" Yes. Well now. My boredom. The second cause is that I think I'm very clever - and extraordianarily important. Entering a house, talking, keeping silent, reciting at a literary soire, stuffing myself at Testov's, whatever I do is with magnificent aplomb! If I can't utter, then I smile ironically, shrug my shoulders, interrupt. Yes. The truth is that deep down this ignorant uncultured Asiatic is actually quite content. Yet I pretend to be dissatisfied with everything. The trouble is I do it so well that sometimes I believe it myself."
Chapter 1 A Moscow Hamlet; Chapter 2 Swan Song (Calchas); Chapter 3 Accounts; Chapter 4 On The Harmfulness of Tobacco;
Vera Gottlieb (Goldsmiths College, University of London)