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38 and striking verisimilitude. Certain extracts from the poem have come to my ears, and I may say that the author is a great man—one hears in him the notes both of Dante and of Shakespeare."

"And whence has he originated?" asked Oblomov, leaning forward in astonishment; but Penkin, perceiving that he had now said too much, merely repeated that Oblomov must read the poem, and judge for himself. This Oblomov declined to do.

"Why?" asked Penkin. "The thing will make a great stir and be much talked about."

"Very well: let people talk. 'Tis all some folks have to do. 'Tis their métier."

"Nevertheless, read it yourself, for curiosity's sake."

"What have I not seen in books!" commented the other. "Surely folk must write such things merely to amuse themselves?"

"Yes; even as I do. At the same time, what truth, what verisimilitude, do you not find in books! How powerfully some of them move one through the vivid portraiture which they contain! Whomsoever these authors take—a tchinovnik, an officer, or a blackmailer—they paint them as living creatures."