Crime and Punishment (78 page)

1
2
.
the Gospels
: See Part Four, note
13
. Dostoyevsky later wrote of his brief meeting with the wives of the Decembrists, who gave him the Gospels on his way to prison: ‘The meeting lasted an hour. They blessed us on our new journey, made the sign of the cross over us, and gave each of us a copy of the Gospels – the only book allowed in prison. For four years of penal servitude it lay beneath my pillow. I sometimes read it and read it to others. With it, I taught another convict to read' (from his
Diary of a Writer
,
1873
).

1
3
.
seven days
: See Genesis
29
:
20
: ‘And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her'
(
SB
).

*
Dates are Old Style, following the Julian calendar, which was twelve days behind the Gregorian calendar and remained in force in Russia until
1918
.

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