character
Lstetsov
also: Акцизный Льстецов, the excise official
An excise official who, at the moment of the eclipse, is spending the night not at his own home but at a neighbor woman's house; he bolts into the street in his underclothes shouting a general alarm, and the narrators note they cannot in the interests of justice omit this detail about his whereabouts.
Reading notes
- The Wrongdoers §29 Акцизный Льстецов, ночевавший не дома, а у соседки
A mildly risque aside: the excise official was spending the night at a neighbor woman's house rather than his own, and is caught out in his underclothes when the sudden darkness sends him fleeing into the street. The narrators note primly that "in the interests of justice" they cannot omit this detail -- the joke being that the eclipse's chief casualty is not property or safety but a string of small-town reputations.