
that she had learned to think of them with deep and
sincere respect. The idea alone that she could in any way
serve them, would be to her both a pride and a source of
real happiness.
It was true that she was lonely in her present life;
Totski had judged her thoughts aright. She longed to rise,
if not to love, at least to family life and new hopes and
objects, but as to Gavrila Ardalionovitch, she could not as
yet say much. She thought it must be the case that he
loved her; she felt that she too might learn to love him, if
she could be sure of the firmness of his attachment to
herself; but he was very young, and it was a difficult
question to decide. What she specially liked about him
was that he worked, and supported his family by his toil.
She had heard that he was proud and ambitious; she
had heard much that was interesting of his mother and
sister, she had heard of them from Mr. Ptitsin, and would
much like to make their acquaintance, but—another
question!—would they like to receive her into their
house? At all events, though she did not reject the idea of
this marriage, she desired not to be hurried. As for the The Idiot
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seventy-five thousand roubles, Mr. Totski need not have
found any difficulty or awkwardness about the matter; she
quite understood the value of money, and would, of
course, accept the gift. She thanked him for his delicacy,
however, but saw no reason why Gavrila Ardalionovitch
should not know about it.
She would not marry the latter, she said, until she felt
persuaded that neither on his part nor on the part of his
family did there exist any sort of concealed suspicions as to
herself. She did not intend to ask forgiveness for anything
in the past, which fact she desired to be known. She did
not consider herself to blame for anything that had
happened in former years, and she thought that Gavrila
Ardalionovitch should be informed as to the relations
which had existed between herself and Totski during the
last five years. If she accepted this money it was not to be
considered as indemnification for her misfortune as a
young girl, which had not been in any degree her own
fault, but merely as compensation for her ruined life.
She became so excited and agitated during all these
explanations and confessions that General Epanchin was
highly gratified, and considered the matter satisfactorily
arranged once for all. But the once bitten Totski was twice
shy, and looked for hidden snakes among the flowers. The Idiot
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However, the special point to which the two friends
particularly trusted to bring about their object (namely,
Gania’s attractiveness for Nastasia Philipovna), stood out
more and more prominently; the pourparlers had
commenced, and gradually even Totski began to believe
in the possibility of success.
Before long Nastasia and Gania had talked the matter
over. Very little was said—her modesty seemed to suffer
under the infliction of discussing such a question. But she
recognized his love, on the understanding that she bound
herself to nothing whatever, and that she reserved the
right to say ‘no’ up to the very hour of the marriage
ceremony. Gania was to have the same right of refusal at
the last moment.
It soon became clear to Gania, after scenes of wrath and
quarrellings at the domestic hearth, that his family were
seriously opposed to the match, and that Nastasia was
aware of this fact was equally evident. She said nothing
about it, though he daily expected her to do so.
There were several rumours afloat, before long, which
upset Totski’s equanimity a good deal, but we will not
now stop to describe them; merely mentioning an instance
or two. One was that Nastasia had entered into close and
secret relations with the Epanchin girls—a most unlikely The Idiot
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rumour; another was that Nastasia had long satisfied herself
of the fact that Gania was merely marrying her for money,
and that his nature was gloomy and greedy, impatient and
selfish, to an extraordinary degree; and that although he
had been keen enough in his desire to achieve a conquest
before, yet since the two friends had agreed to exploit his
passion for their own purposes, it was clear enough that he
had begun to consider the whole thing a nuisance and a
nightmare.
In his heart passion and hate seemed to hold divided
sway, and although he had at last given his consent to
marry the woman (as he said), under the stress of
circumstances, yet he promised himself that he would
‘take it out of her,’ after marriage.
Nastasia seemed to Totski to have divined all this, and
to be preparing something on her own account, which
frightened him to such an extent that he did not dare
communicate his views even to the general. But at times
he would pluck up his courage and be full of hope and
good spirits again, acting, in fact, as weak men do act in
such circumstances.
However, both the friends felt that the thing looked
rosy indeed when one day Nastasia informed them that The Idiot
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she would give her final answer on the evening of her
birthday, which anniversary was due in a very short time.
A strange rumour began to circulate, meanwhile; no
less than that the respectable and highly respected General
Epanchin was himself so fascinated by Nastasia Philipovna
that his feeling for her amounted almost to passion. What
he thought to gain by Gania’s marriage to the girl it was
difficult to imagine. Possibly he counted on Gania’s
complaisance; for Totski had long suspected that there
existed some secret understanding between the general and
his secretary. At all events the fact was known that he had
prepared a magnificent present of pearls for Nastasia’s
birthday, and that he was looking forward to the occasion
when he should present his gift with the greatest
excitement and impatience. The day before her birthday
he was in a fever of agitation.
Mrs. Epanchin, long accustomed to her husband’s
infidelities, had heard of the pearls, and the rumour
excited her liveliest curiosity and interest. The general
remarked her suspicions, and felt that a grand explanation
must shortly take place—which fact alarmed him much.
This is the reason why he was so unwilling to take
lunch (on the morning upon which we took up this
narrative) with the rest of his family. Before the prince’s The Idiot
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arrival he had made up his mind to plead business, and
‘cut’ the meal; which simply meant running away.
He was particularly anxious that this one day should be
passed— especially the evening—without unpleasantness
between himself and his family; and just at the right
moment the prince turned up—‘as though Heaven had
sent him on purpose,’ said the general to himself, as he left
the study to seek out the wife of his bosom. The Idiot
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V
Mrs. General Epanchin was a proud woman by nature.
What must her feelings have been when she heard that
Prince Muishkin, the last of his and her line, had arrived in
beggar’s guise, a wretched idiot, a recipient of charity—all
of which details the general gave out for greater effect! He
was anxious to steal her interest at the first swoop, so as to
distract her thoughts from other matters nearer home.
Mrs. Epanchin was in the habit of holding herself very
straight, and staring before her, without speaking, in
moments of excitement.
She was a fine woman of the same age as her husband,
with a slightly hooked nose, a high, narrow forehead,
