Arrival In Petersburg

Journal 1: My Arrival in Petersburg

Today had many surprises and excitements, to say the least. From the moment that I hopped on the train headed to Russia from Switzerland, my day in hindsight seemed like a complete blur. On the train, in attempt to meet my distant relatives, the Yepanchin’s, I ran into the most curious of fellows named Rogozhin. We discussed many unusual things, as a supposed “light” conversation turned into one of great magnitude. We conversed over Rogozhin’s inheritance and his deep love for Nastassya Filippovna. Just hearing about her makes me want to get to know this woman, for I can already tell this “dark haired” fireball would be someone of great interest to me. Perhaps Rogozhin will take me to her house one day so I can make acquaintance with this beautiful yet mysterious woman. So after a most unlikely banter with Rogozhin, the scraggly looking eir to 2 and a half million rupes, I headed out the train to try to find the Yepanchin’s house. I soon arrived there, only to find a servant who wanted me to go to the waiting room. I gave him a simple no and briefly began a bowl of my pipe, only to soon get into a very facinating conversation about the concept of capital punishment. I gave him a description of my horrible time in France, comparing the man knowing he was going to die on the merciless guillotine in contrast the man killed by thieves, who goes into life not knowing his life would end in five minutes. This I pondered deeply.

I soon ran into the general who didn’t give me a piece of mind, excepting my calligraphy skills, in which I wrote, “The humble Pafnuty here sets his hand to it.” Surprisingly, the general loved it, and considered giving me a job worth 25 rouples a month. It’s not the rouples I desire, I just was happy to be accepted by someone and considered of worth. All my life people have called me “The Idiot,” due to my illness and lack of studies associated by having this severe and rare problem. One thing is for certain, I for sure disliked the clerk Ganya, he had a strange countenance about him. Perhaps I shall run into him oneday and we shall be friends..ha I daresay I hope to never see him again, however he did ask if I wanted to live at his house.. an offer that I am much bothered by.

Conclusions, today was good, glad I got to meet my relations the Yepanchin’s, disliked Ganya, and I feel at peace with my relatives. All is good, hopefully Rogozhin doesn’t get mad that I am staying with the fool Ganya.

All is well,

Signed, Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin