Fyodor Dostoevsky

The date Nov.11-th marks the birthday of great Russian authuor,sage and champion of the oppressed - Fyodor Dostoevsky. The above picture of Dostoevsky is depicted in a new sub-way station opened recently in Moscow - named 'Dostoevskaya Metro'.

Excerpts from Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot : [ The scene of first-meeting between the hero of the story Prince 'Idiot' Myshkin and heroine Nastasya Filippovna.]

CHAPTER IX

Nastasya Filippovna looked at Myshkin with astonishment.

"Prince? He is a prince? Only fancy, I took him for the footman just now and sent him in to announce me! Ha,ha,ha !"

"No harm done- no harm done", put in Ferdyshtchenko, going up to her quickly, relieved that all had begun to laugh. "No harm: se non e vero. . ."

"And I was almost swearing at you, prince! Forgive me, please. Ferdyshtchenko, how do you come to be here at such an hour ? I did not expect to meet you here, anyway. Who ? What prince ? Myshkin ?" she questioned Ganya, who , still holding Myshkin by the shoulder, had by now introduced him.

"Our boarder", repeated Ganya.

It was obvious that they presented him and almost thrust him upon Nastasya Filippovna as a curiosity, as a means of escape from a false position. Myshkin distinctly caught the word 'idiot' pronounced behind his back, probably by Ferdyshtchenko, as though in explanation to Nastasya Filippovna.

"Tell me, why didn't you undeceive me just now when I made such a dreadful mistake about you ? Nastasya Filippovna went on , scanning Myshkin from head to foot in a most unceremonious fashion.

She waited with impatience for an answer, as though she were the answer would be so stupid as to make them laugh.

"I was surprised at seeing you so suddenly " Myshkin muttered.

"And how did you know it was I ? Where have you seen me before ? But how is it ? Really, it seems as though I had seen him somewhere. And tell me why were you so astonished just now ? What is there so amazing about me ?"

"Come now, come," Ferdyshtchenko went on, simpering. "Come now! Oh Lord, the things I would say in answer to such a question! Come!... We shall think you are a duffer next, prince!"

"I should say them too in your place", said Myshkin, laughing, to Ferdyshtchenko."I was very much struck to-day by your portrait", he went on, adressing Nastasya Filippovna. " Then I talked to the Epanchins about you; and early this morning in the train, before I reached Petersberg, Parfyon Rogozin told me a great deal about you....And the very minute I opened the door to you, I was thinking about you too, and then suddenly you appeared".

"And how did you recognise that it was I ?"

"From the photograph, and..."

"And what ?"

"And you were just as I had imagined you....I feel as though I had seen you somewhere too".

"Where - where ?"

"I feel as though I had seen your eyes somewhere ...but that's impossible. That's nonsense....

I've never been here before. Perhaps in a dream...."

"Bravo prince!" cried Ferdyshtchenko. "Yes, I take back my 'se non e vero'. But it's all his innocence", he added regretfully.

Myshkin had uttered his few sentences in an uneasy voice, often stopping to take breath. Everything about him suggested strong emotion. Nastasya Filippovna looked at him with interest, but she was not laughing now.