(20) C. P. (PART 2 CHAP V)

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Silly me! Somehow chapter 20 got back to draft form. So I'm reposting it along with chapter 21. For those of you that have already read chapter 20 scroll down to stay in order. It has been a rough week for me to say the least!   GLEN
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HOW DO I TURN A RATHER LONG DESCRIPTION FROM ONE PARAGRAPH? I'LL PICK A FEW CHOICE WORDS. SUCH AS, STIFF, OFFENSIVE, MISTRUSTFULLY ALARMED. I INTRODUCE YOU TO PYOTR PETROVITCH LUZHIN. (RASKOLNIKOV'S SISTER "DOUNIA'S" FIANCE.) PLEASE REMEMBER PYOTR AND RASKOLNIKOV (WHOSE FULL NAME IS, ARE YOU READY? RODION ROMANOVITCH RASKOLNIKOV.) HAVE NEVER MET AND RASKOLNIKOV WAS EXTREMELY UPSET WHEN HE READ THE LETTER FROM HIS MOTHER, STATING "THIS MARRIAGE WILL NOT HAPPEN!" PYOTR PETROVITCH LUZHIN  SHOWS UP AT RASKOLNIKOV'S, WHILE DOCTOR ZOSSIMOV AND RAZUMIHIN ARE THERE.

((( Interesting side note. I told my doctor I was reading Crime And Punishment, he hails from Russia as a young boy, I quote him, "that's like reading in Russian!" I believe that's because the names and so many different ones like example the main characters are extremely hard to keep separate. That was my problem on the first go round, SO, I hope you don't mind for the rest of the book, as my goal and a rather hefty one at that, is two chapters a week, Also I wish to interject my humor thoughts or whatever's in my head between this fantastic writing of Dostoevsky.)))

   Raskolnikov, who had expected something quite different, gazed blankly at Luzhin, making no reply as though he had heard the name for the first time.

   "Is it possible you have received no information about me?" Luzhin asked, somewhat disconnected. (This word disconnected fits him to a tee!)

   Raskolnikov sank languidly   (without interest, IMAGINE THAT!)   back onto the pillow, put both his hands behind his head and gazed at the ceiling. A look of dismay came into Luzhin's face. Zossimov and Razumihin stared at him inquisitively. Luzhin showed unmistakable signs of embarassment.

   "I had presumed that a letter posted ten days ago . . ."

   Razumihin invites him in and explains "Rodya   (Raskolnikov's first name to family and friends, like it's not hard enough already to keep up with names huh!)   has been ill for the last five days and delirious for three. This is his doctor and I am a comrade of Rodya's, like him a former student, and am now nursing him; please go on with your business.

   "Thank you. But I shall not disturb with my presence and conversation?" Luzhin asked of Zossimov

   "N-no," mumbled Zossimov; "you may amuse him."

   "He has been conscious a long time, since this morning," went on Razumihin, whose familiarity seemed so much like good-nature that Luzhin became more cheerful, partly, perhaps, this shabby and impudent person had introduced himself as a student.

   "Your mamma," Luzhin.

   "Hm!" Razumhin cleared his throat loudly. Luzhin looked at him inquiringly.

   "That's all right go on."

   Luzhin shrugged his shoulders. "Your mamma wrote a letter explaining. I assumed you have possession of the tidings; but now to my astonishment . . ."

   "I know, I know!" Raskolnikov cried suddenly with impatient vexation. "So you are the FIANCE? I know, and that's enough!"

   There was no doubt as to Luzhin being offended, this time he said nothing. He made a violent effort to understand what it all meant. There was a moment's silence.

   Meanwhile Raskolnikov began staring at him with marked curiosity, as though he had not had a good look at him yet, he rose from his pillow to stare at him. There was something peculiar in Luzhin's whole appearance, which seemed to justify the title of "fiance" so unceremoniously applied to him. All his clothes were fresh from the tailor's and were all right, except for being too new, and too distinctly appropriate. Even the same new round hat had the same significance. Luzhin treated it too respectfully and held it too carefully in his hands. The exquisite pair of lavender gloves, real Louvian, told the same tale, if only from the fact of him not wearing them, but carrying them in his hand for show. After scanning Mr. Luzhin unceremoniously Raskolnikov sank back on the pillow and stared at the wall as before.

   But Mr. Luzhin hardened his heart and seemed determine to take no notice of their oddities.

   "I feel the greatest regret at finding you in this situation," he begun, breaking the silence with an effort. "If I had been aware of your illness I should of come earlier. But you know what business is. I have a very important legal affair in the Senate, not to mention I am expecting your mamma and sister any minute. I have found a lodging for them on their arrival, near here, in Bakaleyev's house."

   "Razumihin said "a disgusting place--filthy, stinking and of doubtful character, there are all sorts of queer people and a scandalous business. It's cheap, though . . ."

   "I could not,  of course, find out so much about it, for I am a stranger in Petersburg myself, Luzhin replied huffily."However the two rooms are exceedingly clean, and as it is for so short a time . . . I've found a permanent residence and having it done up. I myself am cramped for room living with a friend Andrey Semyonovitch Lebeziatnikov. He told me of the Bakaleyev's house."

   "Lebeziatnikov?" said Raskolnikov, as if recalling something.   (Earlier in the book he helped the drunk Marmeladov home, who lives there.)

   Luzhin "I was his guardian. I like meeting young people: one learns new things from them." He looked around at all.

   "Razumihin "how do you mean?"

   "Luzhin "in the most essential matters," delighted at the question. "You see, it's been ten years since I visited Petersburg. All the reforms, novelties have reached us in the provinces. It's my notion you learn most by watching the younger generation, I confess to being delighted . . ."

   Razumihin "At what?"

   Luzhin "Your question covers much. I fancy clearer views, more, so to say, criticism, more practicality . . ."

   "That's true," Zossimov  let drop.
  
   Razumihin "Nonsense! There's no practicality. Practicality is a difficult thing to find; it does not drop down from heaven. For the last two hundred years we have been divorced from all practical life. We have been fermenting, desire for good exist, though it's in a childish form, and honesty you may find, although there are crowds of brigands. (bandits) There's no practicality."

   Luzhin "I don't agree, of course people do get carried away, one must have indulgence, mistakes are merely evidence of enthusiasm for the cause. It's my personal view, that something has been accomplished already. New valuable works are circulating in the place of our old dreamy, romantic, authors. Literature is taking a maturer form. In a word we have cut ourselves off irrevocably from the past, and to my thinking, that, is a great thing . . ."

   Raskolnikov pronounced suddenly."He's learnt it by heart, to show off!"

   Luzhin not catching his words "what?"

   Zossimov hastened to interpose, "that's all true."

   Luzhin "isn't it so? You must admit that there is progress in the name of science and economic truth . . ." While glancing affably at Zossimov and addressing Razumihin.

   "A commonplace."

   "Luzhin " No, not a commonplace! Until now, if I were told, 'love thy neighbour', what came of it? I tear my coat in half and we're both half naked. Science now tells us, love yourself before all men, for everything in the world lies in self-interest. Manage your own affairs properly and your coat remains whole. Economic truth that the better private affairs are organised, the firmer are its foundation, the better common welfare is organised too. By acquiring wealth for myself I help my neighbour get more than a torn coat, not from private, personal, liberality, but as a consequence of the general advance. The idea is simple, unhappily it has been a long time reaching us, hindered by idealism and sentimentality. It takes little wit to perceive it . . ."


   Razumihin " I have very little wit myself, and so let's drop it. I began this discussion with an object, but I've grown sick during the last three years of this chattering to amuse oneself, of this incessant flow of commonplaces, always the same, that, I blush even when other people talk like that. You are in a hurry to exhibit your acquirement's; and I don't blame you, that's quite pardonable. I only wanted to find out what kind of man you are, for so many unscrupulous ones have got hold of the progressive cause of late and have distorted in their own interest, everything they touched, that the whole cause in the mire. That's enough!"
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(((Wow! Sounds like Razumihin, or just, Raz, as I think to myself, has had enough of this here Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin huh?)) (Sorry I had to chime in on that! I love Raz don't you?)
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YOU KNOW I TRIED TO KEEP THIS LITTLE EXPERIMENTAL ENDEAVOR INTO MADNESS  AT, A PROPER LEVEL!   HELL, I DON'T KNOW PROPER!   IF I'M TO GET THROUGH THIS ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT BOOK, I HAVE TO DO IT MY WAY! WHAT IS MY WAY? FUN AND INTERJECTING, INTERPOSING, JUXTAPOSING, JUST-SUPPOSING, MY THOUGHTS BEYOND WHAT I'M TRYING TO UNDERSTAND. SO, IF I HAVE CONFUSED YOU MORE . . . WELCOME TO GLENVIEW! MY HOME AWAY FROM THE MADDENING DAY AT THE OFFICE! ARE WE HAVING FUN YET? I AM!!!  AS A CRAZY MAN ONCE SAID, "WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE!" (He was spooky, painted his face, carried a snake across his shoulders?) THINK OF THIS AS INTERMISSION!
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   "Excuse me, sir" said Luzhin, offended, and speaking with excessive dignity. "Do you mean to suggest that I too . . ."

  "Oh my dear sir . . . how could I? . . . Come, that's enough," Razumihin concluded, and he turned abruptly to Zossimov to continue their previous conversation.

   Luzhin had the good sense to accept the disapproval of his words. Turning to Raskolnikov, "May you recover and in view of the circumstances of which you are aware, become closer. . . . Above all, I hope for your return to health . . ."

   Raskolnikov did not even turn his head as Luzhin got up.

TALK RETURNS TO THE MURDERS.

   Zossimov "One of her customers must have killed her."

   Razumihin "Not a doubt of it, Porfiry Petrovitch (head of the Investigative Department) doesn't give his opinion, but is examining all who have pledges with her there."

   "Examining them?" Raskolnikov asked aloud.

   Zossimov "It must have been a cunning and practised ruffian! The boldness of it! The coolness!"

   Razumihin "That's just what it wasn't, that's what throws you all off the scent. I maintain it was probably his first crime! It was only a chance that saved him. He took jewels worth ten or twenty roubles and they found fifteen thousand roubles, in a box in the top drawer of the chest! I assure you it was his first crime and he got out by luck!"

   Luzhin "Are you talking of the old pawnbroker murder?" Addressing Zossimov. He was standing hat and gloves still in his hand. Before departing he was anxious to make a favourable impression, his vanity overcome his prudence."

   "Yes you've heard of it?"

   Luzhin "Yes in the neighbourhood. Circumstances of the case interest me, crime is greatly on the increase. How are we to explain this demoralisation of the civilised part of our society? Morality and principles . . ."

   Raskolnikov speaks up suddenly. "Why do you worry about it. It's in accordance with your theory!"

   Luzhin "In accordance with my theory?"

   Raskolnikov "Why, carry out logically the theory you were advocating just now, and it follows that people may be killed . . ."

   Luzhin "Upon my word!

   Zossimov "No that's not so,"

   Raskolnikov lay with a white face and twitching upper lip, breathing painfully.

   Luzhin "There's a measure in all things. Economic ideas are not an incitement to murder , and one has but to suppose . . ."

   "And is it true," Raskolnikov interposed once more suddenly, in a voice quivering with fury and delight in insulting him, "is it true you told your fiance . . . within an hour of her acceptance, that what pleased you most . . . was that she was a beggar . . . because it was better to raise a wife from poverty, so that you may have complete control over her, and reproach her with your being her benefactor?"

   "Upon my word!" Luzhin cried wrathfully and irritably, crimson with confusion, "to distort my words this way? I suspect your momma with all her excellent qualities, of a somewhat high-flown and romantic way of thinking. . . . I never thought she would misunderstand and misrepresent things so indeed . . ."

   "I tell you what." cried Raskolnikov, fixing his piercing, glittering eyes upon him, 'I tell you what,"

   "What?" Luzhin stood still, waiting with a defiant and offended face. Silence lasted for some seconds.

   Raskolnikov "Why, if you ever again . . . you dare to mention a single word . . . about my mother . . . I shall send you flying downstairs!"

   Razumihin "What's the matter with you?"

   "So that's how it is?" Luzhin turned pale and bit his lip. "Let me tell you sir," he began deliberately, doing his utmost to restrain himself, but breathing hard, "at the first moment I saw you were ill-disposed to me, but I remained here on purpose to find out more. I could forgive a great deal in a sick man and a connection, but you . . . never after this . . ."

   "I am not ill," cried Raskolnikov.

   Luzhin "so much the worse . . . "

   Raskolnikov "go to hell!" Luzhin left without finishing his speech.

   "How could you--how could you!" Razumihin said, shaking his head in perplexity.

   "Leave me alone, all of you!" Raskolnikov cried in a frenzy. "Will you ever leave off tormenting me? I want to be alone, alone, alone!"

    "Come along," said Zossimov, nodding to Razumihin.

   "But we can't leave him like this!"

   "Come along," Zossimov repeated insistently, and he went out. Razumihin thought a minute and ran out to overtake him.

   "It might be worse not to obey him," said Zossimov on the stairs. He mustn't be irritated."

   "What's the matter with him?"

   "If only he could get some favourable shock, that's what would do it! At first he was better. . . .You know he has got something on his mind! Some fixed idea weighing on him . . . .I'm very much afraid so; he must have!
  
   "Perhaps it's that gentleman, Luzhin. From his conversation I gather he is going to marry his sister, and that he had received a letter about it just before his illness. . . ."

   "Yes, confound the man! He may have upset the case altogether. But have you noticed, he takes no interest in anything, he does not respond to anything, except one point on which he seems excited--that's the murder?"

   "Yes, yes,"Razumihin agreed, I noticed that, too. He is interested, frightened. It gave him a shock on the day he was ill in the police office; he fainted."

   "Tell me more about that, this evening and I'll tell you something afterwards. He interest me very much! In half an hour I'll go see him again. . . . There'll be no inflammation though."

   "Thanks! I'll wait with Pashenka (the landlady) and will keep watch on him through Nastasya. . . ." (the servant)

   Raskolnikov left alone, looked with impatience and misery at Nastasya, but she still lingered.

   "Won't you have some tea now?" she asked.

   "Later! I am sleepy! Leave me ."

   He turned abruptly to the wall; Nastasya went out.