Oblomov, Part Three, Chapter 3
The whole of that summer's love poem seemed to have ended; it was as if it had lost momentum for lack of fuel.
We have a change of seasons to match the lowering of the ardour between Ilya and Olga. Their love has gone from poetry to prosaic narrative as the heat of summer makes way for the cooling of autumn. Dachas with stoves now have smoke rising from their chimneys, while those in dachas without are getting out their mufflers. Ilya himself has an outlandish jacket, but thankfully he’s not reverted to the dressing gown.
The lovebirds agree to observe propriety and now see each other only at the Ilinskys’ or when they have prearranged to bump into one another at the theatre or in the park. Olga becomes maudlin.
Ilya is now ensconced at his newly rented apartments on the Vyborg side, while he awaits the pleasure of the landlady’s brother, Ivan Matveich. He’s waiting to inform him that he no longer requires the apartments.
Elbows
Oblomov could see only the landlady’s back, her head on its white neck and her bare elbows.
“What’s she doing in there with her elbows moving so busily?” asked Oblomov.
[…]
“She’s only a clerk’s widow but she has elbows fit for a countess — and what dimples!” Oblomov thought to himself.
He’s definitely an elbows man, so how come we never get a description of Olga’s elbows? Propriety? I wonder. I just love that elbows keep coming up though; it always makes me chuckle.
“She’s such a simple soul,” thought Oblomov, “and yet there’s something about her… she keeps herself so clean”!
The Brother
Ilya finally has a meeting with Ivan Matveich and it goes worse than expected. Goncharov is ratcheting up the tension. Not only can Ilya not break the lease and is liable for the full year’s rent, he now also has to fork out for the stabling—despite not having a horse—, the repairs and decoration of his apartments before he moved in and produce from the kitchen garden. It’s a bill he can’t afford, and remember that Tarantyev already told Ilya that Ivan Matveich would take Ilya to court ‘at the drop of a hat.’ Ilya’s in a spot of bother and all because he signed that lease without reading it. Tarantyev and Ivan Matveich are milking him for all they can get. How on earth is he going to get out of it? It doesn’t sound like Olga will have any kind of dowry to offer, given her family circumstances. It’s a tricky one!
Video Review
Here’s my video review of the chapter, recorded right after reading it.