TMoP, Chapter 18

[Bekah]

Thanks Larry - I'll try to type something this weekend.   :-)

Bekah

On Nov 21, 2008, at 1:22 AM, Lawrence Bryan wrote:

> 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.
>
>