I Would Know Him in a Crowd of a Thousand
Crime and Punishment Week 22: Part Four, Chapter 2
Welcome to Week 22 of my slow-read of Crime and Punishment. This week’s chapter is Part Four, Chapter 2.
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This week’s characters
(I don’t include Raskolnikov in this listing as he’s in most of the chapters)
Razumikhin • Luzhin • Pulkheria • Dunya
This is an excellent chapter that’s very dialogue heavy. I could see it as a play. It’s nice to see the women playing a strong role here in shaping their future. Here’s how it plays out.
Rodion explains to Razumikhin who Svidrigailov is and says that he needs to protect Dunya from him.
Rodion questions his own sanity, an interesting point to note.
Razumikhin relates how he’d gone the night before to visit Porfiry and found himself unable to express himself properly. He ends up threatening Porfiry, though I know not about what. We’re not given the details.
They arrive at Bakaleyev’s building where Pulkheria and Dunya are staying at the same time as Luzhin, bang on 8 p.m. There’s an awkward meeting, where we’re informed that Luzhin had actually considered simply leaving upon having seen Rodion, but decided not to as he wished to know why he had ignored the request to keep away. They discuss Marfa Petrovna’s death and how Svidrigailov’s intention is to come straight to St Petersburg after the funeral. I’m guessing that it’s only the two Rs that have seen him. Luzhin goes on to explain that Svidrigailov had had dealings with Madame Resslich, a lady of foreign extraction who lent money with interest. There was a rumour that Svidrigailov had abused Madame Resslich’s ward, a young deaf mute girl no older than 15 who had hanged herself. There was also a rumour that he had been the cause of one of his servants’ hanging himself. Luzhin seems to want to go to great lengths to paint Svidrigailov in an unfavourable light. Dunya counters this by saying that, when she was a governess in his home, he had always treated the servants well.
Rodion tells everyone that Svidrigailov had come to visit him earlier that day. He informs Dunya about having been left three thousand roubles and that he had a proposition to make to Dunya, which Rodion would pass on to her later.
Luzhin makes to leave. Dunya persuades him to stay, which he does, but then goes on to say that he is not about to discuss what he came to say while Rodion refuses to share Svidrigailov’s proposition and in light of Rodion’s flagrant non-compliance with Luzhin’s wish that he not attend the meeting. Dunya tells him to get off his high horse and that this schism needed to be resolved TODAY.
Luzhin is offended and states that a wife’s love for her husband should take precedence over her love for her brother. He goes on to quiz Pulkheria about what she meant in her letter to Rodion when she had written about Luzhin’s idea that it was better to marry a woman of modest means than one who had hitherto known comfort.
So, first of all, he’s disrespecting his fiancée and her brother, and next, her mother. What kind of an arsehole is this guy?
Rodion explains some of the mean things that Luzhin wrote in his letter, about how he had given money to a prostitute and stuff like that. Rodion surprises him by stating that he already has had Sonya in his mother and sister’s company. This is the last straw for Luzhin and he states quite simply that, in that case, a reconciliation is out of the question and that he will take his leave while they discuss their secrets. He calls Pulkheria out for having shared the content of a letter that was addressed only to her. The women are incensed. And rightly so, it would seem. Dunya blows up at him and basically kicks him out and instructs him not to come back.
“What insufferable insolence!” Dunya exclaimed, quickly rising from her chair. “I wouldn’t want you to return in any case!”
After more arguing ensues, Razumikhin finally jumps in Rodion has to hold him back. Rodion tells him to leave, and he does.
All quotations in this post are taken from Roger Cockrell’s translation of 2022, Alma Classics, © Roger Cockrell 2022
So, yes, Luzhin’s out of there. ‘Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, fella!’
So where does this leave our characters? Dunya’s better off to the tune of three thousand roubles and has got out of marrying a man she doesn’t love. The only allusion we’ve had to Rodya’s crime was the scene with Razumikhin round at Porfiry’s. Emotions are high, but the family unit of Rodya, his mum and sister seems to have come together to defeat the demon. Or is it Svidrigailov that’s the demon? Or both?
Translation Points
I always enjoy when a translator makes good use of idiom. This passage in Cockrell jumped out at me as being excellent.
“Oh for goodness' sake, Pyotr Petrovich, stop getting on your high horse," Dunya interrupted with passion, "and start being the sensible and considerate man I have always regarded and would like to continue to regard you to be.”
Others rendered it as follows:
Original - Ах, оставьте всю эту обидчивость
Garnett - Ah, don’t be so ready to take offence
Coulson - Oh, don't be so quick to take offence
McDuff - Oh, stop being so touchy
P&V - Ah, don’t be so ready to take offence
Ready - Oh, enough of all this touchiness
Pasternak Slater - Ah, stop being so touchy
Katz - Ah, drop all this touchiness
You can see the full passage over on the spreadsheet.
I find Cockrell’s high horse to fit very well here. It’s a good example of non-literal translation that conveys the meaning for the modern reader. If I were going to pick a literal translation, I’d have to go with Coulson I think.
How about you?
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Hi Cams, Substack presents all your notes in a jumble on my phone - have you already discussed part 4, chapter 3 of Crime & Punishment?