The Brothers Karamazov | Page 2

received it, so that those thousands
were lost to her forever. The little village and the rather fine town
house which formed part of her dowry he did his utmost for a long time
to transfer to his name, by means of some deed of conveyance. He
would probably have succeeded, merely from her moral fatigue and
desire to get rid of him, and from the contempt and loathing he aroused
by his persistent and shameless importunity. But, fortunately, Adelaida
Ivanovna's family intervened and circumvented his greediness. It is
known for a fact that frequent fights took place between the husband
and wife, but rumour had it that Fyodor Pavlovitch did not beat his wife
but was beaten by her, for she was a hot-tempered, bold, dark-browed,
impatient woman, possessed of remarkable physical strength. Finally,
she left the house and ran away from Fyodor Pavlovitch with a destitute
divinity student, leaving Mitya, a child of three years old, in her
husband's hands. Immediately Fyodor Pavlovitch introduced a regular
harem into the house, and abandoned himself to orgies of drunkenness.
In the intervals he used to drive all over the province, complaining
tearfully to each and all of Adelaida Ivanovna's having left him, going

into details too disgraceful for a husband to mention in regard to his
own married life. What seemed to gratify him and flatter his self-love
most was to play the ridiculous part of the injured husband, and to
parade his woes with embellishments.
"One would think that you'd got a promotion, Fyodor Pavlovitch, you
seem so pleased in spite of your sorrow," scoffers said to him. Many
even added that he was glad of a new comic part in which to play the
buffoon, and that it was simply to make it funnier that he pretended to
be unaware of his ludicrous position. But, who knows, it may have
been simplicity. At last he succeeded in getting on the track of his
runaway wife. The poor woman turned out to be in Petersburg, where
she had gone with her divinity student, and where she had thrown
herself into a life of complete emancipation. Fyodor Pavlovitch at once
began bustling about, making preparations to go to Petersburg, with
what object he could not himself have said. He would perhaps have
really gone; but having determined to do so he felt at once entitled to
fortify himself for the journey by another bout of reckless drinking.
And just at that time his wife's family received the news of her death in
Petersburg. She had died quite suddenly in a garret, according to one
story, of typhus, or as another version had it, of starvation. Fyodor
Pavlovitch was drunk when he heard of his wife's death, and the story
is that he ran out into the street and began shouting with joy, raising his
hands to Heaven: "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,"
but others say he wept without restraint like a little child, so much so
that people were sorry for him, in spite of the repulsion he inspired. It is
quite possible that both versions were true, that he rejoiced at his
release, and at the same time wept for her who released him. As a
general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naive and
simple-hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are, too.

Chapter 2
He Gets Rid of His Eldest Son

YOU can easily imagine what a father such a man could be and how he
would bring up his children. His behaviour as a father was exactly what
might be expected. He completely abandoned the child of his marriage
with Adelaida Ivanovna, not from malice, nor because of his
matrimonial grievances, but simply because he forgot him. While he
was wearying everyone with his tears and complaints, and turning his
house into a sink of debauchery, a faithful servant of the family,
Grigory, took the three-year old Mitya into his care. If he hadn't looked
after him there would have been no one even to change the baby's little
shirt.
It happened moreover that the child's relations on his mother's side
forgot him too at first. His grandfather was no longer living, his widow,
Mitya's grandmother, had moved to Moscow, and was seriously ill,
while his daughters were married, so that Mitya remained for almost a
whole year in old Grigory's charge and lived with him in the servant's
cottage. But if his father had remembered him (he could not, indeed,
have been altogether unaware of his existence) he would have sent him
back to the cottage, as the child would only have been in the way of his
debaucheries. But a cousin of Mitya's mother, Pyotr Alexandrovitch
Miusov, happened to return from Paris. He lived for many years
afterwards abroad,