Nikolai Gogol

“ Do they not presage that one day, when again you shall have room for their exploits, there will spring to life the heroes of old? How the power of your immensity enfolds me, and reverberates through all my being with a wild, strange spell, and flashes in my eyes with an almost supernatural radiance! Yes, a strange, brilliant, unearthly vista indeed do you disclose, O Russia, country of mine!
"Stop, stop, you fool!" shouted Chichikov to Selifan; and even as he spoke a troika, bound on Government business, came chattering by, and disappeared in a cloud of dust. ”

“ How great was Kovaloff's terror and astonishment when he saw that it was his own nose!
At this extraordinary sight, everything seemed to turn round with him. He felt as though he could hardly keep upright on his legs; but, though trembling all over as though with fever, he resolved to wait till the nose should return to the carriage. After about two minutes the nose actually came out again. It wore a gold-embroidered uniform with a stiff, high collar, trousers of chamois leather, and a sword hung at its side. The hat, adorned with a plume, showed that it held the rank of a state-councillor. ”

“ You have talent: talent is the most priceless of God's gifts--destroy it not. Search out, subject all things to your brush; but in all see that you find the hidden soul, and most of all, strive to attain to the grand secret of creation. Blessed is the elect one who masters that! There is for him no mean object in nature. In lowly themes the artist creator is as great as in great ones: in the despicable there is nothing for him to despise, for it passes through the purifying fire of his mind. ”

“ Or, should you feel a yearning to leave behind you posterity, take in marriage a good woman who shall bring you, not money, but an aptitude for simple, modest domestic life. But this life--the life of turmoil, with its longings and its temptations--forget, and let it forget YOU; for there is no peace in it. See for yourself how, at every step, it brings one but hatred and treachery and deceit."
"Indeed, yes!" agreed the repentant Chichikov. "Gladly will I do as you wish, since for many a day past have I been longing to amend my life, and to engage in husbandry, and to reorder my affairs. ”

“ All at once he heard some one behind him say, in a distinct voice, “Afanasii Ivanovich.” He turned round, but there was no one there. He looked on all sides: he peered into the shrubbery—no one anywhere. The day was calm, and the sun shone clear. He pondered for a moment. His face lighted up; and at length he exclaimed, “It is Pulcheria Ivanovna calling me!”
It has doubtless happened to you, at some time or other, to hear a voice calling you by name, which the peasants explain by saying that a man’s spirit is longing for him, and calls him, and that death inevitably follows. ”

“ Scene I GOVERNOR. Well, Anna Andreyevna—eh ? Had you any idea of that, now ? There's a prize, if you like ! Now, confess it candidly—you never dreamt of such a thing ! You were a simple town-governor's wife, and now see who you've hooked for a son-in-law—a devil of a swell, confound you !
ANNA. Not at all—I knew it ages ago. It's you that's taken by surprise ; you're only a commonplace person, and have never met people of quality !
GOVERNOR. Why, madam, I'm one of the quality myself! . . . Just think, though, Anna Andryevna, what a fine pair of birds we've become—eh ? Anna Andreyevna ! ”

“ IS he not a most engaging and dignified personage?" added Manilov.
"He is all that," assented Chichikov. "Indeed, he is a man worthy of the greatest respect. And how thoroughly he performs his duty according to his lights! Would that we had more like him!"
"And the tactfulness with which he greets every one!" added Manilov, smiling, and half-closing his eyes, like a cat which is being tickled behind the ears.
"Quite so," assented Chichikov. "He is a man of the most eminent civility and approachableness. And what an artist! ”

“ Indeed, WHERE is the man who can cry aloud for any of us, in the Russian tongue dear to our soul, the all-compelling command "Forward!"? Who is there who, knowing the strength and the nature and the inmost depths of the Russian genius, can by a single magic incantation divert our ideals to the higher life? Were there such a man, with what tears, with what affection, would not the grateful sons of Russia repay him! Yet age succeeds to age, and our callow youth still lies wrapped in shameful sloth, or strives and struggles to no purpose. God has not yet given us the man able to sound the call. ”

“ Petro stood petrified, without moving from the spot, when the innocent child lisped out Pidorka's words to him. "And I, unhappy man, thought to go to the Crimea and Turkey, win gold and return to thee, my beauty! But it may not be. The evil eye has seen us. I will have a wedding, too, dear little fish, I too; but no ecclesiastics will be at that wedding. The black crow will caw, instead of the pope, over me; the smooth field will be my dwelling; the dark blue clouds my roof-tree. The eagle will claw out my brown eyes: the rain will wash the Cossack's bones, and the whirlwinds will dry them. ”

“ It cannot be, it shall not be!" said Andríi, "that the best and most beautiful of women should suffer so bitter a fate, when she was born that all the best there is in the world should bow before her as before a Saint. No, you shall not die! I swear it by my birth, and by all I hold dear in the world, you shall not die. But if it must indeed be so; if nothing, neither strength, nor prayer, nor heroism will avail to avert that cruel fate,—then we will die together, and I will die first. I will die before you, at your beauteous knees, and even in death they shall not part us." ”

“ At last a door was thrown open before him: and he was confronted with a study, with portfolios, shelves and books, and the prince, the embodiment of anger.
'The author of my ruin!' thought Tchitchikov, 'he'll be the ruin of my life,' and he almost fell fainting: 'he will slay me as a wolf slays a lamb!'
'I spared you, I allowed you to stay in the town when you ought to have been in prison, and you have disgraced yourself again with the foulest dishonesty with which a man has ever disgraced himself.' The prince's lips trembled with anger. ”

“ The booty was eagerly caught in the sacks of the young people. In one place, the lads formed a ring to surround a group of maidens; nothing was heard but shouts and screams; one was throwing a snow-ball, another was endeavouring to get hold of a sack crammed with Christmas donations. In another place, the girls caught hold of some youth, or put something in his way, and down he fell with his sack. It seemed as if the whole of the night would pass away in these festivities. And the night, as if on purpose, shone so brilliantly; the gleam of the snow made the beams of the moon still whiter. ”

“ But don't worry, Hanna! I give you my word as a Cossack, I will break his obstinacy."
"You only need to say a word, Levko, and it shall be as you wish. I know that of myself. Often I do not wish to obey you, but you speak only a word, and I involuntarily do what you wish. Look, look!" she continued, laying her head on his shoulder and raising her eyes to the sky, the immeasurable heaven of the Ukraine; "there far away are twinkling little stars—one, two, three, four, five. Is it not true that those are angels opening the windows of their bright little homes and looking down on us. ”

“ Still more surprised was he to find the portrait uncovered, and with actually no sheet over it. Motionless with terror, he gazed at it, and perceived that the living, human eyes were fastened upon him. A cold perspiration broke out upon his forehead. He wanted to move away, but felt that his feet had in some way become rooted to the earth. And he felt that this was not a dream. The old man's features moved, and his lips began to project towards him, as though he wanted to suck him in. ”

“ Chichikov beat his head against the wall and struck the table with his fist until the blood spurted from his hand. Yet neither his head nor his hand seemed to be conscious of the least pain.
"Calm yourself, Paul Ivanovitch," said Murazov. "Calm yourself, and consider how best you can make your peace with God. Think of your miserable soul, and not of the judgment of man."
"I will, Athanasi Vassilievitch, I will. But what a fate is mine! Did ever such a fate befall a man? To think of all the patience with which I have gathered my kopecks, of all the toil and trouble which I have endured! ”

“ One must start from the beginning and not from the middle. If any one were to say to me: "Give me a hundred thousand and I'll get rich directly," I shouldn't believe him: he is counting on luck and not on a certainty. One must begin with a farthing.'
'In that case I shall get rich,' said Tchitchikov, 'because I am beginning almost, so to say, from nothing.' He meant, of course, his dead souls.
'Konstantin, it is time for Pavel Ivanovitch to rest and sleep,' said his wife, 'and you keep chattering.'
'And you will certainly get rich,' said Skudronzhoglo, not heeding his wife. ”

“ Come, send all thinking to the Devil on the spot! Take your pipes in your lips, and we'll smoke, and spur on our horses, and fly so swiftly that no bird can overtake us."
And the kazáks, bending low over their horses, disappeared in the grass. Their black caps were no longer visible; a wake of trodden grass alone showed a trace of their swift flight.
The sun had long since peered forth from the clear heavens and inundated the steppe with his vitalising, warming light. All that was dim and sleepy in the minds of the kazáks fled away in a twinkling; their hearts fluttered like birds. ”

“ Nor are you driven by a coachman clothed in German livery, but by a man bearded and mittened. See him as he mounts, and flourishes his whip, and breaks into a long-drawn song! Away like the wind go the horses, and the wheels, with their spokes, become transparent circles, and the road seems to quiver beneath them, and a pedestrian, with a cry of astonishment, halts to watch the vehicle as it flies, flies, flies on its way until it becomes lost on the ultimate horizon--a speck amid a cloud of dust!
And you, Russia of mine--are not you also speeding like a troika which nought can overtake? ”

“ Patzuck, without saying a word, ate up all that remained on the dish. "Please, good man, do not refuse me!" urged the blacksmith. "And if there be any want of pork, or sausages, or buckwheat, or even linen or millet, or anything else—why, we know how honest folk manage these things. I shall not be stingy. Only do tell me, if it be only by a hint, how to find the way to the devil."
"He who has got the devil on his back has no great way to go to him," said Patzuck quietly, without changing his position.
Vakoola fixed his eyes upon him as if searching for the meaning of these words on his face. ”

“ He gazed stupidly at it; and meanwhile there floated before his mind's eye those delicate features, those shades, and airy tints which he had copied, and which his brush had annihilated. Engrossed with them, he put the portrait on one side and hunted up a head of Psyche which he had some time before thrown on canvas in a sketchy manner. It was a pretty little face, well painted, but entirely ideal, and having cold, regular features not lit up by life. For lack of occupation, he now began to tone it up, imparting to it all he had taken note of in his aristocratic sitter. ”

“ After she had spoken, a stormy wind arose in the church, and there was a noise like the rushing of many birds. He heard the noise of their wings and claws as they flapped against and scratched at the iron bars of the church windows. There were also violent blows on the church door, as if someone were trying to break it in pieces.
The philosopher's heart beat violently; he did not dare to look up, but continued to read the prayers without a pause. At last there was heard in the distance the shrill sound of a cock's crow. The exhausted philosopher stopped and gave a great sigh of relief. ”

“ I had rather eat only two dishes, and eat my fill of them.' Sobakevitch confirmed this in practice; he put half a saddle of mutton on his plate, and ate it all, gnawing and sucking every little bone.
'Yes,' thought Tchitchikov, 'the man knows what's what.'
'It's not like that in my house,' said Sobakevitch, wiping his fingers on a dinner napkin, 'I don't do things like a Plyushkin: he has eight hundred souls and he dines and sups worse than any shepherd.'
'Who is this Plyushkin?' inquired Tchitchikov.
'A scoundrel,' answered Sobakevitch. 'You can't fancy what a miser he is. ”

“ Quietly he sank into the arms of the kazáks who grasped him, and his young blood flowed in a stream, like precious wine brought from the cellar in a glass vessel by careless servants who, stumbling at the entrance, break the rich flask: the wine pours over the ground, and the master, hastening up, tears his hair, having reserved it for the best occasion of his life, in order that, if God should grant him, in his old age, to meet again the comrade of his youth, they might recall together days gone by, when men revelled otherwise and better than now. ”

“ Thus speaking, the artist suddenly shuddered, and turned pale. A convulsively distorted face gazed at him, peeping forth from the surrounding canvas; two terrible eyes were fixed straight upon him; on the mouth was written a menacing command of silence. Alarmed, he tried to scream and summon Nikita, who already was snoring in the ante-room; but he suddenly paused and laughed. The sensation of fear died away in a moment; it was the portrait he had bought, and which he had quite forgotten. The light of the moon illuminating the chamber had fallen upon it, and lent it a strange likeness to life. ”

“ Is it not here there should be giants where there is space for them to develop and move freely. And thy mighty expanse enfolds me menacingly, with fearful force reflected in the depths of me; with supernatural power light dawns upon my eyes. ... Ah, marvellous, radiant horizons of which the earth knows nothing! Russia!
'Steady, steady, you fool!' Tchitchikov shouted to Selifan.
'I'll hang you,' shouted a courier with moustaches a yard long, who was galloping towards them. 'Don't you see a government carriage, the devil flay your soul?' and the troika vanished amid dust and rattle. ”

“ Now—to the Faith, sir brothers, to the Faith!"
"To the Faith!" shouted, with thick voices, those who were standing in the near-by ranks. "To the Faith!" those more distant took up the cry,—and all, both young and old, drank to the Faith.
"To the Syech!" said Taras, raising his hand high above his head.
"To the Syech!" echoed the foremost ranks. "To the Syech!" said the old men softly, twitching their grey moustaches; and eagerly as young hawks the youths repeated: "To the Syech!" And the distant plain heard how the kazáks commemorated their Syech. ”

“ Here,' said Tchitchikov, 'here is where ...'—he laid his hand on his heart—'Yes, here the delightful time I have spent with you will be treasured! And, believe me, there could be no greater bliss than to live for ever, if not in the same house, at least in the near neighbourhood.'
'And you know, Pavel Ivanovitch,' said Manilov, who was highly delighted by this idea, 'how nice it would be really, if we could live like this together, under one roof, or in the shade of some elm-tree, discuss philosophy, go deeply into things! ”

“ I know what your duty is, and what your Faith. Your father, your comrades, your fatherland call you,—and we are your enemies."
"And what are my father, my comrades, my fatherland to me?" said Andríi, shaking his head with a quick movement, and straightening up his young figure like a poplar beside the river. "Be that as it may, I have no one, no one, no one!" he repeated with the same voice and movement of the hand wherewith the buoyant, irrepressible kazák expresses his determination to do some unheard-of deed, impossible to any other man. "Who has said that my fatherland is the Ukraina? ”

“ The moon had risen and had begun to light up the darkness; and at last everything was bathed in light—the lake and the huts; the light of the fires was paler; the smoke from the chimneys could be seen silvery in the moonlight. Alexasha and Nikolasha flew by them, racing after each other on spirited horses; they raised as much dust as a flock of sheep.
'Oh, I really will have an estate of my own one day!' thought Tchitchikov. ”

“ The work before us is great in labour, and in glory for the kazáks! Let us, therefore, comrades, drink all together,—let us drink, before all else, to the Holy Orthodox Faith, that the day may come, at last, when it may be spread over all the world, and that everywhere there may be but one Faith, and that all Mussulmans may become Christians! And let us drink also, all together, to the Syech, that it may stand long for the destruction of the Mussulmans, that each year there may issue forth from it young men, each better, each handsomer, than the other. ”

“ But all the same I have not taken a virtuous man for my hero. And I may even say why I have not. Because it is high time at last to let the poor virtuous man rest; because the phrase 'virtuous man' is too often taken in vain; because they have made a regular hack of the virtuous man and there is not a writer who has not ridden him to death, lashing him on with whip or anything that comes to hand; because they have so overdone the virtuous man that there is not a shadow of virtue left about him, and he is nothing but skin and bone; because it is through hypocrisy they invoke the virtuous man ”

“ The inmates of the barracks swarmed out upon the square, and smashed in one another's ribs with their fists until one side finally prevailed and gained the upper hand, when the revelry began. Such was the Syech, which had such an attraction for young men.
Ostap and Andríi flung themselves into this sea of dissipation with all the ardour of youth, and forgot, in a twinkling, their father's house, the seminary, and everything which had hitherto perturbed their souls, and gave themselves up to their new life. ”

“ The tailor himself came from Petersburg and had put up on his sign-board: "Foreign tailor from London and Paris." He was not fond of doing things by halves, and wanted to ram both cities at once down the throats of other tailors, so that for the future no one should display those names, but might simply write themselves down as coming from some paltry 'Carlsruhe' or 'Copenhagen.'
Tchitchikov paid the tailor with magnanimous liberality, and left alone, began scrutinising himself at his leisure in the looking-glass with the eye of an artist, with aesthetic emotion and con amore. ”

“ Before the Cornet managed to seize the atamán's head by its scalp-lock and fasten it to his saddle, a savage avenger arrived.
As a vulture hovering in the sky, beating great circles with its mighty wings, suddenly remains poised in air, in one spot, and thence darts down like an arrow upon the shrieking cock quail beside the road; just so did Taras's son Ostap fly suddenly upon the kazák, and fling a rope about his neck with one cast. The Cornet's red face grew a still deeper crimson when the cruel noose pressed his throat, and he tried to seize his pistol ”

“ So when a hare, startled by the beaters, darts out of the forest, the sportsman with his horse and his riding whip is suddenly like powder waiting for the match to be applied. He gazes into the murky air and is already with faultless aim striking at the beast, has already slain it, however the whirling snowy steppe may rise up against him, scattering silvery stars on his lips, his moustache, his eyes, his brows, and on his beaver cap.
'The dead souls ...' pronounced the lady agreeable in all respects.
'Well, well!' cried her visitor, all excitement. ”

“ Tchitchikov went splash on his hands and knees into the mud. Selifan stopped the horses, however; though they would have stopped of themselves for they were exhausted. This unforeseen mishap completely bewildered him. Clambering off the box he stood facing the chaise with his arms akimbo, while his master was floundering in the mud, trying to scramble out of it, and said after some pondering: 'Well, I never did! it has upset, too!'
'You are as drunk as a cobbler!' said Tchitchikov.
'No, master, how could I be drunk! I know that it is not the right thing to be drunk. ”

“ Old age is before you, threatening and terrible, and it will give you nothing back again! The grave is more merciful; on the tomb is written: 'Here lies a man,' but you can read nothing on the frigid, callous features of old age.
'And do you know any one among your friends,' said Plyushkin as he folded up the letter, 'who is in want of runaway souls?'
'Why, have you runaway ones too?' asked Tchitchikov, quickly pricking up his ears. ”

“ Go. We have already diverted ourselves sufficiently here. The Lyakhs know what the kazáks are like. We have avenged our Faith to the extent of our powers; there's not much to satisfy greed in this famished city. And so my advice is: Go."
"Go!" rang heavily through the Zaporozhian kuréns. But such words did not suit Taras Bulba's mood at all; and he brought his frowning, iron-grey brows still lower down over his eyes, like bushes growing on a dark, lofty mountain, whose crests are suddenly covered with prickly northern frost.
"No, Koshevói, your counsel is not good," said he. ”

“ But enough, enough! Why talk of this? Why is it that even in moments of unthinking careless gaiety a different and strange mood suddenly comes upon one? The smile has scarcely faded from the lips when, even among the same people, one is suddenly another man and already the face shines with a different light.
'Here is the chaise! Here is the chaise!' cried Tchitchikov, seeing his chaise drive up at last. 'Why have you been dawdling about so long, stupid? I suppose the drink you had yesterday has not quite gone off?'
Selifan made no answer to this.
'Good-bye, ma'am! ”

“ If I should succeed beyond my expectation, Pavel Ivanovitch, I beg of you a favour in return for my trouble; abandon all these crooked means of making gain. I tell you on my honour that if I were deprived of all my property—and I have more than you—I should not weep. Aie, aie, it is not those possessions which can be confiscated that matter, but those which no one can steal or take away from us! You have lived in the world long enough. You yourself call your life a ship tossing in the waves. You have already enough to last you for the rest of your days. ”

“ But youth has a future before it. As the time of leaving school drew nearer his heart began to throb. He said to himself: 'This is not life of course, but only a preparation for life, real life is to be found in the service, there are great things to be done there.' And like all ambitious youths he went to Petersburg, to which, as we all know, our ardent young men flock from all parts of Russia—to enter the service, to distinguish themselves, to gain promotion or simply to gather a smattering of our sham, colourless, icy cold 'society' education. ”

“ Tchitchikov was actually a little embarrassed on hearing that it had already come to festivals of the heart, and answered modestly that he had no great name nor distinguished rank.
'You have everything,' Manilov pronounced with the same agreeable smile, you have everything: more, indeed.'
'What do you think of our town?' inquired Madame Manilov. 'Have you passed your time there pleasantly?'
'A very nice town, a fine town,' replied Tchitchikov, 'and I have spent a most agreeable time: the society is most amiable.'
'And what did you think of our governor?' said Madame Manilov. ”

“ For the contemporary critic does not recognise that the telescope through which we behold the sun and the microscope which unfolds to us the movements of unnoticed insects are equally marvellous. For the contemporary critic does not recognise that great spiritual depth is needed to light up a picture of ignoble life and transform it into a gem of creative art. For the contemporary critic does not admit that the laughter of lofty delight is worthy to stand beside exalted lyrical emotion, and that there is all the world of difference between it and the antics of clowns at a fair! ”

“ Tchitchikov had never felt so merry, he imagined himself already a genuine Kherson landowner, talked of various improvements he meant to make, of the three-field system of cropping, of the bliss and happiness of two kindred souls, and began repeating to Sobakevitch Werther's letter in verse to Charlotte, on which the latter merely blinked as he sat in an armchair, for after the sturgeon he felt a great inclination for sleep. Tchitchikov perceived himself that he had begun to be a little too expansive: he asked for his carriage, and accepted the offer of the prosecutor's racing droshky. ”

“ Alexandr Petrovitch had the gift of divining the nature of the Russian, and knew in what language to speak to him. No boy ever left his presence downcast; on the contrary, even after the sternest reprimand he felt buoyed up and eager to efface his nasty or mischievous action. The mass of his pupils were on the surface so full of mischief, so lively and free and easy in their manners, that one might have taken them for a disorderly gang under no control, but one would have been mistaken; the authority of one man was too powerful in that gang. ”