




                      _VIZETELLY'S RUSSIAN NOVELS._





                             Uncle's Dream;

                                   AND

                         The Permanent Husband.






                        CELEBRATED RUSSIAN NOVELS





                         By FEDOR DOSTOIEFFSKY.

        _Translated from the original Russian by Fred. Whishaw._



    "There are three Russian novelists who, though, with one
    exception, little known out of their own country, stand head and
    shoulders above most of their contemporaries. In the opinion of
    some not indifferent critics, they are superior to all other
    novelists of this generation. Two of them, Dostoieffsky and
    Turgenieff, died not long ago; the third, Lyof Tolstoi, still
    lives. The one with the most marked individuality of character,
    probably the most highly gifted, was unquestionably
    Dostoieffsky."--_Spectator._





         _In crown 8vo. containing nearly 500 pages, price 6s._

                               THE IDIOT.



    "Is unquestionably a work of great power and originality. M.
    Dostoieffsky crowds his canvas with living organisms, depicted
    with extreme vividness."--_Scotsman._





                        _In crown 8vo, price 5s._

               THE FRIEND OF THE FAMILY; AND THE GAMBLER.



    "Dostoieffsky is one of the keenest observers of humanity amongst
    modern novelists. Both stories are very valuable as pictures of a
    society and a people with whom we are imperfectly acquainted, but
    who deserve the closest scrutiny."--_Public Opinion._





   _Third edition. In crown 8vo, with Portrait and Memoir, price 5s._

                           INJURY AND INSULT.



    "That 'Injury and Insult' is a powerful novel few will deny. Vania
    is a marvellous character. Once read, the book can never be
    forgotten."--_St. Stephen's Review._

    "A masterpiece of fiction. The author has treated with consummate
    tact the difficult character of Natasha, 'the incarnation of the
    slave of passion.' She lives and breathes in these vivid pages,
    and the reader is drawn into the vortex of her anguish, and
    rejoices when she breaks free from her chain."--_Morning Post._





           _Third edition. In crown 8vo, 450 pages, price 6s._

                          CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.



    "Dostoieffsky is one of the most remarkable of modern writers, and
    his book, 'CRIME AND PUNISHMENT' is one of the most moving of
    modern novels. It is the story of a murder and of the punishment
    which dogs the murderer; and its effect is unique in fiction. It
    is realism, but such realism as M. Zola and his followers do not
    dream of. The reader knows the personages--strange grotesque,
    terrible personages they are--more intimately than if he had been
    years with them in the flesh. He is constrained to live their
    lives, to suffer their tortures, to scheme and resist with them,
    exult with them, weep and laugh and despair with them; he breathes
    the very breath of their nostrils, and with the madness that comes
    upon them he is afflicted even as they. This sounds extravagant
    praise, no doubt; but only to those who have not read the volume.
    To those who have, we are sure that it will appear rather under
    the mark than otherwise."--_The Athenaeum._








                      _VIZETELLY'S RUSSIAN NOVELS._





                             Uncle's Dream;

                                   AND

                         The Permanent Husband.

                         By FEDOR DOSTOIEFFSKY,


 AUTHOR OF "CRIME AND PUNISHMENT," "INJURY AND INSULT," "THE IDIOT," "THE
                 FRIEND OF THE FAMILY; AND THE GAMBLER."

            TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY FREDERICK WHISHAW.

                              [Illustration]
LONDON:

_VIZETELLY & CO., 16, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN._

1888.






CONTENTS


UNCLE'S DREAM.


CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
Footnotes





THE PERMANENT HUSBAND


CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVII.





UNCLE'S DREAM.





CHAPTER I.


Maria Alexandrovna Moskaleva was the principal lady of Mordasoff--there was
no doubt whatever on that point! She always bore herself as though _she_
did not care a fig for anyone, but as though no one else could do without
_her_. True, there were uncommonly few who loved her--in fact I may say
that very many detested her; still, everyone was afraid of her, and that
was what she liked!

Now, why did Maria Alexandrovna, who dearly loves scandal, and cannot
sleep at night unless she has heard something new and piquant the day
before,--why, or how did she know how to bear herself so that it would
never strike anyone, looking at her, to suppose that the dignified lady
was the most inveterate scandal-monger in the world--or at all events in
Mordasoff? On the contrary, anyone would have said at once, that scandals
and such-like pettiness must vanish in her presence; and that
scandal-mongers, caught red-handed by Maria Alexandrovna, would blush and
tremble, like schoolboys at the entrance of the master; and that the talk
would immediately be diverted into channels of the loftiest and most
sublime subjects so soon as she entered the room. Maria Alexandrovna knew
many deadly and scandalous secrets of certain other Mordasoff inhabitants,
which, if she liked to reveal them at any convenient opportunity, would
produce results little less terrible than the earthquake of Lisbon. Still,
she was very quiet about the secrets she knew, and never let them out
except in cases of absolute need, and then only to her nearest and dearest
friends. She liked to hint that she knew certain things, and frighten
people out of their wits; preferring to keep them in a state of perpetual
terror, rather than crush them altogether.

This was real talent--the talent of tactics.

We all considered Maria Alexandrovna as our type and model of
irreproachable _comme-il-faut_! She had no rival in this respect in
Mordasoff! She could kill and annihilate and pulverize any rival with a
single word. We have seen her do it; and all the while she would look as
though she had not even observed that she had let the fatal word fall.

Everyone knows that this trait is a speciality of the highest circles.

Her circle of friends was large. Many visitors to Mordasoff left the town
again in an ecstasy over her reception of them, and carried on a
correspondence with her afterwards! Somebody even addressed some poetry to
her, which she showed about the place with great pride. The novelist who
came to the town used to read his novel to her of an evening, and ended by
dedicating it to her; which produced a very agreeable effect. A certain
German professor, who came from Carlsbad to inquire into the question of a
little worm with horns which abounds in our part of the world, and who
wrote and published four large quarto volumes about this same little
insect, was so delighted and ravished with her amiability and kindness
that to this very day he carries on a most improving correspondence upon
moral subjects from far Carlsbad!

Some people have compared Maria Alexandrovna, in certain respects, with
Napoleon. Of course it may have been her enemies who did so, in order to
bring Maria Alexandrovna to scorn; but all I can say is, How is it that
Napoleon, when he rose to his highest, that _too_ high estate of his,
became giddy and fell? Historians of the old school have ascribed this to
the fact that he was not only not of royal blood, but was not even a
gentleman! and therefore when he rose too high, he thought of his proper
place, the ground, became giddy and fell! But why did not Maria
Alexandrovna's head whirl? And how was it that she could always keep her
place as the first lady of Mordasoff?

People have often said this sort of thing of Maria Alexandrovna; for
instance: "Oh--yes, but how would she act under such and such difficult
circumstances?" Yet, when the circumstances arose, Maria Alexandrovna
invariably rose also to the emergency! For instance, when her
husband--Afanassy Matveyevitch--was obliged to throw up his appointment, out
of pure incapacity and feebleness of intellect, just before the government
inspector came down to look into matters, all Mordasoff danced with
delight to think that she would be down on her knees to this inspector,
begging and beseeching and weeping and praying--in fact, that she would
drop her wings and fall; but, bless you, nothing of the sort happened!
Maria Alexandrovna quite understood that her husband was beyond praying
for: he must retire. So she only rearranged her affairs a little, in such
a manner that she lost not a scrap of her influence in the place, and her
house still remained the acknowledged head of all Mordasoff Society!

The procurer's wife, Anna Nicolaevna Antipova, the sworn foe of Maria
Alexandrovna, though a friend so far as could be judged outside, had
already blown the trumpet of victory over her rival! But when Society
found that Maria Alexandrovna was extremely difficult to put down, they
were obliged to conclude that the latter had struck her roots far deeper
than they had thought for.

As I have mentioned Afanassy Matveyevitch, Maria Alexandrovna's husband, I
may as well add a few words about him in this place.

Firstly, then, he was a most presentable man, so far as exterior goes, and
a very high-principled person besides; but in critical moments he used to
lose his head and stand looking like a sheep which has come across a new
gate. He looked very majestic and dignified in his dress-coat and white
tie at dinner parties, and so on; but his dignity only lasted until he
opened his mouth to speak; for then--well, you'd better have shut your
ears, ladies and gentlemen, when he began to talk--that's all! Everyone
agreed that he was quite unworthy to be Maria Alexandrovna's husband. He
only sat in his place by virtue of his wife's genius. In my humble opinion
he ought long ago to have been derogated to the office of frightening
sparrows in the kitchen garden. There, and only there, would he have been
in his proper sphere, and doing some good to his fellow countrymen.

Therefore, I think Maria Alexandrovna did a very wise thing when she sent
him away to her village, about a couple of miles from town, where she
possessed a property of some hundred and twenty souls--which, to tell the
truth, was all she had to keep up the respectability and grandeur of her
noble house upon!

Everybody knew that Afanassy was only kept because he had earned a salary
and perquisites; so that when he ceased to earn the said salary and
perquisites,