The River of Life

Characters

• the student — the young lodger in room five: Broken by an interrogation, he leaves a letter on fear, thought, and the River of Life, then shoots himself.
• Anna Friedrichovna Siegmayer — keeper of the "Serbia" rooms: A loud, energetic widow with four children, absorbed by money, the police, and her lieutenant.
• Valerian Ivanovich Tchijhevich — a lieutenant of the reserve, the landlady's lover: He keeps the house register, invents regimental stories, drinks away other people's money, and paws Alychka.
• Arseny — porter of the "Serbia" rooms: He serves the landlady for the fortieth time, until his next drinking bout; he is hopelessly in love with her.
• Alychka — the landlady's thirteen-year-old daughter: A favourite of the lodgers, precociously grown and already knowing everything about the house she lives in.
• Romka — the landlady's eldest son, a schoolboy: Perpetually hungry and aggrieved, he sells other people's books to a dealer, then his own schoolbooks.
• Adka and Edka — the landlady's younger sons, aged seven and five: Hungry, dirty little boys who beg at the table and are rapped on the forehead with a spoon.
• the police inspector — the policeman who draws up the report on the suicide: He clears the crowd, holds forth about students, and stays to supper and dancing with the landlady.