TMoP, Chapter 18

[Lawrence Bryan]

Three chapters to go then we can get back to OBA.

Chapter 18 is titled "The Diary" and D tries a third time to read  
Pavel's papers. He finds it difficult to pay attention. He feels   
"...something obscene in the Nachlass of a child." (Nachlass, literary  
remains.) He thinks about Pavel's story and yearns to rewrite it,  
clarifying the motives of the girl, struggling with good  
(Christianity) and evil (Nachaev and before him Chernyshevsky), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Chernyshevsky 
)  his thoughts going again back to Matryona.

He gives up on it and turns to the diary which he finds full of snide  
remarks about himself and his young wife, "the Snitkina" D's wife's  
maiden name. He recalls Maximov's warning that it would be painful,  
but he feels fear rather than pain as he reads.

Anna shows up and pleads with him to not read further. He relates an  
incident mentioned in the book of D washing Pavel's feet, (no mention  
of using his hair to dry them, but Mary Magdalen came to mind when I  
read it.) and how differently he thought of the incident.

"A Yakovlev trading in lives." I could find nothing on this name.  
Anyone know the origins?

D starts hitting on Anna, "From the first I had a feeling about you."  
But wasn't it Matryona he first saw? "A girl with fair hair and  
striking dark eyes." Shades of Lolita.  And remember the one word  
paragraph on page 5, "Matryona".

He wants to have a child with her he says, but he means he wants the  
child she already has. He substitutes the mother for Matryona that  
night and they make passionate love. Then he spoils it by bringing up  
Nachaev and his influence on Matryona. She knows he wants her daughter  
and, although saying nothing, leaves.


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