My Dream (Tolstoy)
Short summary
Prince Michael Ivanovich discovered that his daughter Lisa had left home a year ago and was living in a provincial town with her illegitimate child.
He visited his brother Peter, the provincial governor, intending to arrange financial support for her without seeing her. His sister-in-law Alexandra urged him to forgive Lisa, but Michael remained consumed by wounded pride and shame. He remembered Lisa as a brilliant child with black eyes and auburn hair, and how she had rejected suitable suitors.
Against his intentions, Michael went to Lisa's lodgings. When she returned and saw him, she cried out:
Father!... Forgive... Forgive—forgive me... and he began to sob like a child, kissing her face and hands, and wetting them with his tears.
In his pity for her poverty and suffering, Michael realized his own guilt and coldness. They reconciled completely.
Detailed summary by chapters
Chapter titles are editorial.
Chapter 1. Prince Michaels disgrace and refusal to see his daughter
Prince Michael Ivanovich traveled from St. Petersburg to a provincial town where his brother Peter served as governor. The elder prince had discovered that his daughter Lisa, who had left home a year earlier, was now living there with her child. In his brother's study, Michael declared his position with bitter finality.
As a daughter she no longer exists for me. Can't you understand? She simply doesn't exist. Still, I cannot possibly leave her to the charity of strangers.
Michael was a distinguished man who had lived his life without reproach. His family included an irritable wife, a spendthrift son, and two daughters - the elder married well in St. Petersburg, while Lisa had been his favorite until her disgrace. Prince Peter wanted to ask about the circumstances of Lisa's departure and the father of her child, but could not bring himself to inquire.
That evening, Michael's sister-in-law visited his room. She pleaded with him to show mercy toward Lisa, but Michael remained unmoved by her entreaties. The conversation grew painful as she pressed him to reconsider his harsh judgment.
Alone in his room, Michael tormented himself with memories of Lisa's childhood. He remembered her as a bright, impetuous child with brilliant black eyes and flowing auburn hair, who would climb on his knees and shower him with affection. The contrast between those sweet memories and her current disgrace filled him with anguish.
He recalled the time when she was not merely his child, and a member of his family, but his darling, his joy and his pride... when that sweet child had become what she now was.
Michael remembered how Lisa had refused several good suitors and had become increasingly fascinated by social success. Her pride had bordered on insolence, and she had even begun a flirtation with a young cadet, causing distress to the boy and creating hostility between father and daughter. The final blow came when she wrote from Moscow confessing her ruin - seduced by a worthless Swedish student while visiting her aunt in Finland.
Chapter 2. Lisas fall from grace and new life as a mother
During her last year at home, Lisa had experienced a profound awakening to the emptiness of her privileged existence. The endless round of parties, balls, and social gatherings had lost all meaning for her.
She yearned for something real, for life itself—not this playing at living, not this skimming life of its cream. Of real life there was none.
In Finland, Lisa met a Swedish student who spoke of his work and ideals. A dangerous fascination developed between them through glances and smiles that seemed to reveal profound mysteries. Music and literature took on deeper meaning when shared between them.
Lisa's passionate nature and longing for authentic life made her vulnerable. She saw in this man the promise of the real existence she craved. The beautiful spiritual connection they seemed to share led inevitably to her downfall.
Suddenly all that was beautiful, joyous, spiritual, and full of promise for the future, became animal and sordid, sad and despairing.
When Lisa demanded he write to her father asking for her hand, the student revealed he was already married. Despite this betrayal, Lisa declared herself bound to him forever. He tried to dissuade her with talk of poverty, but she was willing to sacrifice everything. Eventually, his letters ceased entirely.
Back in St. Petersburg, Lisa fell ill and contemplated suicide. She prepared poison but was interrupted by her sister's five-year-old son, whose innocent presence made her realize the value of life itself.
She began to think not of what others would say of her, but of her own life... the moment she saw her own life dissociated from the world, to take that life was out of question.
When Lisa discovered she was pregnant, everything changed. Despite the shame and sorrow it would bring her family, she smiled with joy at the prospect of motherhood.
Forgetting everything, his baseness and deceit, her mother's querulousness, and her father's sorrow, she smiled... at the recollection that she was on the point of killing it.
Lisa arranged to leave home secretly and settled in a distant provincial town where she lived with a midwife, planning to become a mother despite her miserable circumstances. When she learned her uncle had been appointed to the same town, she prepared to flee to an even more remote location.
Chapter 3. Father and daughters reconciliation
The next morning, Michael arranged for his brother to provide Lisa with monthly payments, planning to leave on the evening train without seeing her. However, his sister-in-law's words haunted him, and he found himself seeking out Lisa's address. He hired a cab and went to Kukonskaya Street.
At the midwife's house, Michael heard a baby crying, which filled him with disgust. Just as he prepared to leave, Lisa returned from shopping. Father and daughter faced each other after their long separation - she thin and worn, he overwhelmed by pity for her condition.
When Lisa asked for forgiveness, Michael broke down completely. All his anger and wounded pride dissolved into infinite sorrow for his daughter's suffering.
In his pity for her he understood himself. And when he saw himself as he was, he realised how he had wronged her, how guilty he had been in his pride, in his coldness.
Lisa showed him her modest room and spoke of living in the country. When the baby began crying, she hesitated, but Michael encouraged her to tend to the child. He promised to return the next day to make arrangements, blessing both mother and child. When he returned to his brother's house and Alexandra asked about his visit, Michael could only weep, admitting he was growing old and foolish. His sister-in-law gently corrected him.
No; you are growing wise—very wise.