He got up and sat on the edge of the bedstead with his back to the window. “It’s better not to sleep at all,” he decided. There was a cold damp draught from the window, however; without getting up he drew the blanket over him and wrapped himself in it. He was not thinking of anything and did not want to think. But one image rose after another, incoherent scraps of thought without beginning or end passed through his mind. He sank into drowsiness. Perhaps the cold, or the dampness, or the dark, or the wind that howled under the window and tossed the trees roused a sort of persistent craving for the fantastic. He kept dwelling on images of flowers, he fancied a charming flower garden, a bright, warm, almost hot day, a holiday—Trinity day. A fine, sumptuous country cottage in the English taste overgrown with fragrant flowers, with flower beds going round the house; the porch, wreathed in climbers, was surrounded with beds of roses. A light, cool staircase, carpeted with rich rugs, was decorated with rare plants in china pots. He noticed particularly in the windows nosegays of tender, white, heavily fragrant narcissus bending over their bright, green, thick long stalks. He was reluctant to move away from them, but he went up the stairs and came into a large, high drawing-room and again everywhere—at the windows, the doors on to the balcony, and on the balcony itself—were flowers. The floors were strewn with freshly-cut fragrant hay, the windows were open, a fresh, cool, light air came into the room. The birds were chirruping under the window, and in the middle of the room, on a table covered with a white satin shroud, stood a coffin. The coffin was covered with white silk and edged with a thick white frill; wreaths of flowers surrounded it on all sides. Among the flowers lay a girl in a white muslin dress, with her arms crossed and pressed on her bosom, as though carved out of marble. But her loose fair hair was wet; there was a wreath of roses on her head. The stern and already rigid profile of her face looked as though chiselled of marble too, and the smile on her pale lips was full of an immense unchildish misery and sorrowful appeal. Svidrigaïlov knew that girl; there was no holy image, no burning candle beside the coffin; no sound of prayers: the girl had drowned herself. She was only fourteen, but her heart was broken. And she had destroyed herself, crushed by an insult that had appalled and amazed that childish soul, had smirched that angel purity with unmerited disgrace and torn from her a last scream of despair, unheeded and brutally disregarded, on a dark night in the cold and wet while the wind howled

The Blog

  • Quick Roundup image of tag icon

    Stanley Fish says that Random House’s deep sixing of “The Jewel of Medina” in order to avoid offending Muslims is not censorship, as Salman Rushdie asserted. Edward Champion tells us why Fish is wrong. Check out a whole database of Haruki Murakami book covers from around the world. (via Bookninja). Elizabeth Baines recalls the trials […]

     Read More
  • Drawbridge to Tobias Wolff, John Berger, and Daniel Alarcon image of tag icon

    The newest edition of The Drawbridge is out, with the theme of Opulence. A BookFox favorite, Tobias Wolff, has a wet-hay-stacking short story, one of the ones included in “Our Story Begins.” Also included is a story by the wonderful essayist John Berger, “Across Prison Walls.” (“Shit” might be one of my favorite essays of […]

     Read More
  • Sam Savage’s Firmin: International Round image of tag icon

    Here’s the lovely treat of a 67 year old man, publishing his first book, which goes on to be an international bestseller. Lit-blog Co-op members might remember Sam Savage’s “Firmin,” which is now doing remarkable business abroad: Firmin … about the adventures of an erratic, paper-gobbling, self-pitying rodent, has spent the summer knocking Ken Follett […]

     Read More
  • Roundup with Textbooks image of tag icon

    The problem with textbook prices is more complex than either side (students/faculty versus textbook publishers) would lead you to believe. But exorbitant prices are being fought by a wave of open-source textbooks (yes that means free. And online). As difficult and time-consuming as it is, one of the best exercises for writers is to copy […]

     Read More
  • Electronic Writing in the Classroom image of tag icon

    More of a personal note, this post. In a week I'll be starting a class teaching electronic writing at a university in the Southern California area. I'm looking forward to it — a nice reprieve from the steady streak of regular English Composition classes. I've developed a good deal of my curriculum already — the […]

     Read More
  • Literary Journal Rankings image of tag icon

    On this lovely Monday morning, I’d like to direct your attention to the left column, under “Pages.” I’ve added a new one: Ranking of Literary Journals. Although I realize the dangers of such an attempt and the impossibility of creating a list that will not be debated, I wrote this because when I was first […]

     Read More
  • Ranking of Literary Journals image of tag icon

    I’ve become disenchanted with the whole notion of ranking literary journals, but I don’t want to delete this page entirely and disappoint the many readers who come here daily to discover new literary journals to read and submit to. So instead, I’m radically changing the system. The list below arranges literary journals in order of […]

     Read More
  • Roundup Gawker’s Pitch image of tag icon

    I can’t help but laugh at Gawker’s pitch for the N+1 Reality Television Show. Think “The Apprentice” meets “Project Runway.” Picture nubile young women completing challenges in order to win the coveted internship under Keith Gessen. Michael Chabon picked up a Hugo Award (Sci-fi award) for “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union,” but it’s not his best […]

     Read More
  • Chris Adrian “A Better Angel” Reviews image of tag icon

    Reviews are out for Chris Adrian's first short story collection, "A Better Angel." The Seattle Times, a two-paragraph blurb at Esquire, a thorough review at the San Francisco Chronicle, and lastly at the LA Times. It's this last review, by Lizzie Skurnick, which troubles me. Skurnick's main complaint is that the children in "A Better […]

     Read More