The Elephant Page #2

"The Elephant" by Aleksandr Kuprin is a poignant and thought-provoking novella that explores the themes of human emotion, isolation, and the complex relationship between humans and animals. Set in a traveling circus, the story centers around the elephant, a majestic yet tragic creature that becomes a symbol of both beauty and suffering. Through vivid descriptions and deep character development, Kuprin delves into the lives of those connected to the elephant, revealing their struggles, desires, and moral dilemmas. The narrative invites readers to reflect on empathy, the nature of captivity, and the impact of societal indifference towards both animals and individuals in distress.

• Novel

								


His wife looked anxiously at him.

"My dear, are you quite well?" said she. "Haven't you got a headache?
Perhaps you slept badly last night?"

"I didn't sleep at all," he answered angrily. "I see, you want to ask
if I'm going out of my mind. Not just yet. Good-bye. You'll see this
evening."

And he went off, loudly slamming the front door after him.

IV

In two hours' time he was seated in the front row at the menagerie,
and watching trained animals perform their different parts under the
direction of the manager. Clever dogs jumped, turned somersaults,
danced, sang to music, made words with large cardboard letters.
Monkeys--one in a red skirt, the other in blue knickers--walked the
tight rope and rode upon a large poodle. An immense tawny lion jumped
through burning hoops. A clumsy seal fired a pistol. And at last they
brought out the elephants. There were three of them: one large and two
quite small ones, dwarfs; but all the same, much larger than a horse.
It was strange to see how these enormous animals, apparently so heavy
and awkward, could perform the most difficult tricks which would be out
of the power of a very skilful man. The largest elephant distinguished
himself particularly. He stood up at first on his hind legs, then sat
down, then stood on his head with his feet in the air, walked along
wooden bottles, then on a rolling cask, turned over the pages of a
large picture-book with his tail, and, finally, sat down at a table
and, tying a serviette round his neck, had his dinner just like a
well-brought-up little boy.

The show came to an end. The spectators went out. Nadya's father went
up to the stout German, the manager of the menagerie. He was standing
behind a partition smoking a long black cigar.

"Pardon me, please," said Nadya's father. "Would it be possible for you
to send your elephant to my house for a short time?"

The German's eyes opened wide in astonishment, and his mouth also, so
that the cigar fell to the ground. He made an exclamation, bent down,
picked up the cigar, put it in his mouth again, and then said:

"Send? The elephant? To your house? I don't understand you."

It was evident from his look that he also wanted to ask Nadya's father
if he were a little wrong in the head.... But the father quickly
began to explain the matter: his only daughter, Nadya, was ill with
a strange malady which no doctor could understand nor cure. She had
lain for a month in her bed, had grown thinner and weaker every day,
wasn't interested in anything, was only dull--she seemed to be slowly
dying. The doctors had said she must be roused, but she didn't care for
anything; they had said that all her desires were to be gratified, but
she didn't wish for anything at all. To-day she had said she wanted to
see a live elephant. Wasn't it possible to manage that she should?

And he took the German by the button of his coat, and added in a
trembling voice:

"Well ... of course I hope that my little girl will get well again. But
suppose ... God forbid it!... her illness should take a sudden turn for
the worse ... and she should die! Just think--shouldn't I be tortured
for all the rest of my life to think that I hadn't fulfilled her last,
her very last wish!"

The German wrinkled up his forehead and thoughtfully scratched his
left eyebrow with his little finger. At length he asked:

"H'm.... And how old is your little girl?"

"Six."

"H'm.... My Lisa's six, too. H'm. But you know, it'll cost you a lot.
We'll have to take the elephant one night, and we can't bring it back
till the next night. It'll be impossible to do it in the day-time.
There'd be such crowds of people, and such a fuss.... It means that I
should lose a whole day, and you ought to pay me for it."

"Of course, of course ... don't be anxious about that."

"And then: will the police allow an elephant to be taken into a private
house?"

"I'll arrange it. They'll allow it."

"And there's another question: will the landlord of your house allow
the elephant to come in?"

"Yes. I'm my own landlord."

"Aha! That's all the better. And still another question: what floor do
you live on?"

"The second."

"H'm.... That's not so good.... Have you a broad staircase, a high
ceiling, a large room, wide doorways, and a very stout flooring.
Because my 'Tommy' is three and a quarter arshins in height and five
and a half long. And he weighs a hundred and twelve poods."[1]

[1] An arshin is about 3/4 of a yard, and a pood is 36 lbs.

Nadya's father thought for a moment.

"Do you know what?" said he. "You come with me and look at the place.
If it's necessary, I'll have a wider entrance made."

"Very good!" agreed the manager of the menagerie.

V

That night they brought the elephant to visit the sick girl.

He marched importantly down the very middle of the street, nodding
his head and curling up and uncurling his trunk. A great crowd of
people came with him, in spite of the late hour. But the elephant
paid no attention to the people; he saw hundreds of them every day in
the menagerie. Only once did he get a little angry. A street urchin
ran up to him under his very legs, and began to make grimaces for the
diversion of the sight-seers.

Then the elephant quietly took off the boy's cap with his trunk and
threw it over a wall near by, which was protected at the top by
projecting nails.

A policeman came up to the people and tried to persuade them:

"Gentlemen, I beg you to go away. What's there here unusual? I'm
astonished at you! As if you never saw an elephant in the street
before."

They came up to the house. On the staircase, and all the way up to the
dining-room where the elephant was to go, every door was opened wide;
the latches had all been pushed down with a hammer. It was just the
same as had been done once when they brought a large wonder-working
ikon into the house.

But when he came to the staircase the elephant stopped in alarm, and
refused to go on.

"You must get him some dainty to eat," said the German.... "A sweet
cake or something.... But ... Tommy! ... Oho-ho ... Tommy!"

Nadya's father ran off to a neighbouring confectioner's and bought a
large round pistachio tart. The elephant looked as if he would like to
eat it at one gulp, and the cardboard box it was in as well, but the
German gave him only a quarter of the tart.... Tommy evidently liked
it, and stretched out his trunk for a second morsel. But the German was
cunning. Holding the tart in his hand he went up the staircase, step by
step, and the elephant unwillingly followed him with outstretched trunk
and bristling ears. On the landing Tommy was given a second piece.

In this way they brought him into the dining-room, from whence all the
furniture had been taken out beforehand, and the floor had been strewn
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