The Power of Darkness by Leo Tolstoy (best reads of all time .TXT) 📕

was in my power, and I ruined her, and her baby! Akoulína True, that’s true! Nikíta I smothered the baby in the cellar with a board! I sat on it and smothered it⁠—and its bones crunched! Weeps. And I buried it! I did it, all alone! Akoulína He raves! I told him to! Nikíta Don’t shield me! I fear no one now! Forgive me, Christian Commune! Bows to the ground. Silence. Police Officer Bind him! The marriage is evidently off! Men come up with their belts. Nikíta Wait, there’s plenty of time! Bows to the ground before his father. Father, dear father, forgive me too⁠—fiend that I am! You told me from the first, when I took to bad ways, you said then, “If a claw is caught, the bird is lost!” I would not listen to your words, dog that I was, and it has turned out as you said! Forgive me, for Christ’s sake! Akím Rapturously. God will forgive you, my own son! Embraces him. You have had no mercy on yourself, He will show mercy on you! God⁠—God! It is He! Enter Elder. Elder There are witnesses enough here. Police Officer We will have the examination at once. Nikíta is bound. Akoulína Goes and stands by his side. I shall tell the truth! Ask me! Nikíta Bound. No need to ask! I did it all myself. The design was mine, and the deed was mine. Take me where you like. I will say no more!

Curtain.

Endnotes

It is customary to place a dying person under the icon. One or more icons hang in the hut of each Orthodox peasant. ↩

Peasant weddings are usually in autumn. They are forbidden in Lent, and soon after Easter the peasants become too busy to marry till harvest is over. ↩

A formal request for forgiveness is customary among Russians, but it is often no mere formality. Nikíta’s first reply is evasive; his second reply, “God will forgive you,” is the correct one sanctioned by custom. ↩

Loud public wailing of this kind is customary, and considered indispensable, among the peasants. ↩

Where not otherwise mentioned in the stage directions, it is always the winter half of the hut that is referred to as “the hut.” The summer half is not heated, and not used in winter under ordinary circumstances. ↩

The Foundlings’ Hospital in Moscow, where eighty to ninety percent of the children die. ↩

Nan calls Mítritch “daddy” merely as a term of endearment. ↩

Probably Kurds. ↩

This refers to the songs customary at the wedding of Russian peasants, praising the bride and bridegroom. ↩

It is etiquette for a bride to bewail the approaching loss of her maidenhood. ↩

Colophon

The Power of Darkness
was published in 1886 by
Leo Tolstoy.
It was translated from Russian in 1919 by
Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude.

This ebook was produced for
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Weijia Cheng,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2008 by
Bryan Ness, Jana Srna, and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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HathiTrust Digital Library.

The cover page is adapted from
Portrait of a Girl,
a painting completed by
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