The Adolescent

48. Nikolai Semyonovich is referring to Chapter Three, stanzas XIII–XIV, of Evgeny Onegin, where Pushkin says he may cease to be a poet and “descend to humble prose” in order to describe the “traditions of a Russian family, / love’s captivating dreams, / and manners of our ancientry,” and so on (Nabokov translation). Pushkin already speaks with a hint of irony here of the kind of novel that Nikolai Semyonovich advocates, and that Leo Tolstoy would go on to write. Dostoevsky was, of course, writing precisely the opposite kind of novel, and therefore appreciates Pushkin’s irony, which escapes both Tolstoy and Nikolai Semyonovich.

49. The radical socialist communards seized control of Paris following the insurrection of March 18, 1871, when the Prussians lifted their siege of the city after the defeat of France. They were overthrown in May of the same year.

50. Mother Mitrofania (Baroness Praskovya Grigoryevna Rosen in the world), the superior of a convent in Serpukhov, was convicted of passing counterfeit promissory notes for enormous sums and of forging a will, and sentenced to three years of exile in Siberia. According to the memoirs of Dostoevsky’s friend, the lawyer A. F. Koni, she was a woman of great intelligence and of a strongly masculine and practical character. Her trial caused a sensation in Petersburg.

ENDNOTES

1 “Organic collectivity” here is a translation of the nearly untranslatable Russian word sobornost, meaning a free, inner, organic “unity in multiplicity.” It is a central term in Russian religious philosophy, which drew much inspiration from Dostoevsky. A profound exploration of the meaning of sobornost, and one extremely pertinent to The Adolescent, is to be found in The Spiritual Foundations of Society, by the Russian philosopher Semyon Frank, translated by Boris Jakim (Ohio University Press, 1987).

2 Dostoevsky’s title in Russian is Podrostok, which means “adolescent.” Constance Garnett altered it to A Raw Youth in her translation, and that title has also been used most often in English critical writings on the novel.

3 See note to p. viii.

4 My poor boy!

5 Well!

6 Isn’t it so?

7 Eh, but . . . I’m the one who knows women.

8 They are charming.

9 I know everything, but I don’t know anything worthwhile.

10 But what an idea!

11 Dear boy, I love God . . .

12 It was stupid.

13 ;A residence.

14 There’s another one!

15 Unknown.

16 This infamous story!

17 What is not cured by medicines, will be cured by iron; what is not cured by iron, will be cured by fire.

18 The strictly necessary.

19 Hate in love.

20 Throughout the world and other places.

21 All genres . . .

22 We always come back.

23 You understand.

24 Say, my friend.

25 Spelling it all out.

26 When you speak of a rope [in the hanged man’s house].

27 This little spy.

28 Monstrous.

29 You’ll sleep like a little king.

30 On the way out.

31 But . . . that’s charming!

32 Well, finally . . . finally let’s give thanks . . . and I bless you!

33 Bad tone.

34 What the devil!

35 One fine morning.

36 Pawn shop.

37 Let’s break it off there, my dear.

38 That goes without saying.

39 Distortion of French renseignée, “informed.”

40 It’s comical, but that’s what we’re going to do.

41 But let’s drop that.

42 That depends, my dear!

43 For your pretty eyes, my cousin!

44 Be it said between us.

45 Very proper.

46 The poetry in life.

47 What a charming person, eh? The songs of Solomon . . . no, it’s not Solomon, it’s David who put a young girl in his bed to warm him in his old age. Anyhow, David, Solomon . . .

48 That young beauty of David’s old age—it’s a whole poem.

49; Warming-pan scene.

50 But follow your mother, then [ . . . ] He has no heart, this child.

51 Furnished rooms.

52 Here!

53 Poor boy!

54 You understand, my girl? You have money . . .

55 But you haven’t slept at all, Maurice!

56 Shut up, I’ll sleep afterwards.

57; Saved!

58 Never was a man so cruel, so Bismarck, as this being, who looks at a woman as a chance bit of filth. A woman, what is she in our epoch? “Kill her!”—that’s the last word of the Académie Française.