Lermontov's Shtoss

In the early months of 1841, when Lermontov was briefly in Petersburg on leave from the Caucasian front, he played a practical joke on his literary friends by solemnly convening them for a reading of a new novel and presenting them instead with a short and unfinished tale of the supernatural. The circumstances surrounding this episode were chronicled by Countess E. P. Rostopchina, herself a popular author of the period:Once he declared that he would read to us a new novel entitled Shtoss, the reading of which he calculated would take at least four hours. He insisted that we gather early in the evening and that the doors be locked against outsiders. All his wishes were fulfilled, and about thirty selected persons assembled

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