“A Nasty Story” (1862)

"A Bad Business," "A Disgraceful Affair," "A Most Unfortunate Incident," “A Nasty Anecdote," "An Unpleasant Predicament"
Absolutely prime Fyodor Dostoevsky here in this long story of the painful realities of class conflict, written shortly after the Russian reforms that liberated the serfs into lives of grinding poverty. Our main character here is that oxymoron, a liberal man of business. He has been dining and drinking with two peers with whom he has uneasy relations. He leaves for home but his coachman has mysteriously vanished. He decides to walk, partly because he’s a little drunk. By chance he meets someone who mentions that the revelry they can hear from a nearby building is the wedding of a man who works for him. He begins talking himself into making a surprise appearance there, thinking they would appreciate his condescending to be with them. It is a disaster, of course. Before he even enters, he steps in a dish of galantine put out to cool. Everyone, including his employee, is paralyzed by his presence. Our guy can see it is spoiling the party and he attempts to dispel the inhibition. But when the dancing and revelry begin again he does not like it. Others, such as the mother of the groom, are all over themselves to cater to him. They produce bottles of champagne for him. Later he realizes he is the only one drinking champagne, and even later we learn the cost of the champagne for the wedding party. There is a remarkable tension between boss and underling, as the underling furiously resents his presence but struggles not to show it. Meanwhile the boss is getting more and more drunk and finally passes out. It is a titanic piling on of incident, so wickedly painful there is moral vertigo just from reading. I like the dawning sense in Dostoevsky’s work of no limits. If you think things are bad now, just keep reading. It’s not long before Dostoevsky would be reaching this level of intensity at epic massive novel dimensions. But certainly here there is a compelling seed of it. I should also note this is another of his stories with an amazing variety of translations, even in the titles. They give a vivid sense of what you’re in for with this story.

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