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182 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1836
It鈥檚 hard to say something about Pushkin to a person who doesn鈥檛 know anything about him. Pushkin is a great poet. Napoleon is not as great as Pushkin. Bismarck compared to Pushkin is a nobody. And the Alexanders, First, Second and Third, are just little kids compared to Pushkin. In fact, compared to Pushkin, all people are little kids, except Gogol. Compared to him, Pushkin is a little kid..
And so, instead of writing about Pushkin, I would rather write about Gogol.
Although, Gogol is so great that not a thing can be written about him, so I'll write about Pushkin after all.
Yet, after Gogol, it鈥檚 a shame to have to write about Pushkin. But you can鈥檛 write anything about Gogol. So I鈥檇 rather not write anything about anyone.
鈥淚s it far from here to the fort?鈥� I asked the driver.
鈥淲hy, you can see it from here,鈥� replied he.
I began looking all round, expecting to see high bastions, a wall, and a ditch. I saw nothing but a little village, surrounded by a wooden palisade. On one side three or four haystacks, half covered with snow; on another a tumble-down windmill, whose sails, made of coarse limetree bark, hung idly down.
鈥淏ut where is the fort?鈥� I asked, in surprise.
鈥淭here it is yonder, to be sure,鈥� rejoined the driver, pointing out to me the village which we had just reached.
I noticed near the gateway an old iron cannon. The streets were narrow and crooked, nearly all the cottages were thatched. I ordered him to take me to the Commandant, and almost directly my wagon stopped before a wooden house, built on a knoll near the church, which was also in wood.
No one came to meet me. From the steps I entered the ante-room.
. . . I looked out of the narrow window. I saw stretching out before me a bare and dull steppe; on one side there stood some huts. Some fowls were wandering down the street. An old woman, standing on a doorstep, holding in her hand a trough, was calling to some pigs, the pigs replying by amicable grunts.
And it was in such a country as this I was condemned to pass my youth!