Chapter IV. The Cripple

Shatov visits Lizaveta Nikolaevna with the narrator present. Liza outlines a plan to publish an annual book condensing notable, character-revealing events from newspapers, and proposes founding a private press, asking Shatov to co-edit. She insists on impartiality; Shatov argues selection implies tendency but is intrigued.

A crude, half-threatening, half-servile letter from Captain Lebyadkin proposes marriage and hints at damning documents. Liza, alarmed, seeks Shatov’s view. When she mentions Pyotr Verkhovensky’s referral and printing, Shatov abruptly leaves, then returns only to refuse the work.

After the narrator departs, Liza privately begs him to arrange a meeting with Lebyadkin’s lame sister, Marya, by tomorrow. He promises and hurries to Shatov for help.

At Shatov’s lodgings, after a tense encounter with Alexey Nilitch and the gloomy Shigalov, Shatov rails against “paper men,” recounts his and Kirillov’s failed American labor experiment, and reveals Stavrogin once sent him money. Hearing the narrator’s plea, Shatov agrees to try immediately and leads him to the Lebyadkins’.

They find squalor and Marya Timofyevna—painted, dreamy, gentle, and lame—alone. She treats her brother as a ‘footman,’ drifts in mystical talk, and hints at a lost child. Shatov explains her memory lapses and frequent beatings. Captain Lebyadkin soon returns drunk, blusters at Shatov’s door, nearly revealing a secret, then staggers off.

On the decisive Sunday, Varvara Petrovna returns from church unexpectedly with Liza and Marya. Earlier, during a crowded service, Marya knelt to Varvara; Varvara publicly gave her money and wrapped her in her own shawl, pointedly witnessed by the governor’s wife. Liza, in visible distress, insisted on accompanying Varvara and brings Marya back, knitting private desperation to public spectacle and foreshadowing new revelations.