youth he had adopted a special kind of stinging and exasperated
eloquence. His ideas did not rise above the common level; but his way
of speaking made him seem not only a clever, but even a very clever,
man. Having taken his degree as candidate, Pigasov decided to devote
himself to the scholastic profession; he understood that in any other
career he could not possibly be the equal of his associates. He tried
to select them from a higher rank and knew how to gain their good
graces; even by flattery, though he was always abusing them. But to do
this he had not, to speak plainly, enough raw material. Having
educated himself through no love for study, Pigasov knew very little
thoroughly. He broke down miserably in the public disputation, while
another student who had shared the same room with him, and who was
constantly the subject of his ridicule, a man of very limited ability
who had received a careful and solid education, gained a complete
triumph. Pigasov was infuriated by this failure, he threw all his
books and manuscripts into the fire and went into a government office.
At first he did not get on badly, he made a fair official, not very
active, extremely self-confident and bold, however; but he wanted to
make his way more quickly, he made a false step, got into trouble, and
was obliged to retire from the service. He spent three years on the
property he had bought himself and suddenly married a wealthy
half-educated woman who was captivated by his unceremonious and
sarcastic manners. But Pigasov's character had become so soured and
irritable that family life was unendurable to him. After living with
him a few years, his wife went off secretly to Moscow and sold her
estate to an enterprising speculator; Pigasov had only just finished
building a house on it. Utterly crushed by this last blow, Pigasov
began a lawsuit with his wife, but gained nothing by it. After this he
lived in solitude, and went to see his neighbours, whom he abused
behind their backs and even to their faces, and who welcomed him with