There is nothing to keep him in Petersburg. The train leaves at eight o’clock; by Tuesday he can be with his wife and child in Dresden. But as the hour approaches it becomes more and more inconceivable that he will remove the pictures from the shrine, blow out the candle, and give up Pavel’s room to a stranger. Yet if he does not leave tonight, when will he leave? ‘The eternal lodger’ – where did Anna Sergeyevna pick up the phrase? How long can he go on waiting for a ghost? Unless he puts himself on another footing with the woman, another footing entirely. But what then of his wife? His mind is in a whirl, he does not know what he wants, all he knows is that eight o’clock hangs over him like a sentence of death. He searches out the concierge and after lengthy haggling secures a messenger to take his ticket to the station and have the reservation changed to the next day. Returning, he is startled to find his door open and someone in the room: a woman standing with her back to him, inspecting the shrine.
What do You think about Master Of Petersburg (1994)?
