Ronald Wilks Livres

Illuminates the Russian writer's thoughts on madness, bureaucracy, and illusion in these five tales

Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial school teacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society. As he pursues the idea of marrying to gain promotion, he descends into paranoia, arson, torture and murder.

«Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, pourquoi m'envoyez-vous cette calamité ? (...) Sans nez, un homme n'est plus un homme. (...). Si encore je l'avais perdu en duel, ou à la guerre, ou par ma faute !... Hélas non ! Il a disparu comme cela, sans rime ni raison... Non, reprit-il après quelques instants de silence, c'est inconcevable».