1. Statement of Joel Hetman, Jr. I am the most unfortunate of men. Rich, respected, fairly well educated and of sound health — with many other advantages usually valued by those having them and coveted by those who have them not — I sometimes think that I should be less unhappy if they had been denied me, for then the contrast between my outer and my inner life would not be continually demanding a painful attention. In the stress of privation and the need of effort I might sometimes forget the sombre secret ever baffling the conjecture that it compels...

BOOK ONE CHAPTER 1 - Never Talk with Strangers CHAPTER 2 - Pontius Pilate CHAPTER 3 - The Seventh Proof CHAPTER 4 - The Chase CHAPTER 5 - There were Doings at Griboedov’s CHAPTER 6 - Schizophrenia, as was Said CHAPTER 7 - A Naughty Apartment CHAPTER 8 - The Combat between the Professor and the Poet CHAPTER 9 - Koroviev’s Stunts CHAPTER 10 - News From Yalta CHAPTER 11 - Ivan Splits in Two CHAPTER 12 - Black Magic and Its Exposure CHAPTER 13 - The Hero Enters CHAPTER 14 - Glory to the Cock! CHAPTER 15 - Nikanor Ivanovich’s Dream CHAPTER 16 - The Execution CHAPTER...