Read First Love Online

Authors: Ivan Turgenev

First Love (10 page)

And what has come to pass of all I hoped for? And now, when the shades of evening begin to steal over my life, what have I left fresher, more precious, than the memories of the storm—so soon over—of early morning, of spring?

But I do myself injustice. Even then, in those light-hearted young days, I was not deaf to the voice of sorrow, when it called upon me, to the solemn strains floating to me from beyond the tomb. I remember, a few days after I heard of Zinaïda’s death, I was present, through a peculiar, irresistible impulse, at the death of a poor old woman who lived in the same house as we. Covered with rags, lying on hard boards, with a sack under her head, she died hardly and painfully. Her whole life had been passed in the bitter struggle with daily want; she had known no joy, had not tasted the honey of happiness. One would have thought, surely she would rejoice at death, at her deliverance, her rest. But yet, as long as her decrepit body held out, as long as her breast still heaved in agony under the icy hand weighing upon it, until her last forces left her, the old woman crossed herself, and kept whispering, “Lord, forgive my sins”; and only with the last spark of consciousness, vanished from her eyes the look of fear, of horror of the end. And I remember that then, by the death-bed of that poor old woman, I felt aghast for Zinaïda, and longed to pray for her, for my father—and for myself.

OTHER TITLES IN
THE ART OF THE NOVELLA SERIES

BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER

HERMAN MELVILLE

THE LESSON OF THE MASTER

HENRY JAMES

MY LIFE

ANTON CHEKHOV

THE DEVIL

LEO TOLSTOY

THE TOUCHSTONE

EDITH WHARTON

THE HOUND OF THE

BASKERVILLES

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

THE DEAD

JAMES JOYCE

FIRST LOVE

IVAN TURGENEV

A SIMPLE HEART

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING

RUDYARD KIPLING

MICHAEL KOHLHAAS

HEINRICH VON KLEIST

THE BEACH OF FALESÁ

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

THE HORLA

GUY DE MAUPASSANT

THE ETERNAL HUSBAND

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED

HADLEYBURG

MARK TWAIN

THE LIFTED VEIL

GEORGE ELIOT

THE GIRL WITH THE

GOLDEN EYES

HONORÉ DE BALZAC

A SLEEP AND A FORGETTING

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

BENITO CERENO

HERMAN MELVILLE

MATHILDA

MARY SHELLEY

STEMPENYU: A JEWISH ROMANCE

SHOLEM ALEICHEM

FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES

JOSEPH CONRAD

HOW THE TWO IVANS

QUARRELLED

NIKOLAI GOGOL

MAY DAY

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

RASSELAS, PRINCE ABYSSINIA

SAMUEL JOHNSON

THE DIALOGUE OF THE DOGS

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

THE LEMOINE AFFAIR

MARCEL PROUST

THE COXON FUND

HENRY JAMES

THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH

LEO TOLSTOY

TALES OF BELKIN

ALEXANDER PUSHKIN

THE AWAKENING

KATE CHOPIN

ADOLPHE

BENJAMIN CONSTANT

THE COUNTRY OF

THE POINTED FIRS

SARAH ORNE JEWETT

PARNASSUS ON WHEELS

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

THE NICE OLD MAN

AND THE PRETTY GIRL

ITALO SVEVO

LADY SUSAN

JANE AUSTEN

JACOB’S ROOM

VIRGINIA WOOLF

THE DUEL

GIACOMO CASANOVA

THE DUEL

ANTON CHEKHOV

THE DUEL

JOSEPH CONRAD

THE DUEL

HEINRICH VON KLEIST

THE DUEL

ALEXANDER KUPRIN

THE ALIENIST

MACHADO DE ASSIS

ALEXANDER’S BRIDGE

WILLA CATHER

FANFARLO

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE

THE DISTRACTED PREACHER

THOMAS HARDY

THE ENCHANTED WANDERER

NIKOLAI LESKOV

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