Alexander Ilyich Rostov would be climbing to the roof of the Metropol Hotel in his finest jacket and gamely approaching its parapet in order to throw himself into the street below.

lumbago. They spoke of the once and the was, of the wishful

Suddenly—I shone in all my might, and morning rang its round. Always to shine, to shine everywhere, to the very depths of the last days, to shine— and to hell with everything else! That is my motto— and the sun’s!

fifteenth? This would require access to a store with the

In the time that Nina had been in the hotel, the walls had not grown inward, they had grown outward, expanding in scope and intricacy.

So, yes, life was rolling along, just as it always had.

Chekhov and Tolstoy,

But imagining what might happen if one’s circumstances were different was the only sure route to madness.

when this happens, it is best to wash one’s face, brush one’s teeth, and pull one’s covers over one’s head. But as the Count was about to open the door to