DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov

By Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION

What could a little girl of sixteen know about it, except that she would be better at the bottom of the river than remaining with her benefactress.
 Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 1 - The History of a Family, pg. 4

It serves her right. God has punished her for her ingratitude.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 1 - The History of a Family,  pg. 5

At ten years old he had realized they were living not in their own home but on other people's charity, and that their father was a man of whom it was disgraceful to speak.

 Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 1 - The History of a Family, pg. 5

Here is perhaps the one man in the world whom you might leave lone without a penny, in the centre of an unknown town of a million inhabitants, and he would not come to harm, he would not die of cold and hunger, for he would be fed and sheltered at once; and if he were not, he would find a shelter for himself, and it would cost him no effort or humiliation. And to shelter him would be no burden, but on the contrary, would be probably be looked on as a pleasure.

 Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 1 - The History of a Family, pg. 8

For socialism is not merely the labour question, it is before all things the atheistic question, the question of the form taken by atheism today, the question of the tower of Babel built without God, not to mount to heaven from earth, but to set up heaven on earth.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 1 - The History of a Family, pg. 11

Alyosha would have found it strange and impossible to go on living as before. It is written: “give all that thou hast to the poor and follow Me, if thou wouldst be perfect.” Alyosha said to himself: “I can’t give two roubles instead of ‘all,’ and only go to mass instead of ‘following Him.’”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 16

The man who listens to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within himself, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 20

The man who listens to himself can be more easily offended than anyone. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn’t it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill – he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it, and so pass to genuine vindictiveness.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 20

But there is a grief that breaks out and from that minute it bursts into tears and find vent in wailing. This is particularly common with women. But it is no lighter a grief than the silent

Lamentations comfort only by lacerating the heart still more. Such grief does not desire consolation. It feeds on the sense of its hopelessness. Lamentations spring only from the constant craving to reopen the wound.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 22

Relief is not complete cure, and may proceed from different causes. But if there has been any healing, it is by no power but God's will. It's all from God.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 26

It is much, and well that your mind is full of such dreams and not others. Some time, unawares, you may do a good deed in reality.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 26

In short, I am hired servant, I expect my payment at once - that is, praise, and the repayment of love with love. Otherwise I am incapable of loving anyone.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 27

The foreign criminal, they say, rarely repents, for the very doctrines of to-day confirm him in the idea that his crime is not a crime, but only a reaction against an unjustly oppressive force.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 31

We are not particularly afraid of all these socialists, anarchists, infidels, and revolutionists; we keep watch on them and know all their goings on. But there are a few peculiar men among them

 Who believe in God and are Christians, but at the same time are socialists. These are the people we are most afraid of. They are dreadful people! The socialist who is a Christian is more to be dreaded than a socialist who is an atheist.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 32

"It has been said of old, 'Many have begun to speak against me and have uttered evil sayings about me. And hearing it I have said to myself: it is the correction of the Lord and He sent it to heal my vain soul.' …”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 2 – An Unfortunate Gathering, pg. 44

There were all sorts of unexpected little cupboards and closets and staircases. There were rats in it, but Fyodor Pavlovitch did not altogether dislike them. "One doesn't feel so solitary when one's left alone in the evening," he used to say.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 3, The Sensualists, pg. 46

She felt that her husband respected her silence, and took it as a sign of good sense. He had never beat her but once, and then only slightly. ... Grigory saw how his wife danced, and, an hour later, at home in their cottage gave him a lesson, pulling her hair a little. But there it ended:

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 3, The Sensualists, pg. 47

Alyosha had given his opinion at the time, blushing, and angry with himself for having yielded to his brother's entreaties and put such "foolish" ideas into words. For his opinion had struck him as awfully foolish immediately after he had uttered it. He felt ashamed too of having given so confident an opinion about a woman.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 3, The Sensualists, pg. 74

Why, why, had he gone forth? Why had he sent him into the world? Here was peace. Here was holiness. But there was confusion, there was darkness in which one lost one's way and went astray at once...

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Book 3, The Sensualists, pg. 80

What for anyone else would be only a promise is for her an everlasting burdensome, grim perhaps, but unflagging duty.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 4, Lacerations, pg. 97

In one instant there was no trace left of her tears. She underwent an instantaneous transformation, which amazed Alyosha.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 4, Lacerations, pg. 97

The air is fresh but in my apartment it is not so in any sense of the word.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 4, Lacerations, pg. 104

School boys are a merciless race, individually they are angels, but together, especially in schools, they are often merciless.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 4, Lacerations, pg. 105

"Father," he asked, "are the rich people stronger than anyone else on earth?"

"Yes, Ilusha," I said, "there are no other people on Earth stronger than the rich."

"Father, "he said, "I will get rich I will become an officer and conquer everybody."

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 4, Lacerations, pg. 106

In the old days in Moscow he had been fond of coming to Lise and describing to her what had just happened to him, what he had read, or what he remembered of his childhood.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 5, Pro and Contra, pg. 110

"My brothers are destroying themselves," he went on, "my father, too. And they are destroying others with them."

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 5, Pro Contra, pg. 113

“What meanness? As for her spying on her daughter, it’s her right, it’s not meanness!” cried Lise, firing up. “You may be sure Alexey Fyordorovitch, that when I am a mother, if I have a daughter like myself I shall certainly spy on her!”
“Really, Lise? That’s not right.”
“Oh, my goodness! What meanness to do with it? If she were listening to some ordinary worldly conversation it would be meanness, but when her own daughter is shut up with a young man… Listen, Alyosha, do you know I shall spy upon you as soon as we are married, and let me tell you I shall open all your letters and read them, so you may as well be prepared.”
“Yes, of course, if so – “ muttered Alyosha, “only it’s not right.”
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 5, Pro and Contra, pg. 113

I remember everything, Alyosha, I remember you until you were eleven, I was nearly fifteen. There's such a difference between fifteen and eleven that brothers are never companions at those ages. I don't know whether I was fond of you even.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 5, Pro Contra, pg. 117

People talk sometimes of bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 5, Pro Contra, pg. 122

Some person or thing seemed to be standing out somewhere, just as something will sometimes obtrude itself upon the eye, and though one may be so busy with work or conversation that for a long time one does not notice it, yet it irritates and almost torments one till at last one realizes, and removes the offending object, often quite a trifling and ridiculous one – some article left about in the wrong place, a handkerchief on the floor, a book not replaced on the shelf, and so on.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 5 – Pro and Contra, pg. 138

I sent you to him, Alexey, for I thought your brotherly face would help him. But everything and all our fates are from the Lord.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 148

It was the beginning of Lent, and Markel would not fast, he was rude and laughed at it. “That’s all silly twaddle, and there is no God,” he said, horrifying my mother, the servants, and me too.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 149

I suppose he caught a cold, anyway the doctor, who came, soon said to my mother that it was galloping consumption, that he would not live through the spring. My mother began weeping, and, careful not to alarm my brother, she entreated him to go to church, to confess and take the sacrament, has he was still able to move about. This made him angry, and he said something profane about the church

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 149

Three weeks passed and Holy Week had come. And on Tuesday, my brother began going to church. “I’m doing this simply for your sake, mother, to please and comfort you.” My mother wept with joy and grief. “His end must be near,” she thought, “If there’s such a change in him.” But he was not able to go to church long, he took to his bed, so he had to confess and take the sacrament at home.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 149

It was late Easter, and the days were bright, fine, and full of fragrance. I remember he used to cough all night and sleep badly, but in the morning he dressed and treid to sit up in an arm-chair.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 149

A marvelous change passed over him, his spirit seemed transformed. The old nurse would come in and say, “Let me light the lamp before the holy image, my dear.” And once he would not have allowed it and would have blown it out.

”Light it, light it, dear, I was a wretch to have prevented you doing it. You are praying when you light the lamp, and I am praying when I rejoice seeing you. So we are praying to the same God.” The words seemed strange to us, and mother would go to her room and weep, but when she went in to him she wiped  her eyes and looked cheerful.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 149

She brought me to Petersburg and put me into the Cadet Corps, and I never saw her again. For she too died three years afterwards. She spent those three years mourning and grieving for both of us.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 150

Fathers and teachers, forgive my tears now, for all my childhood rises up again before me, and I breathe now as I breathed then with the breast of a little child of eight, and I feel as I did then, awe and wonder and gladness.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 151

It’s the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet, tender joy.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 151

Only we two were not sleeping, the lad and I, and we talked of the beauty of this world of God’s and of the great mystery of it. Every blade of grass, every insect, ant, and golden bee, all so marvellously know their path, though they have not intelligence, they bear witness to the mystery of God and continually accomplish it themselves.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 153

“I know nothing better than to be in the forest,” said he, “though all things are good.”
“Truly,” I answered him, “all things are good and fair, because all is truth.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 153

All creation and all creatures, every leaf is striving to the Word, singing glory to God, weeping to Christ, unconsciously accomplishing this by the mystery of their sinless life.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 153

Drunkenness, debauchery and devilry were what we almost prided ourselves on. I don’t say that we were bad by nature, all these young men were good fellows, but they behaved badly, and I worst of all.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 154

“From that you can see for yourself,” I concluded, “that at the time of the duel it was easier for me, for I had made a beginning already at home, and when once I had started on that road, to go farther along it was far from being difficult, but became a source of joy and happiness.”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 158

And from that time forth, he came to see me nearly every evening. And we should have become greater friend, if only he had ever talked of himself. But about himself he scarcely ever said a word, yet continually asked me about myself. In spite of that I became very fond of him and spoke with perfect frankness to him about all my feeling.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 158

Until you have become really, in actual fact, a brother to everyone, brotherhood will not come to pass. No sort of scientific teaching, no kind of common interest, will ever teach me in to share property and privileges with equal consideration for all. Everyone will think his share too small and they will be always envying, complaining and attacking one another.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 158

I've seen in the factories children of nine years old, frail, rickety, bent and already depraved.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 165

He needs sunshine, childish play, good examples all about him, and at least a little love. There must be no more of this, monks, no more torturing of children, rise up and preach that, make haste, make haste!

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 165

God took seeds from different worlds and sowed them on this earth, and His garden grew up and everything came up that could come up, but what grows lives and is alive only through the feeling of its contact with other mysterious worlds.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 168

Here Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov’s manuscript ends. I repeat, it is incomplete and fragmentary. Biographical details, for instance, cover only Father Zossima’s earliest youth…opinions we find brought together sayings evidently uttered on very different occasions.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 2, Book 6, The Russian Monk, pg. 170

… - as though they had been waiting expressly for this moment to do so, evidently persuaded that the dead elder’s remains had a power of healing, which would be immediately made manifest in accordance with their faith.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 171

He was particularly clever in getting round people and assuming whatever part he thought most tot their taste, if he detected the slightest advantage to himself from doing so.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 171

And so it came to pass that all who loved the elder and had accepted with devout obedience the institution of the eldership were all at once terribly cast down and glanced timidly in one another’s faces, when they met. Those who were hostile to the institution of elders, as a novelty, held up their heads proudly. …”he gained that glory not because he was an elder, but because he was a holy man.”  …And this was followed by a shower of criticism and even blame of Father Zossima.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 174

..some of the oldest monks, strictest in their devotion of genuine ascetics, who had kept silent during the life of the deceased elder, but now suddenly unsealed their lips. And this was terrible for their words had great influence on young monks who were not yet firm in their convictions.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 175

The frantic outcries of bigots could not shake him, but his heart was suddenly filled with melancholy for some special reason and he felt that.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 176

But still the trouble was there and was so agonizing that even long afterwards Alyosha thought of that sorrowful day as one of the bitterest and most fatal days of his life.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 177

But in some cases it is really more creditable to be carried away by an emotion, however unreasonable, which springs from a great love, than to be unmoved. And this is even truer in youth, for a young man who is always sensible to be suspected and is of little worth – that’s my opinion!

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 177

- what he saw before all was one figure – the figure of his beloved elder, the figure of that holy man whom he revered with such adoration. The fact is that all the love that lay concealed in this pure young heart for everyone and everything had, for the past year, been concentrated – and perhaps wrongly so – on one being, his beloved elder. It is true that being had for so long been accepted by his as his ideal, that all his young strength and energy could not but  turn towards that ideal, even to the forgetting at the moment “of everyone and everything.” He remembered afterwards how on that terrible day, he had entirely forgotten his brother Dmitri, of whom he had been so anxious and troubled the day before;

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 177

But again it was not miracles he needed, but only “the higher justice” which had been in his belief outraged by the blow that had so suddenly and cruelly wounded his heart.  And what does it signify that his “justice” looked for by Alyosha inevitably took the shape of miracles to be wrought immediately by the ashes of his adored teacher?  … And so Alyosha untroubled by doubts, clothes his dreams too in the same form as tall the rest. And a whole year of life in the monastery had formed the habit of this expectation in his heart. But it was justice, justice he thirsted for, not simply miracles.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 178

Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire. So her guardian angle stood and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember to tell to God; ‘she once pulled up an onion in her garden,’ said he, ‘and gave it to a beggar woman.’ And God answered: You take that onion then, hold it out to her in the lake and let her take hold and be pulled out. And if you can pull her out of the lake, let her come to Paradise, but if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is.’ The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her. ‘Come.’ Said he, ‘catch old and I’ll pull you out.’ And he began cautiously pulling her out. He had just pulled her right out, when the other sinners in the lake, seeing how she was being drawn out, began catching hold of her so as to be pulled out with her. But she was a very wicked woman and she began kicking them. ‘I’m to be pulled out, not you. It’s my onion, not yours.’ As soon as she said that, the onion broke. And the woman fell into the lake and she is burning there to this day. So the angel wept and went away.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 185

So that’s the story. Alyosha; I know it by heart, for I am that wicket woman myself. …I’ve done nothing but give away one onion all my life, that’s the only good deed I’ve done.” So don’t praise me.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 185

His soul was overflowing, but with mingled feelings, no single sensation stood out distinctly; on the contrary, one drove out another in a slow rotation. …He began quietly praying, but soon felt he was praying almost mechanically…

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 7, Alyosha, pg. 189

Strange to say, though one would have supposed there was nothing left for him but despair – for what chance had he, with nothing in the world, to raise such a sum? – yet to the very end he persisted in hoping that he would get that three thousand, that the money would somehow come to him of itself, as though it might drop from heaven. That is just how it with people who, like Dmitri, have never had anything to do with money, except to squander what has come to them by inheritance without any effort of their own, and have no notion how money is obtained.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 8, Mitya, pg. 193

…Mitya looked upon Grushenka’s past as something completely over. He looked on that past with infinite pity and resolved with all the fervour of his passion that when once Grushenka told him she loved him and would marry him, it would mean the beginning of a new Grushenka and a new Dmitri, free from every vice. They would forgive one another and would begin their lives afresh.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 8, Mitya, pg. 193

 “How strange it all it! On the way here it seemed all right, and now it’s nothing but nonsense.”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 8, Mitya, pg. 196

 “What terrible tragedies real life contrives for people,”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 8, Mitya, pg. 198

… just what you need; the very thing you’re yearning for though you don’t realize it yourself.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 8, Mitya, pg. 204

Oh, if you meant money, I haven’t any. I haven’t a penny, Dmitri Fyodorovitch. I’m quarreling with my steward about it and I’ve just borrowed five hundred roubles from Miusov, myself. No, no, I’ve no money. And, do you know, if I had, I wouldn’t give it to you. In the first place I never lend money. Lending money means losing friends. And I wouldn’t give it to you particularly. I wouldn’t give it you because I like you and want to save you…

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 8, Mitya, pg. 205

They kept everything that could be got in a Petersburg shop, grocery of all sort, wines, “bottled by the brother Eliseyev,” fruits, cigars, tea, coffee, sugar, and so on. There were three shop assistants and two errand boys always employed. Though our part of the country had grown poorer, the landowners had gone away and trade had got worse, yet the grocery stores flourished as before, every year with increasing prosperity; there were plenty of purchasers for their goods.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 8, Mitya, pg. 213

He was extremely well-bred, however, of good family, education and feelings, and though leading a life of pleasure, his sallies were always innocent and in good taste. He was short and delicate-looking. On his white, slender, little fingers he always wore a number of big, glittering rings. When he was engaged in his official duties, he always became extraordinarily grave, as though realizing his position and the sanctity of the obligation laid upon him.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 240  

You have to deal with a man of honour, a man of the highest honour; above all – don’t lose sight of it – a man whose done a lot of nasty things, but has always been, and still is, honourable at bottom, in his inner being.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 245 

I’ll finish by asking you, gentlemen to drop that conventional method of questioning. I mean beginning from some miserable trifle, how I got up, what I had for breakfast, how I spat, and where I spat and so distracting the attention of the criminal, suddenly stun him with an overwhelming question: “whom did you murder? Whom did you rob” ha ha! That’s your regulation method, that’s where all your cunning comes in. You can put peasants off their guard like that, but not me. I know the tricks. I’ve been in the service, too.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 247  

You may not trust a criminal or a man on trial tortured by your question, but an honourable man, the honourable impulses of the heart...”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 250

 “When all are undressed, one is somehow not ashamed, but when one’s the only one undressed and everybody is looking, it degrading….It’s like a dream; I’ve sometimes dreamed of being in such degrading positions.” It was a misery to him to take off his socks. They were very dirty and so were his underclothes and now everyone could see it and what was worse, he disliked his feel. All his life he had thought both his big toes hideous. He particularly loathed the coarse, flat crooked nail on the right one, and now they would all see it. Feeling intolerably ashamed made him at once and intentionally, rougher.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 256

 “I won’t have other people’s clothes! He shouted menacingly, “give me my own!” It was a long time before they could persuade him. But they succeeded somehow in quieting him down. Mitya went in, scowling with anger and trying to avoid looking at anyone. Dressed in another man’s clothes he felt himself disgraced, even in the eyes of the peasants…

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 257

 “He looked too closely at my socks, and turned them inside out on purpose to show everyone how dirty they were – the scoundrel!”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 257

Every day that I had that fifteen hundred sewn up round my neck, every day and every hour I said to myself, ‘you’re a thief! You’re a thief!’ Yes, that’s why I’ve been so savage all this month, that’s why I fought in the tavern, that’s why I attacked my father, it was because I felt I was a thief. I couldn’t make up my mind; I didn’t dare even to tell Alyosha, my brother, about that fifteen hundred; I felt I was such a scoundrel and such a pickpocket. But, do you know, while I carried it I said to myself at the same time every hour: ‘No, Dmitri Fyodorovitch, you may yet not be a thief.’ Why? Because I might go next day and pay back that fifteen hundred to Katya. And only yesterday I made up my mind to tear my amulet off my neck, on my way from Fenya’s to Perhotin. I hadn’t been able till that moment to bring myself to it. And it was only when I tore it off that I became a downright thief, a thief and a dishonest man for the rest of my life. Why? Because, with that I destroyed too, my dream of going to Katya and saying ‘I’m a scoundrel, but not a thief!’

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 261

I tell you again, with a bleeding heart, I have learnt a great deal this night. I have learnt that it’s not only impossible to live a scoundrel, but impossible to die a scoundrel…No, gentlemen, one must die honest.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 262

Gentlemen, we’re all cruel, we’re all monsters, we all make men weep, and mothers, and babes at the breast, but of all, let it be settled here, now, of all I am the lowest reptile! I’ve sworn to amend and every day I’ve done the same filthy things. I understand now that such men as I need a blow, a blow of destiny to catch them as with a noose, and bind them by a force from without. Never, never should I have risen of myself! But the thunderbolt has fallen. I accept the torture of accusation and my public shame; I want to suffer and by suffering I shall be purified….for the last time, I am not guilty of my father’s blood. I accept my punishment, not because I killed him, but because I meant to kill him, and perhaps I really might have killed him. Still I mean to fight it out with you.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 3, Book 9, The Preliminary Investigation, pg. 270

…she had devoted herself heart and soul to the bringing up of her precious treasure, her boy Kolya. Though she had loved him passionately those fourteen years, he had caused her far more suffering than happiness. … When Kolya began going to school, the mother devoted herself to studying all the sciences with him so as to help him and go through his lessons with him.  … He was good at lessons and there was a rumour in the school that he could beat the teacher, Dandanelov, at arithmetic and universal history.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 272

"Can you swear by all you hold sacred in the world and something else besides, that you were watch vigilantly over the kids in my absence? I am going out."

"And what am I going to swear for?" laughed Agyaga. "I shall look after them without that."

"No, you must swear on your eternal salvation. Else I shan't go."

"Well, don't then. What does it matter to me? It's cold out; stay home."

"Kids," Kolya turned out to the children, "this women will stay with you till I come back or till your mother comes for she ought tip in back long ago."

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 277

Boy, shun a life, that’s one thing; even with a good object – that’s another.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 278

They’re rogues….Doctors and the whole crew of quacks collectively, and also, of course, individually. I don’t believe in medicine. It’s a useless institution.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 278

There is nothing funny in nature, however funny it may seem to man with his prejudices. If dogs could reason and criticize us they’d be sure to find just as much that would be funny to them if not far more, in the social relations of men, the masters, - far more; in deed I repeat that because I am convinced that there  is far more foolishness among us. That’s Rakitin’s idea – a remarkable idea.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 278

"I am a Socialist, Smurov."

"And what is a socialist?" asked Smurov.

"That's when all are equal and I'll have property in common, there are no marriages, and everyone has any religion and laws he likes best, and all the rest of it. You are not old enough to understand that yet."

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 279

 “I know you!” he cried angrily, I know you!”

Kolya stared at him, He could not recall when he could have had a row with the man. But he had been in so many rows in the street that he could hardly remember them all.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 280

Yes, universal history! It’s the stud of the successive follies of mankind and nothing more.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 291

The classical languages too… they are simply madness, nothing more.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 291

The study of the classics, if you ask my opinion, is simply a police measure, that simply why it has been introduced into our schools,” By degrees Kolya began to get breathless again. “Latin and Green were introduced because they are a bore and because they stupefy the intellect. It was dull before, so what could they do to make things duller? It was senseless enough before, so what could they do to make it more senseless? So they thought of Greek and Latin.”

“And yet he’s first in Latin himself,” cried one of the group of boys suddenly.

“…I have to, because I promised my mother to pass my examination, and I think that whatever you do, it’s worth doing it well. But in my soul I have a profound contempt for the classics and all that fraud.”

“Why ‘fraud’?” Alyosha smiled again.

Well, all the classical authors have been translated into all languages, so it was not for the sake of studying the classics they introduced Latin, but solely as a police measure to stupefy the intelligence.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 292

 “Why, who taught you all this?” cried Alyosha, surprised at last.

“In the first place I am capable of thinking for myself without being taught. Besides, what I said just now about the classics being translated our teacher Kolbasnikov has said to the whole of the third class.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 292

"I'm a Socialist. Karamazov, I am an incurable Socialist," he announced, suddenly apropos of nothing.

"A socialist?" laughed Alyosha. "But when have you had time to become one? Why, I thought you were only thirteen?"

Koyla winced.

"In the first place I'm not thirteen, but fourteen, fourteen in a fortnight," he flushed angrily, "and in the second place I am at a complete loss to understand what my age has to do with it? The question is what are my convictions, not what is my age, isn't it?"

"When you are older, you'll understand for yourself the influence of age on convictions. I fancied, too, that you were not expressing your own ideas."

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 293

"You must admit that the Christian religion, for instance, has only been of use to the rich and the powerful to keep the lower classes and slavery. That's so, isn't it?"

"Ah, I know where you read that, and I'm sure someone told you so," cried Alyosha.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 293

"If he didn't write it, they say he said it. I heard that from a... but never mind."

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 293

I am only sad that a charming nature such as yours should be perverted by all this crude nonsense before you have begun life.”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 294

“Show me a Russian school boy,” he writes, “a map of the star which he knows nothing about, and he will give you back the map next day with corrections on it.” No knowledge and unbounded conceit – that’s what the German meant to say about the Russian schoolboy.”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 10, The Boys, pg. 294

At... at that woman's? Ah, she has brought ruin on everyone. I know nothing about it though. They say that she's become a saint, though it's rather late in the day.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 303

I'll grow old and have death to look forward to.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 303

"How do you know?" asked Alyosha.

"I've been listening. Why do you stare at me? I want to listen and I do listen, there's no harm in that."

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 307

It's God that's worrying me. That's the only thing that's worrying me. What if He doesn't exist?

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 314

Rajitkin says that one can love humanity without God. Well, only a sniveling idiot can maintain that.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 314

God preserve you, my dear boy, from ever asking forgiveness for a fault from a woman you love. From one you love especially, however greatly you may have been in fault. For a woman - devil only knows what to make of a woman! I know something about them, anyway But try acknowledging you are in fault to a woman. Say, “I am sorry, forgive me, “ and a shower of reproaches will follow! Nothing will make her forgive you simply and directly, she’ll humble you to the dust, bring forward things that have never happened, recall everything , forget nothing, and something of her own and only then forgive you. And even the best, the best of them do it. She’ll scrape up all the scrapings and load them on your head. They are ready to flay you alive. I tell you, every one of them, all these angels without whole we cannot live! I tell you plainly and openly dear boy, every decent man out to be under some woman’s thumb. That’s my conviction – not conviction, but feeling. A man out to be magnanimous, and it’s no disgrace to a man! No disgrace to a hero, not even a Caesar! But don’t ever beg her pardon all the same for anything. Remember that rule given you by your brother Mitya, who’s come to ruin though women. 

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 315

"I've never for one instant believed that you were the murderer!" broke in a shaking voice from Alyosha's breast, and he raised his right hand in the air, as though calling God to witness his words.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 317

I maintain that nothing need be destroyed, that we only need to destroy the idea of God in man, that's how we have to set to work.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 345

He strained every effort to break his chains, but in vain. The knocking at the window grew louder and louder. At last the chains were broken and Ivan leapt up from the sofa. He looked round him wildly. Both candles had almost burnt out, the glass he had just thrown at his visitor stood before him on the table, and there was no one on the sofa opposite.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 11, Ivan, pg. 345

That he would be acquitted, all the ladies, strange to say, were firmly persuaded up to the very last moment. "He is guilty, but he will be acquitted, from motives of humanity, in accordance with the new ideas, the new sentiments that had come into fashion," and so on, and so on.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 352

People described with relish, afterwards, how cleverly he had "taken down" all the witnesses for the prosecution and as far as possible perplexed them and, what's more, had aspersed their reputation and so depreciated the value of their evidence.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 352

.. he spoke Russian readily, but every phrase was formed in German style, which did not, however, trouble him, for it had always been weakness of his to believe that he spoke Russian perfectly, better indeed than Russians. And he was very fond of using Russian proverbs, always declaring the Russian proverbs were the best and most expressive saying in the whole world.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 357

I may remark, too, that in conversation, through absentmindedness, he often forgot the most ordinary words, which sometimes went out of his head, though he knew them perfectly. The same thing happened, though, when he spoke German, and at such times he always waves his hand before his face as though trying to catch the lost word and no one could induce him to go on speaking till he had found the missing word.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 357

 “You are a grateful young man, for you have remembered all your life the pound of nuts I bought you in your childhood.”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 359

For the Russian often laughs when he out to be weeping. But he did weep; I saw it.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 359

He died, it is true, nine months later of rapid consumption, so that he had the right, as it turned out, to compare himself to a swan singing his last song.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 369

 “Gentlemen of the jury,” began the prosecutor, “this case has made a stir throughout Russia. But what is there to wonder at, what is there so peculiarly horrifying in it for us? We are so accustomed to such crimes! That’s what’s so horrible, that such dark deeds have ceased to horrify us. What out to horrify us is that we are so accustomed to it, and not this or that isolated crime. What are the causes of our indifference, our lukewarm attitude to such deeds, to such signs of the times, ominous of an unenviable future? Is it our cynicism, is it the premature exhaustion of intellect and imagination in a society that is sinking into decay in spite of its youth? Is it that our moral principles are shattered to their foundations, or is it, perhaps, a complete lack of such principles among us?  I cannot answer such questions; nevertheless they are disturbing, and every citizen not only must, but ought to be harassed by them.”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 369

Our newborn and still timid press has done good service to the public already, for without it we should never have heard of the horrors of unbridled violence and moral degradation which are continually made known by the press, not merely to those who attend the new jury courts established in the present reign, but to everyone.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 369

I am new to this district. I have no preconceived ideas. The prisoner, a man of turbulent and unbridled temper, has not insulted me. But he has insulted perhaps hundreds of persons of persons in his town and so prejudiced many people against him beforehand. ... in spite of his independent mind and just character, my opponent may have formed a mistaken prejudice against my unfortunate client. Oh, that is so natural; the unfortunate man has only too well deserved such prejudice. Outraged morality, and still more outraged taste, is often relentless.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 386

We have, in the talented prosecutor’s speech, heard a stern analysis of the prisoner’s character and conduct, and his severe critical attitude to the case was evident. And what’s more he went into psychological subtleties into which he could not have entered, if he had the least conscious and malicious prejudice against the prisoner. But there are things which are even worse, even more fatal in such cases, than the most malicious and consciously unfair attitude. It is worse if we are carried away by the artistic instinct, by the desire to create…

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 386

But profound as psychology is, it’s a knife that cuts both ways.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 387

Why should we assume everything as we imagine it, as we make up our minds to imagine it? A thousand things may happen in reality which elude the subtlest imagination.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 392

 “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.” S … Otherwise we are not fathers, but enemies of our children and they are not our children, but our enemies, and we have made them our enemies ourselves.  … How can we blame children if they measure us according to our measure?

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 396

Let us be bold, gentlemen, let us be audacious even; it’s our duty to be so at this moment and not to be afraid of certain words and ideas…

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 396

… the father is not merely he who begets the child, but he who begets it and does his duty by it.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 396

…if we convict and punish him, he will say to himself: ‘these people have done nothing for my bringing up, for my education, nothing to improve my lot, nothing to make me better, nothing to make me a man. … and here they have sent me to penal servitude.  I am quits. I owe them nothing now, and owe no one anything for ever. They are wicked and I will be wicked. They are cruel and I will be cruel. And I swear, by finding him guilty you will only make it easier for him; you will ease his conscience, … and he will not regret it.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 398

But do you want to punish him fearfully, terribly, with the mot awful punishment that could be imagined, and at the same time to save him and regenerate his soul? If so, overwhelm him with your mercy! You will see you will hear how he will tremble, and be horrorstruck. “How can I endure this mercy? How can I endure so much love? Am I worthy of it?”  …There are souls which, in their limitation, blame the whole world.  But subdue such a soul with mercy, show it love, and it will curse its past, for there are many good impulses in it. Such a heart will expand and see that God is merciful and that men are good and just.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 398

Better acquit ten guilty men than punish one innocent man!

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 398

…Russian court does not exist for the punishment only, but also for the salvation of the criminal! Let other nations think of retribution and the letter of the law, we will cling to the spirit of and the meaning – the salvation and the reformation of the lost.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 398

What will become of the foundations of society? What will become of the family? … The most precious , the most sacred guarantees for the destiny and future of Russian justice are present to us in a perverted and frivolous form, simply to attain an object -–to obtain the justification of something which cannot be justified.  … Religion and the Gospel are corrected – that’s all mysticism, we are told, and ours is the only true Christianity, which has been subjected to the analysis of reason and common sense.  ... We peep into the Gospel only on the eve of making speeches in order to dazzle the audience by our acquaintance…

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 399

Jupiter, you are angry, therefore you are wrong.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part 4, Book 12, A Judicial Error, pg. 399

So they murmured to one another frantic words, almost meaningless, perhaps not even true, but at that moment it was all true, and they both believed what they said implicitly.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Epilogue, pg. 407

We are full of hatred, my girl, you and I! We are both full of hatred! As though we could forgive one another! Save him, and I’ll worship you all my life.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Epilogue, pg. 407

"Father, when my grave is filled up crumble a piece of bread on it so that the sparrows may fly down; I shall hear and it will cheer me up not to be lying alone."

"That's a good thing," said Alyosha, "we must often take some."

"Every day, everyday!" said the captain quickly, seeming cheered at the thought.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Epilogue, pg. 409

It's also strange, Karamazov, such sorrow and then pancakes after it, it all seems so unnatural in our religion.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Epilogue, pg. 411

…don’t be afraid of life! How good life is when one does something good and just!

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Epilogue, pg. 412

VOCABULARY LIST from The Brothers Karamazov

Abject, pg. 1

Miserable, wretched, lack of self respect

Abiritate – relieve

Abnegation, pg. 12

The act of denying and refusing,  giving up rights, claims, etc…, renouncing

Ascetic, pg. 85

Practicing extreme abstinence and devotion, severity, self denying, excessive, austere, hermit, recluse

Apiary, pg. 84

A place where bees are kept, bee keeping

Apparition, pg. 52

Specter, fantom (phantom) ghost (I knew that – just didn’t know specter or fantom with an f)

Ascetic, pg. 173

Practicing self-denial as a spiritual attainment

Blackguard, pg. 10

A scoundrel, villain, vulgar, low, abusive.

To abuse with words, revile, to behave like a blackguard

Buffoon, pg.  43

One who amuses by jokes or tricks, clown

Cambric, pg. 233

A species of fine white linen, made of flax, said to be named from Cambray in Flanders, where it was first manufactured

Caprice, pg. 1

Changing mind suddenly on a whim

Capricious – unpredictable

Charing, pg. 187

Careful, wary, frugal

Chartulary – An officer in the ancient Latin church, who had the care of the charters and other papers of a public nature. Blackstone uses this word for a record or register, as of a monastery.

Charlatanism, pg. 16

Characteristic of being as one who pretends to have knowledge or ability that he does not have, quack, impostor

Connoisser, pg. 16

To know, one who has expert knowledge and keen discrimination in some field, especially in the fine arts (I knew that!)

Copse, pg. 16

Thicket of trees

Dissipated, pg. 3

Scattered, wasted

Dissolute (from author biography)

Dissipated and immoral, debauched

Dissipate – to drive completely away, to make disappear, to waste, squander, to be dispelled, vanish, to indulge in pleasure to the point of harming oneself

Dispel – to scatter and drive away, disperse

Ecstatic pg. 11

Characterized by ecstasy, causing ecstasy, subject to fits of ecstasy,

Ecstasy - overpowered with strong emotion, especially joy, feeling overpowered with joy & rapture

Emasculate, pg. 139

To deprive of masculine strength, castrate, weaken, impair

Enigmatic, pg. 1

Puzzling, baffling, perplexing, from talking in riddles.

Erudition, pg. 357

Learning, knowledge gained by study, or from books and instruction; particularly, learning in literature, as distinct from the science, as in history, antiquity and languages. The Sealigers were men of deep erudition. The most useful erudition from republicans is that which exposes the causes of discords.

Evinced, pg. 192

Made evident; proved

Extant, pg. 85

Still existing, and known, living

FOODS:  

 Sterlet = a relatively small species of sturgeon,

Ice pudding = a frozen dessert,
Compote = fruit preserved or cooked in syrup

Blanc mange = a sweet dessert commonly made with milk or cream and sugar thickened with gelatin, corn starch or Irish moss (a source of carrageenan), and often flavored with almonds. It is usually set in a mold and served cold.

Garret pg. 2

the room below a sloping roof – like Michael Lee’s room?

Gentry, pg. 19

People of good birth and social standing, especially in Great Britain, the class of people ranking just below the nobility, people of a particular class or group. See genteel.
Genteel – akin to gentle, formerly gentlemanly or ladylike; well-bred, affectedly or pretentiously well-bred, polite, etc.

Pretentious – making claims, explicit or implicit, to some distinction, importance, dignity, showy, ostentatious

Explicit – distinctly expressed, clearly stated, distinctly expressed, definite, saying what is meant, without reservation, outspoken

Implicit – to be understood though not plainly expressed, implied, necessarily or naturally involved though not plainly apparent or expressed, inherent, without reservation or doubt, absolute

Ostentatious – outright display, showiness, boastful exhibition

Gudgeon, pg. 44

Small fresh water European fish, used for bait, minnow, a person easily cheated or tricked

Grudge (no page)

Resentment, malice, envy because of possessions

Imperiousness, pg. 74

Domineering, arrogant, urgent, imperial

Imperial – superior, royal, commanding power

Impertinent, pg. 16

Not pertinent, irrelevant, not suitable, inappropriate, saucy, impudent, insolent,

Impertinence – the quality or fact of being impertinent, specifically irrelevance, unsuitability, inappropriateness, insolence, impudence, remark or act

Insolence – not to be accustomed, disrespectful of custom or authority, impertinent, impudent

Impudent – without thought of the consequences, rash, indiscreet, not prudent, with being impudent, impudent speech or behavior

Importunity, pg. 2

demand, urge, request repeatedly

Impudence, pg. 42

Not prudent, without thought of consequences

Lumbago, pg. 141

Illness (not found)

Licentious, pg. 154

Wanton, loose, lewd, without permission

Miscreant, pg. 49

Villainous, evil, unbelieving, criminal

Novitiate, pg. 12

The period of probation of a novice in a religious order. The state of being a novice. The quarters of religious novices.

Novice – a person on probation in a religious group or order before taking the final vows, neophyte. a person new to a particular activity apprentice, beginner, tyro

Neophyte – a new convert, especially a newly baptized member of the early Christian Church, an y beginner, novice

Parricide, pg. 398

A person that who murders her father or mother, or anyone to whom he owes reverence, or to whom reverence is due. (from the Latin paricida, from pater – father, and cedo – to kill)

Pathos, pg. 18

The quality in something (in life or art) which arouses pity, sorrow, sympathy, etc (noun)

Pernicious, pg. 85

Having the power of destroying or injury

Physiognomy, pg. 16

The practice of trying to judge character by observation of bodily, especially facial features.  The face, facial expression, especially as supposedly indicative of character,   external features.

Piquancy, pg. 1

Pleasant, sharp interest

Portico, pg. 16

 A porch or covered walk, consisting of a roof supported by columns. Like the front porch of a George Washington house.

Profligate pg. 4

Abandon to vice, reckless

Prosaic, pg. 1

Like prose, dull, common

Prudent, pg. 47

Thinks of consequences before acting

Pungent, pg. 16

Sharp sensation

Rapacious, pg. 9

Taken by force, plunder

Resonant, pg. 187

Resounding; returning sound, echoing back

Sallies, pg. 240

Act of levity or extravagance, wild gayety, frolic, a bounding or darting beyond ordinary rules, as a sally of youth or a sally of levity.

OTHER DEFINITIONS of Sally
 An issue of rushing troops from a besieged place to attack the besiegers

A spring or darting of intellect, fancy or imagination, flight, sprightly exertion. (sallies of wit, or imagination)

Excursion from the usual track, range. He who often makes sallies into a country and traverses it up and down will know it better than one who goes always round in the same track

To impel, to shoot. To issue or rush out, as a body of troops from a fortified place to attack besiegers. To issue suddenly; to make a sudden eruption

Savant, pg. 100

Man of special learning, specialist

Supercilious, pg. 153

Arrogant, excessively proud, haughty

Taciturn, pg. 47

Almost always silent, not liking to talk,

Tacit – making no sound, saying nothing, unspoken, silent, not expressed openly

Tyro – beginner in learning something, novice, also spelled tiro