Summary

Chapter 1 introduces the narrator, Stepan. He is a man of noble birth posing as a servant to a government official, Georgiy Ivanych Orlov. Stepan takes on this job in the hope of learning state secrets, for Orlov’s father is a prominent statesman and a “serious enemy” of Stepan’s “cause” (241). Stepan is consumptive and cites his illness as being responsible for his acute observations. One day, Orlov sends Stepan to deliver a letter to a married woman called Zinaida Fyodorovna Krasnovsky. He does so, and the woman’s sweet smell leaves a lasting impression on him.

In Chapter 2 Stepan describes the first week of his service in Orlov’s household. At first, he had trouble getting used to being addressed informally and treated as less than human. Eventually, he got used to it. He and Polya, the other servant, get along horribly...