By turns engrossing, fantastical, and darkly humorous, Dostoyevsky’s novella The Landlady was first published in 1847. Set in St. Petersburg, the story concerns an anxious young man, Vassilii Ordynov, who lives in a state of “prosaic tedium.” His passions for books and love of learning have stunted his social growth, and he lives an isolated, solitary life. Forced to find new lodgings, he wanders the city, eventually entering a church, where he is mesmerized by a strange couple: an elderly man and a girl of twenty years or so. Impulsively, he follows them to their dwelling, where they agree to rent him a room. The nature of the relationship between the man, Ilia Murin, and the girl, Katerina, is unclear—is she his wife, his daughter, or his “ward”? After moving into his rented room, Ordynov falls gravely ill; he senses that Katerina is nursing him through a hallucinatory delirium in which he glimpses a “weird universe of dreams” consisting of “stately, magic gardens,” and “great cities springing up and falling into decay,” as well as vivid childhood memories. Katerina’s devotion to him during this troubled time, as well as her offers of affection and even romance, make a deep, but troubling, impression on Ordynov.

He learns more about Murin from a friend, Yaroslav Ilyitch, whom he encounters in the street. Murin, he learns, is a fortune-teller of sorts who has lost his business and turned to religious devotion. Yaroslav is uncertain about the relationship between Murin and Katerina as well. Thereafter, Murin behaves erratically, blaming epilepsy, and Katerina tells Ordynov an incoherent, bizarre story about her own background. Frightened by the couple, Ordynov concludes that he must leave the house. At their next encounter, Murin appears to have reached the same conclusion: Ordynov must go. Murin states that Katerina has been verified “by a medical board in Moscow” as “a little wrong in the head.” Ordynov remains tormented by the nature of the connection between Murin and Katerina: “For what were they to one another?” Plagued by recurrent illnesses and having lost any interest in the future, Ordynov returns to his solitary existence. Filled with bizarre encounters; outlandish characters, and a gothic atmosphere, The Landlady entertains with its puzzles and mystery, while presenting genuine inquiries into choices about the sort of existence one chooses to live—in the words of Yaroslav, “the particular futility which is known as ‘life.’ ”

Contents

Part I

Part II

PART I

I

AT LENGTH ORDYNOV had to make up his mind to change his lodgings, since his landlady—the poor widow of a civil service official—unexpectedly found herself obliged to leave St. Petersburg, and to repair to her parents’ house in the country without waiting for the first day of the month—the day when her tenancy was to expire. As the young man had hitherto had every expectation of completing his sub-tenancy with her, he was a good deal put out at this sudden eviction from his den. Besides, he was poor, and lodgings were dear. So, the day before his landlady left, he took his cap, and set forth into the back streets of the capital. As he went along he examined every bill of rooms to let which he saw affixed to a door; always choosing, for his purpose, the most dilapidated, the largest, and the most crowded of buildings, as places where he had the best chance of encountering not only such a room as he wanted, but also tenants who were as poor as himself.