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1930; Arachne’s Art; & An Afternoon Assignation

BOOK THREE

Summary: 1930

The Count grinds his own coffee and does his daily calisthenics while it brews. He is enjoying a modest breakfast, taken from a small cupboard, when he notices an envelope slipped under his door. “Four o’clock?” is written on the envelope. “Mon Dieu,” the Count mutters when he sees the contents.

Summary: Arachne’s Art

Chef Emile runs his kitchen like a tyrannical orchestra conductor, with a knife for a baton. As he gestures and jabs while correcting his cooks’ mistakes, the Count enters the kitchen, carrying a waiter’s jacket. Having been hired by Andrey exactly four years ago, the Count is now the Boyarsky’s headwaiter. Today, as usual, he and Andrey are meeting with Emile to review plans for dinner. The Count, who has always been skilled with seating arrangements, ensures that the placements of various officials and diplomats will minimize resentments. Then he shows the other two members of the “Triumvirate” something he just acquired: a portion of saffron, a rare spice. After some discussion about fennel and oranges, the three agree to meet again at half past midnight.

The Count’s mood is dampened by a long, melancholy letter from Mishka, apparently still heartbroken after Katerina left him for another man a year ago. Midway through the letter, the Count notices four members of the Young Communist League, including one in a sailor cap who brings a blonde woman her coat. The Count realizes that the woman is Nina, whom he has not seen in over two years. When he greets her and asks about her present activities, she says she is about to go help collectivize farms in Ivanovo province. She is all business. A little later, sitting with Marina and resewing a button on his jacket the way she taught him, he frets that Nina’s convictions are leading her away from what will bring her joy. Marina assures him that life will eventually find Nina, as it does us all.

Noticing that the time is 4:05, the Count hastily thanks Marina and dashes up to a suite where Anna Urbanova, who previously sent the Count the saffron in the envelope with the penned note, is waiting in the bedchamber.

Summary: An Afternoon Assignation

Anna’s career took several turns after that day when she and the Count first met in the lobby. At the time, she was starring in popular films and lived in luxury. However, when her director fell out of favor with the Politburo, her fortunes fell as well. She spent the next few years lunching with various other directors, angling for small roles. Since she had joined the Count as a member of the “Confederacy of the Humbled,” she dropped her haughty pose, and in 1928 they began seeing each other whenever she was back at the Metropol. Eventually, a one-scene performance, as a factory worker who gives a rousing speech about production quotas, reversed Anna’s career slide. By then, the balding fan the Count saw with Anna in 1923 was a senior official in the Ministry of Culture. Thanks to his spreading the word about her, Anna is now again a star and living comfortably, albeit not as grandly as before.

As Anna and the Count lie in bed, he tells a story of a wealthy poet who was at sea and summoned dolphins to rescue him when the ship’s crew tried to steal his fortune. When the Count asks Anna to tell a sea tale, she admits to having lied about being fisherman’s daughter. However, she relates a tale about the third son of a rich merchant. The young man sailed away poor but came back rich, having found an island made of salt and a kingdom of people who valued salt as much as gold.

Analysis: 1930; Arachne’s Art; & An Afternoon Assignation

Six years has passed since the Count considered jumping from the roof, and this time leap serves to both encompass the changes in Russa over years, and to highlight how the Count has adapted to these changes. Now, he makes his own breakfast instead of getting room service, he has a morning exercise routine, and he has a job as the Boyarsky’s headwaiter and mends his own clothing. His life resembles that of a member of the working class, but as he wakes in his servants’ quarters, it is clear he has embraced his new life and completely altered his standing as nobility. The Count is also part of the Triumvirate, the Bishop is the new assistant manager of the Metropol, Russia has opened its door to foreigners, Anna and the Count commence a love affair, and Mishka’s letter draws the Count to his usual chair between the palms where, only when he pauses to consider MIshka’s pain, does he see Nina. Each of these circumstances by themselves seem insignificant, but together they set in motion the events in the story to come.

The theme of individualism versus collectivism is further highlighted here. Wine labels have returned, but only when a leader of the Bolsheviks was humiliated in front of a French ambassador. At the same time, the term “comrade” has replaced titles, pronouns, and even names in order to remove individual markers of class and identity. Shouting “comrade” in a crowd is useless, in that one does not know who is being shouted at. Nina joins the collective cause for the Bolsheviks, seeming to surrender herself, to the degree that the Count doesn’t recognize her at first. However, she still clings to a small piece of her individuality by refusing to say thank you, which is how the Count is able to identify her. No matter how hard the Bolsheviks try to erase individuality, it continues to assert itself.

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