New House, Continued

"I know what moving means!" Oblomov went on, growing more and more impressive.  "It means noise, breakages; everything is heaped together on the floor.  The portmanteau, the back of the sofa,  picture, pipes, books, all sorts of bottles one doesn't see at other times are sure to turn up from somewhere!...One half is here, another on the cart or at the new flat.  One wants to smoke, takes up the pipe, but the tobacco is gone; one wants to sit down, but there is nothing to sit on! And if one is thirsty, the decanter is here, but there is no glass! And t the new flat, everything is in the wrongplace:  pictures on the floor by the walls, galoshes on the bed, boots in the same bundle with the tea... 

"And you think the moving will be over by the evening, but no, it means at least another fortnight's bother. Pictures to hang, curtains to put up- it's enough to make one's life a misery!  And the expense! ... Why did you talk of moving!  No man could stand it!"

- Ivan Goncharov, "Oblomov," 1859.


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