Twelve Chairs (1971)

Rostislav Plyatt: Narrator

Quotes 

• Narrator : In a provincial town N, where the ex marshal of nobility worked as a clerk at the registration office, there were so many hairdressing parlors and funeral homes, that the inhabitants seemed to be born merely in order to have a shave, get their hair cut, freshen up their heads with toilet water, and then die.

• Narrator : Never before had Bartholomew Korobelnikov been so wretchedly deceived. He could deceive anyone he liked. But now he had been cheated at his own game, a business from which he expected great profits and a secure old age.

• Narrator : Anyway, it might be difficult without an accomplice, he thought to himself, and this fellow seems to be a really shady character. He might be useful...

• Narrator : Pot luck that day happened to be a bottle of Zubrovka vodka, home-pickled mushrooms, black caviar, minced herring, Ukrainian beet soup, chicken and rice, fruits, and so on and so forth.

• Narrator : The Assistant Warden of Stavropol's Retirement Home N 2 was a shy little thief. His whole being protested against stealing, yet it was impossible for him not to steal. He stole and was ashamed of himself. He stole constantly and was constantly ashamed of himself. The world has never seen such a bashful chiseller as Alexander Yakovlevich.

• Narrator : It was a famous university hostel named after the monk Brother Berthold Schwartz. At first only chemistry students lived here, but now it had formed something between a housing co-operative and a feudal settlement.

• Narrator : This Drop was considered one of the sights of Pyatigorsk. It seemed to be the only place where the summer people could come for free. Ostap intended to remove that regrettable omission.

• Narrator : By ho-ho! Ellochka could express all kind of things. In this particular case she meant the following: I swear by my honor, I can make a gorgeous gown from the shirt of my husband... not even worse than that snooty American girl has! Men will tremble when they see me like this. They will follow me to the edge of the world, hiccupping with love. But I shall be cold.

• Narrator : Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Part 1.

• Narrator : On the remaining boards Ostap made the same move, pawn to king four. At the third move it became clear that in 18 games the Grossmeister was playing a Spanish gambit. In the other 12 the blacks played the old-fashioned, thought fairly reliable, Philidor defense. If Ostap had known he was using such cunning gambits and countering such tested defenses, he would have been most surprised. The truth of the matter was that he was playing chess for the second time in his life.