"Don't be led away; everything is very much embellished in books, distorted one way or another. Most writers of books are people like our master, small people."
Such judgments seemed very daring to me, and quite corrupted me.
On the same occasion he asked me:
"Have you read any of Goncharov's works?"
'The Frigate Palada.'"
"That's a dull book. But really, Goncharov is the cleverest writer in Russia. I advise you to read his novel, 'Oblomov.' That is by far the truest and most daring book he wrote; in fact, it is the best book in Russian literature."
Of Dickens' works he said:
"They are rubbish, I assure you. But there is a most interesting thing running in the 'Nova Vremya,'-'The Temptation of St. Anthony.' You read it? Apparently you like all that pertains to the church, and 'The Temptation' ought to be a profitable subject for you."
He brought me a bundle of papers containing the serial, and I read Flaubert's learned work. It reminded me of the innumerable lives of holy men, scraps of history told by the valuers, but it made no very deep impression on me. I much preferred the "Memoirs of Upilio Faimali, Tamer of Wild Beasts," which was printed alongside of it.
When I acknowledged this fact to my stepfather, he remarked coolly: