Dostoevsky: Demons discussion

he [Pyotr] insisted that we three should work together, and said the most fantastic things about a boat and about maple-wood oars out of some Russian song... I was fascinated by that operatic boat, I am a young lady (Liza to Stavrogin)

This recalls Pyotr's exhortation to Stavrogin in 2.6.VII (Pyotr is Busy): We shall take to our barque, you know; the oars are of maple, the sails are of silk, at the helm sits a fair maiden, Lizaveta Nikolaevna … hang it, how does it go in the ballad?

We never find out how it goes in the ballad. Although Pyotr talks up this team of three (himself as facilitator and Liza to keep Stavrogin content), Stavrogin is ultimately not satisfied with Liza.

Pyotr backs up and assures Stavrogin that Liza is inessential, and that he can keep Stavrogin amused going forward:

I brought her to you simply to amuse you, and to show you that you wouldn’t have a dull time with me. I shall be of use to you a hundred times in that way. I always like pleasing people. If you don’t want her now, which was what I was reckoning on when I came, then …

Stavrogin is finally unwilling to play the part of Pyotr's revolutionary hero. In 3.3.II Pyotr says to him in frustration: Fine sort of ‘magic boat,’ you are; you are a broken-down, leaky old hulk!

And in the next section 3.3.III to Liza: If your ‘fairy boat’ has failed you, if it has turned out to be nothing more than a rotten old hulk, only fit to be chopped up …

In his "Tolstoy or Dostoevsky," Steiner asserts that "Verkhovensky has underestimated the sheer weariness of his god". He also points out the suggestion of "sterility" or a failed physical encounter between Liza and Stavrogin implied in Pyotr's remark:

as soon as you came out to me I guessed from your face that you’d been ‘unlucky.’ A complete fiasco, perhaps.

Here is the synopsis and comments from Dennis Abram's blog, including George Steiner's analysis of the last 60 hours of the book: https://projectdblog.wordpress.com/20...


When I read the passage, I thought Pyotr's comments about the night being a "fiasco" and musing that they must have spent it side by side talking in the parlor were caused by his inability to comprehend why Lisa would decide not to stay with Stavrogin.