Shipwreck Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’m wrong, but how would that make me a better writer? What has it got to do with anything? (
raising his voice
) Why are you getting at me, anyway? I’m not well, you know—well, I’m not not well like you’re not well—(
hastily
)—though you’ll get better, don’t worry—sorry—but coming all this way to this dump to keep you company … Can wenot talk about art and society with the waters sloshing through my kidneys? …
    Belinsky, who has been coughing, is suddenly in distress. Turgenev comes to his aid.
    TURGENEV    (
cont.
) Easy, Captain! Easy …
    BELINSKY    (
recovering
) The waters of Salzbrunn are not the elixir of life, in my opinion. It’s a mystery how these places get their reputation. Anyone can see they’re killing people off like flies.
    TURGENEV    Let’s get out! Come with me to Berlin. I’ve got some friends going to London, I promised to see them off—or we can meet in Paris.
    BELINSKY    No, I …
    TURGENEV    You can’t go home without seeing Paris!
    BELINSKY    I suppose not.
    TURGENEV    Are you all right now?
    BELINSKY    Yes. (
He drinks some water.
)
    TURGENEV    (
Pause.
) So you didn’t like my story?
    BELINSKY    Who said? You’re going to be one of our great writers, one of the few—I’m never wrong.
    TURGENEV    (
moved
) Oh … (
lightly
) You said Fenimore Cooper was as great as Shakespeare.
    BELINSKY    That wasn’t wrong, it was only ridiculous.
    There is a transition.
    J ULY    1847
    Paris. La Place de la Concorde.
    Turgenev and Belinsky are out walking. Belinsky stares gloomily around.
    TURGENEV    Herzen has established himself in the Avenue Marigny. He’s got a chandelier, and a footman to bring things in on a silver tray. The snow on his boots is all gone like
les neiges d’antan. (He points.
) The obelisk marks the spot where they had the guillotine.
    BELINSKY    They say the Place de la Concorde is the most beautiful square in the world, don’t they?
    TURGENEV    Yes.
    BELINSKY    Good. Well, I’ve seen it now. Let’s walk back to where I saw that red-and-white dressing gown in the window.
    TURGENEV    It was expensive.
    BELINSKY    I only want to look at it.
    TURGENEV    I’m sorry about … you know … going off to London like that.
    BELINSKY    It’s all right. (
He coughs painfully.
)
    TURGENEV    Are you getting tired? You wait here, I’ll go to the cab rank.
    BELINSKY    I could write amazing things in a dressing gown like that.
    Turgenev leaves.
    SEPTEMBER    1847
    Belinsky recovers. A chandelier descends into view. Belinsky looks at it.
    Herzen’s voice makes him turn, as the stage
—
the room
—
-fills simultaneously from different directions. Turgenev is unwrapping a shopping parcel. Natalie has a bag of toys and books from a shop.
MADAME HAAG,
who is Herzen’s mother and in her fifties, is in charge of Sasha and Kolya, who is technically aged four. Sasha is ‘speaking’ face-to-face with Kolya, saying ‘Kol-ya, Kol-ya’ with extra enunciation. Kolya has a spinning top.
GEORGE HERWEGH,
aged thirty, a beautiful young man with a feminine delicacy notwithstanding luxuriant facial hair and beard, lies on a chaise, romantically exhausted, having his brow dabbed with cologne by
EMMA,
his wife, who is blonde and handsome rather than pretty.
NICHOLAS SAZONOV,
aged thirty-five, a gentleman down on his luck, is in sympathetic attendance. A Nurse appears and involves herself with Madame and the two children. There is a
SERVANT,
a footman-valet, making himself useful as a waiter. In their dress, Herzen and Natalie have altered strikingly, transformed into Parisians. Herzen’s previously