Oblomov, Part Three, Chapter 2
He started thinking, and the harder he thought, the more he began to feel that the sun-filled, cloudless holiday of love was over...
The hot passion of the love scenes in the park has dampened down, turned from poetry to a prosaic narrative.
Ilya wants to tell the world of their engagement, but Olga’s got different ideas; she wants to see to all the humdrum chores that need to be taken care of first: sort out the estate, find an apartment, go to the courthouse, that kind of thing. She’s the head, where Ilya is the heart.
Ilya heads to the courthouse but fails to achieve his goal of having a document certified. He gets distracted on the way and ends up having lunch with an old friend. He does, however, manage to visit his leased apartment, intending to inform the landlady, one Agafya Matveyevna, that he no longer requires it. This he does, but she doesn’t want to listen, telling him that he should wait and see her brother as he’s in charge of all that business stuff.
We get a detailed description of Agafya Matveyevna, including another mention of her elbows. Look out for elbows’ being mentioned; it’s one of my favourite things about this novel. I’m not sure why, but it amuses me, perhaps because it’s so unusual a feature for an author to focus on when describing characters.
We leave the chapter with Ilya’s departing and, as he goes, he catches a glimpse of the brother’s arriving at the house. He decides not to wait.
Video Review
Here’s my video review of the chapter, recorded right after reading it.
Even when Ilya tries to get things done, it becomes ridiculously convoluted and difficult really through no fault of his own. I feel this way too sometimes. Bureaucracy!!!