And about them we know
nothing save some tinsel, gingerbread, debauched depictions in
literature. I ask you: what has Russian literature extracted out
of all the nightmare of prostitution? Sonechka Marmeladova alone.
[Footnote: The heroine of Dostoievsky's "Crime and Punishment."
--Trans.] What has it given us about the moujik save odious, false,
nationalistic pastorals? One, altogether but one, but then, in
truth, the greatest work in all the world--a staggering tragedy,
the truthfulness of which takes the breath away and makes the hair
stand on end. You know what I am speaking of ..."
"'The little claw is sunk in...'" [Footnote: "The little claw is
sunk in, the whole bird is bound to perish"--a folk proverb used
by Tolstoi as a sub-title to his "The Power of Darkness."--Trans.]
quietly prompted Lichonin.
"Yes," answered the reporter, and looked kindly at the student
with gratefulness.
"But as regards Sonechka--why, this is an abstract type," remarked
Yarchenko with assurance. "A psychological scheme, so to speak
..."
Platonov, who up to now had been speaking as though unwillingly,
at a slow rate, suddenly grew heated:
"A hundred times have I heard this opinion, a hundred times! And
it is entirely an untruth.
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