1 The Brothers Karamazov

Chapter 2

Lizaveta

T

HERE was one circumstance which struck Grigory par-

ticularly, and confirmed a very unpleasant and revolting

suspicion. This Lizaveta was a dwarfish creature, ‘not five

foot within a wee bit,’ as many of the pious old women said

pathetically about her, after her death. Her broad, healthy,

red face had a look of blank idiocy and the fixed stare in

her eyes was unpleasant, in spite of their meek expression.

She wandered about, summer and winter alike, barefooted,

wearing nothing but a hempen smock. Her coarse, almost

black hair curled like lamb’s wool, and formed a sort of

huge cap on her head. It was always crusted with mud, and

had leaves; bits of stick, and shavings clinging to it, as she

always slept on the ground and in the dirt. Her father, a

homeless, sickly drunkard, called Ilya, had lost everything

and lived many years as a workman with some well-to-do

tradespeople. Her mother had long been dead. Spiteful and

diseased, Ilya used to beat Lizaveta inhumanly whenever

she returned to him. But she rarely did so, for everyone in

the town was ready to look after her as being an idiot, and so

specially dear to God. Ilya’s employers, and many others in