Help with a short story: the unopened letter

[eric r laursen]

This describes an incident from Oblomov's dream in Oblomov.  I think they open the letter after four or five days and it turns out to be a request for a beer recipe (which they never answer).  --Eric Laursen

________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Hugh Olmsted
Sent: Sat 11/8/2008 7:04 PM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Help with a short story: the unopened letter




      Dear friends,
      On behalf of a colleague not in our field, I wonder whether our 
collective wisdom can identify a Russian short story just from a few 
clues in its subject.  What we know is this:  a family living far out 
in the provinces unexpectedly receives a letter from the Center, 
probably St. Petersburg.  It is a very official-looking, obviously 
important letter, and causes great consternation in the family:  What 
should they do?  Maybe it's bad news, maybe they shouldn't open it?  
Or maybe that would be just the wrong thing to do:  if they didn't 
open it, might that bring terrible consequences?  And so they hang, 
unable to decide, not opening it, not resolving their dilemma.
      And that's all we know.  How it turns out, who wrote it, what 
its title might be, all remain to be recovered.
      From this shred of evidence, can anybody provide the title and 
author?
      Thanks for your attention; we'll be very grateful for any leads,
      Hugh Olmsted

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