29. the Brand: Easily decipherable as the Spark, one of the most popular publications of the 1860s, a weekly illustrated journal published in St Petersburg, known especially for its satire and caricatures.
30. Yaroslavl: The linen mills in Yaroslavl, situated 280 kilometres north-east of Moscow, on the confluence of the Volga and Kotorosl rivers, date from the time of Peter the Great.
31. the “fish”: This folk dance is described by Ivan Turgenev in his story ‘Old Portraits’ (1881): ‘Ivan danced marvellously, especially the so-called “fish dance.” When the chorus struck up a dance tune, the fellow would come into the middle of the ring, and then there would begin such a turning and skipping and stamping, and then he would fall flat on the ground, and imitate the movement of a fish brought out of the water on to dry land; such turning and wriggling, the heels positively clapped up to the head; and then he would get up and shriek—the earth seemed simply quivering under him’ (A Desperate Character and Other Stories, tr. Constance Black Garnett (1899; reprinted New York: AMS Press, Inc. 1970)).
32. ritornello: Return (Italian). A recurrent musical theme.
33. preference: Game for 2–4 people played with a 32-card deck, popular in Russia and Eastern Europe.
34. ‘Luchinushka’: Russian folk song, performed by everybody from gypsy singers to the famous operatic bass Fyodor Chaliapin.
35. Petersburg News … Academic News: The daily newspaper’s nickname Academic News comes from its publisher, the Academy of Sciences.
36. Früstück: Breakfast (German). Reference to St Petersburg’s significant German population – in 1869, the year of the first city-wide census, the German population accounted for 7 per cent of the population (Steven Duke, ‘Multiethnic St. Petersburg’, in Preserving Petersburg: History, Memory, Nostalgia, ed. H. Goscilo and S. M. Morris (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008)). For literary examples of Germans in Petersburg, see Pushkin’s ‘Queen of Spades’ (1833) and Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov (1859).
37. Fokine: Famed and infamous dancer, ‘hero of the can-can’, known for his ‘shameless entrechats’, according to the literary critic A. M. Skabichevksy (Literary Memoirs (Moscow–Leningrad, 1929)).
38. zakuski: Hors-d’oeuvres (Russian).
39. hussar fashion: Hussar regiments in Russia, as in other European countries, were light-cavalry units. The hussar, in addition to his superior skill as a horseman, could be distinguished from men of other units by his elaborate and richly coloured uniform, which was matched by the wearer’s fearless courage on the battlefield and reckless abandon in private life.
40. Schule: School (German).
41. kazachok: Ukrainian folk dance, in which the male partner kicks out his legs from a squatting position.
42. cup of gall and vinegar: The drink given to Christ before his crucifixion: ‘They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink’ (Matthew 27:34 (King James Version)).
43. droshky: A light, uncovered four-wheeled carriage outfitted with a bench on which the passengers sit sideways or astride.
44. cholerine: Exact translation of the Russian kholerina, the diminutive of kholera (cholera), a word used as little today in Russian as in English. Cholerine signifies the condition of having mild symptoms associated with cholera, e.g. diarrhoea, but not the actual incidence of the disease.
45. Peski, to Fourth Rozhdestvensky Street: Quite a distance, indeed – across the Neva to a neighbourhood not far from the Moscow train station on Nevsky Prospekt.
46. flogged to death on the square: Public flogging, which often ended in death, was abolished in Russia in 1845.
47. un beau matin: One fine morning.
48. sternness, only sternness, nothing but sternness: In Gogol’s ‘The Overcoat’, the Very Important Person holds the same ‘stern’ philosophy. The formula reappears in ‘The Meek One’.
THE GAMBLER
CHAPTER 1
1. Roulettenburg: Based on the city of Wiesbaden, located on the Rhine River in Germany, famous in the nineteenth century for both its gambling and spas. Dostoyevsky took the actual name from a Russian translation of a sketch by William Makepeace Thackeray (‘The Kickleburys on the Rhine’, 1850); the Russian version translated Thackeray’s Rougetnoirebourg (Redandblackcity) as Roulettenburg, which Dostoyevsky had originally used as the title of his novel. He changed it to The Gambler at the publisher’s request.
2. thalers: Silver coin that circulated throughout much of Europe. For information on the currencies referred to in the novel, see Appendix III, A Note about Money in The Gambler.
3. comte et comtesse: Count and countess.
4. outchitel: The Russian word for tutor or teacher, given in French transliteration.
5. table d’hôte: Meal at a fixed price served to guests in a hotel.
6. North Cape … Nizhny Novgorod: The cape on the island of Mageroya in northern Norway, where the Norwegian Sea meets the Barents Sea, often called the northernmost point of Europe. Situated on the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers, Nizhny Novgorod has a long history as a trading centre. In the nineteenth century the fair in the city attracted millions of visitors annually. Today it is the fourth largest city in the Russian Federation.
7. I said this in French: As demonstrated by the long passages in French in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, in the early nineteenth century French was the language of the Russian aristocracy and polite society. However, by the time of the action of the Gambler, the use of Russian had become much more usual among all the educated classes. Note that both Alexey Ivanovich and Grandmother speak French poorly. Of course, in an international setting such as Roulettenburg, it would be the common language.
8. Opinion nationale:National Opinion, French daily newspaper, the organ of the liberal Bonapartists, which came out in Paris until 1879.
9. Cela n’était pas si bête: That wasn’t so stupid.
10. pan: Sir, gentleman (Polish); pani, the feminine form, appears in Chapter 13.
11. chasseur: Literally, hunter; member of a French light-infantry regiment, known for their skill in rapid manoeuvres.
12. Nadenka: Earlier called Nadya, both are diminutive forms of Nadezhda, the girl’s given name. See Appendix I, Names in Russian.
13. “la baboulinka”: French transcription of the Russian diminutive of babushka (grandmother).
14. Schlangenberg: Snake Mountain (German).
CHAPTER 2
1. feuilletons: From the French feuillet, sheet of paper, leaf, i.e. light fiction, sketches, reviews, chronicles that were printed as a supplement to the political news in French newspapers. In Russia, the feuilleton was generally a critical essay or a satirical article, and Dostoyevsky’s ‘Petersburg Chronicle’ is a good example.
2. Rothschild: The head of the well-known banking firm, Baron James de Rothschild (1792–1868) is alluded to in Dostoyevsky’s The Adolescent (1875), when Arkady Dolgoruky, the protagonist, reveals that his ‘plan’ consists of becoming a Rothschild.
3. mauvais genre: Bad form.
4. trente et quarante: ‘Thirty and forty’, a French card game, also known as ‘rouge et noir’ (red and black).
CHAPTER 4
1. Kirghiz: Also Kyrgyz. Traditionally, nomadic people of Turkic origins in Central Asia.
2. Tatar: Also Tartar. Member of several Turkic-speaking peoples that for the most part are settled along the Volga River in central Russia and eastward to the Ural Mountains. Historically, the Mongol invaders of Russia in medieval times came to be known as Tatars.
3. ten versts: Russian unit of measure equal to 3,500 feet or 1.06 kilometres; so, here approximately 6½ miles.
4. Vater: Father (German).
5. stork on the roof: The folkloric role of the stork as a symbol of childbirth and the harbinger of good fortune likely originated in Germany and the Netherlands, where the stork often figures in nursery rhymes.
6. save up money like Jews: On Dostoyevsky’s anti-Semitism, see ‘Bobok�
�� and note 18.
7. Hoppe & Co.: The Dutch banking firm Hope & Co. (only one ‘p’), which was in operation for more than two centuries, had offices in Amsterdam and London.
CHAPTER 5
1. copybook: Collection of models for penmanship exercises. The short texts often comprised clichéd maxims and aphorisms.
2. le coq gaulois: The cockerel of Gaul, the national symbol of France.
3. Wurmerhelm: It has been suggested that Dostoyevsky drew on the character Wurm (Worm, German), one of the most negative characters in Friedrich Schiller’s play Love and Intrigue (1784). In any event, the name has obvious associations with ‘worm’.
CHAPTER 6
1. Madame la baronne … votre esclave: Madame Baroness. I have the honour to be your slave.
2. Hein: Beat it (German, from gehen).
3. nec plus ultra: See ‘A Christmas Party and a Wedding’, note 5.
4. Jawohl … Sind Sie resend: Indeed … Have you lost your mind? (German).
5. junkers: Country squires, titled landowners (German).
CHAPTER 7
1. vos appointements: Your salary.
2. mon cher monsieur … n’est ce pas: My dear sir, forgive me, I have forgotten your name, Monsieur Alexis? … isn’t that right?
3. Mais le general: But the general.
4. et madame sa mere: And madame, her mother.
5. le baron est … querelle d’Allemande: The baron is so hot-tempered, the Prussian character, you know, he might start a groundless quarrel over nothing.
6. que diable … comme vous: The devil take it! A youngster like you.
7. subalterne: Subordinate; subaltern.
8. Peut-être: Perhaps.
CHAPTER 8
1. miss: In the narrator’s rendition (in Russian) of Mr Astley’s conversation, which we presume took place in French, Astley appropriately uses the Russian noun miss (in Cyrillic letters), rather than the more usual baryshnia or devushka, both of which can be translated as lady, miss or young girl.
2. veuve: Widow.
3. Barberini: Illustrious family name of the Roman nobility. In 1623, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini was elected Pope Urban VIII.
4. un beau matin: One fine morning.
5. Spa: Resort town in Belgium famed for its hot springs.
6. garçon: Waiter.
CHAPTER 9
1. name and patronynic: Russians are usually addressed by the first name and the second, which is the patronymic, formed from the name of the person’s father.
2. les seigneurs russes: The Russian grandees.
3. Praskovya: Grandmother, the symbol of old Russia, as it were, calls Polina Alexandrovna, not by her adopted name abroad, Polina, but by her true Russian name.
4. une russe … duchesse de N: A Russian, a countess, an important lady … Grand Duchess of N.
5. à la barbe du pauvre general: Under the poor general’s nose.
6. Oui, madame … surprise charmante: Yes, madam … and believe me, I am so delighted … your health … it is a miracle … to see you here, a charming surprise.
7. Bonjour: Good day.
8. pointe: Peak.
9. Cette vielle … enfance: This old woman has fallen into childhood.
10. Mais … plaisir: But, madam, it would be a pleasure.
CHAPTER 10
1. Madame la générale princesse de Tarassevitcheva: Madam, the General’s wife, the Princess Tarasevicheva.
2. Elle est … des bêtises: She has fallen into childhood … left alone she’ll do a lot of stupid things.
3. Sortez, sortez: Leave, leave!
4. rouge et noir, pair et impair, manque et passe: Red and black, even and odd, the low numbers 1–18 (manque) and the high numbers 19–36 (passe).
5. trente-six: Thirty-six.
6. Faites le jeu … ne va plus: Place your bets, gentlemen! Place your bets gentlemen! No more bets?
7. Combien zéro? Douze? Douze: How much is zero? Twelve? Twelve?
8. Le jeu est fait: No more bets!
CHAPTER 11
1. Quelle victoire! … Mais, madame, c’était du feu: What a victory! … Why, Madam, that was brilliant!
2. Madame la princesse … si généreux: Madam Princess … a poor expatriate … Constant misfortune … the Russian princes are so generous.
3. Que diable … terrible vieille: The devil take it, she’s a terrible old woman!
4. Was ist’s der Teufel: What the devil is it! (German).
5. Mais, madame … perdrez absolument: ‘But Madam … Your luck may change, only one unlucky move and you’ll lose everything … above all, with your sort of game … it was terrible!’ ‘You’ll certainly lose.’
6. Eh! ce … se trompe: Eh! that’s not it … My dear sir, our dear general is mistaken.
7. cette pauvre terrible vieille: This poor, frightful old woman.
8. O mon … bon: Oh, my dear Monsieur Alexis, be so good.
9. Quelle mégère: What a shrew!
CHAPTER 12
1. Nous boirons … l’herbe fraîche: We will drink milk on the fresh grass.
2. nature et la vérité: Nature and truth. In his ‘Winter Notes on Summer Impressions’ (1863), Dostoyevsky visits the grave of writer and philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), whom he refers to as ‘l’homme de la nature et de la vérité’ (man of nature and of truth), an allusion to Rousseau’s Confessions (1781–8).
3. Diantre … Elle vivra cent ans: The devil take it! … She’ll live a hundred years!
CHAPTER 13
1. Paul de Kock: The racy, frothy and immensely popular novels of Parisian life by Charles-Paul de Kock (1793–1871) are the favoured reading of Stepan Verkhovensky in Dostoyevsky’s Demons (1871–2).
2. łajdak: Good-for-nothing, scoundrel (Polish).
3. Balakirev: Ivan Balakirev (1699–1763), servant in the imperial court of Peter the Great, was appointed court buffoon under Empress Anna Ivanovna (1693–1740). A book of anecdotes ascribed to Balakirev was published in 1839 and enjoyed widespread success.
4. family carriage: A private car on a train outfitted with tables, beds and samovar.
CHAPTER 14
1. de la vielle dame … gentilhomme et honnête homme: The old lady … a gentleman and honourable man.
2. Les trois derniers coups, messieurs: Last three turns, gentlemen!
3. Vingt-deux … Trente et un: Twenty-two! … Thirty-one.
4. Madame Blanchard … balloon: Marie Blanchard (b. 1778), widow of a pioneering hot-air balloonist, fell to her death during an exhibition over the Tivoli Gardens in Paris in 1819, when fireworks ignited the hydrogen in her balloon.
5. Quatre: Four!
6. a gagné déjà cent mille florins: Has already won one hundred thousand florins.
7. half a pood: 18 lbs; 8.19 kilograms.
CHAPTER 15
1. fraülein: Young lady (German).
2. Diese Russen: These Russians!
3. Ah, c’est lui … mieux l’or: Ah, it’s him. Come here, you little fool! … that you won a mountain of gold and silver? I would prefer the gold.
4. Bibi, comme … n’est-ce pas: Darling, how stupid you are … We’ll have a feast, right? (Blanche uses the familiar form of ‘you’ throughout.)
5. Mons fils, as-tu du coeur … Tout autre: My son, are you brave? … As anyone else. Blanche and Alexey trade lines from Act I, scene 5 of Le Cid (1637), by the great French classical tragedian Pierre Corneille (1606–84).
6. vois-tu … à Paris: You see … if you’re not too stupid, I’ll take you to Paris.
7. Eh bien … tu étais outchitel: Now then! … you’ll see Paris. Tell me, what’s an outchitel [tutor]? You were very stupid when you were an outchitel.
8. Eh bien … en plein jour: Well then, what will you do if I take you with me? … I want 50,000 francs … We’re going to Paris … and I will show you stars in broad daylight.
9. Et cent cinquante mille … des étoiles: One hundred fifty thousand francs … who knows
! … I am a good girl … but you will see stars.
10. vil esclave … fais-tu: Vile slave! … and afterwards the flood! But you can’t understand that, go! … what are you doing? ‘Après moi le deluge’ (after me the flood), to which Blanche alludes, has been attributed to Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour.
11. je t’attends, si tu veux: I’ll wait for you, if you wish.
12. Peut-être, je ne demandais pas mieux: Perhaps, I wasn’t asking for anything better.
13. mais tu seras heureux … et alors: But you’ll be as happy, as a little king … As for me, I want an income of 50,000 francs and then.
CHAPTER 16
1. et les cent mille … avec moi: And the 100,000 francs that we have left, you’ll eat them up with me.
2. il a gagné deux cent mille francs: He won 200,000 francs.
3. Mais tu … mon garçon: But you have enough sense to understand! You know, my boy.
4. Mais … sais-tu … dis donc: Why … you know … tell me then … Why you know … What will you do afterwards, tell me?
5. Homburg: Dostoyevsky frequented the roulette tables in Homburg during his stay at this fashionable German resort town in 1863.
6. Oui, oui, c’est ça … bonne fille: Yes, yes, that’s splendid! Because I thought that you were only an outchitel (something like a lackey, isn’t that right?) … because I’m a good girl.
7. il faut que jeunesse se passe: One must sow one’s wild oats when one is young.
8. Mais tu es … sera content: But you are a true philosopher, do you know that? A true philosopher … Well, I will love you, love you – you will see, you’ll be pleased!
9. Thérèse-philosophe: The heroine of the book Thérèse the Philosopher, published anonymously in 1748; ascribed to the Marquis d’Argens. The Olympia Press, publishers of an English translation (2007), supplies this description: ‘This first-person narrative by Thérèse is the charming tale of an innocent’s initiation into sexual happiness. Self-discovery in a convent leads her to her confessor, Father Dirrag, and she is soon launched upon the path of reason that convinces her that passion and love of the Deity are equal gifts of God.’
The Gambler and Other Stories (Penguin ed.) Page 46