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A young girl named Mashenka, works as a governess in the Vassilyevna house and she comes home to find the house in turmoil and finds her mistress rummaging through her things. the maids ell her a very expensive brooch was lost. Mashenka is very disturbed that Fedosya Vassilyevna her mother would look through her things assuming she was the thief Madame Fedosya then says at dinner that she will not tolerate thieves in the house. this pushes Mashenka over the edge, and she decides to leave. Nikolai Serge itch, master of the house begs her to stay and reveals to her that he stole the brooch. Mashenka knows she can't stay in the house a moment longer and leaves.
Korolyov, a young doctor, visits the house of Lyalikov, a recently deceased factory owner, to attend to the heiress, twenty-year old Liza, who has heart problems. The factory looks threatening, Korolyov begins to construct a picture of it in his mind as of the Devil's abode. He can't help thinking of the unspeakable suffering that lurks behind these dark walls. The owners' house, surrounded by workshops and ran, apparently by the governess, looks for him equally unpleasant.
Hermann, an ethnic German, is an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army. He constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself. One night, Tomsky tells a story about his grandmother, an elderly countess. Many years ago, in France, she lost a fortune at cards, and then won it back with the secret of the three winning cards, which she learned from the notorious Count of St. Germain. Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret.
A mother-son day out takes a surprising turn.
The point of view is that of first-person narrator, John Smith, who, as an adult, is reassessing an episode in his life when he was nineteen. He dedicates the story to his late (fictional) stepfather. The events unfold shortly after the death of Smith’s mother in 1939, when he and his stepfather return to Manhattan from Paris, where the family had spent the Great Depression years. As housemates, the “exceptionally unpleasant†Smith and his “live-and-let-live†widower stepfather are incompatible developing an Alphonse and Gaston relationship. Seeking escape, Smith applies for, and is accepted, as an instructor at a Montreal, Quebec correspondence art academy, “Les Amis des Vieux Maîtres†operated by Monsieur I. Yoshoto.[5] Smith’s résumé overstates his artistic credentials and further, he falsely claims to be a descendent of Honoré Daumier and a confidant of Pablo Picasso.[6] He adopts the inflated moniker “Jean de Daumier-Smithâ€. Smith increasingly internalizes his own contrived persona.
The story comprises several vignettes which take place aboard a luxury liner. The events occur roughly between 10:00 and 10:30 am on October 28, 1952. Teddy is Theodore "Teddy" McArdle, a 10-year-old mystic-savant returning home to America with his entertainer-socialite parents and his younger sister. As part of their tour of Great Britain, Teddy has been interviewed as an academic curiosity by professors of religious and philosophical studies - the "Leidekker examining group" - from various European universities in order to test his claims of advanced spiritual enlightenment.
A family's grief deteriorates into rage when their daughter is killed by an infected animal.
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