If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Leaning from the steep slope takes the form of several diary entries. On Monday, the narrator takes his daily walk along the shore. As he passes the local prison, he sees “a hand thrust out of a window of the prison, toward the sea” (55). This impresses him. Continuing his walk, he spots Miss Zwida. She’s sitting in a chair beside a hotel, wearing a white hat. The narrator has seen Miss Zwida regularly, though he has been trying to avoid her. He’s concerned that she’ll want to talk about seashells. The narrator has “forgotten everything” he once knew about seashells. Later, he talks to a meteorologist named Mr. Kauderer at the nearby observatory. The usually reserved Mr. Kauderer opens up when talking about the weather, which pleases the narrator. Mr. Kauderer is planning a trip and asks the narrator to record some data for him, to which the narrator agrees.

On Tuesday, the narrator finally talks to Miss Zwida. She’s drawing a sea urchin, and he compliments her artistic skills. Then he visits the observatory to record the data. Two men “in heavy coats, dressed all in black” (60) arrive and ask to see Dr. Kauderer. The narrator explains that the meteorologist is away, so the men leave.

On Wednesday, the narrator passes the prison and sees Miss Zwida in the courtyard, dressed in a black veil. He also sees the two men in black coats. Later, he writes in his diary and wonders whether anyone will ever read his entries. He doesn’t believe anyone could ever understand his “ambiguous” diary.

On Thursday, the narrator discovers that Miss Zwida makes regular trips to the prison. She has an official permit for these visits. Although he doesn’t mention that he saw her in the prison the previous day, the narrator talks to Miss Zwida about drawing. He thinks that he would only sketch inanimate objects. Miss Zwida mentions her desire to draw “one of those little anchors with four flukes, known as “grapnels.” She’d never be able to buy such a grapnel, as she doesn’t believe a young lady should. Therefore, she can’t make the sketch. The narrator offers to buy the grapnel for her. She asks for one with an extra-long rope.

On Thursday evening, the narrator enters a bar. He’s pleased with his day’s work, having struck up a dialogue with Miss Zwida. He overhears two men talking about their work in the local prison; one says he saw a “perfumed young lady slip [one of the guards] a hundred-crown note to leave her alone with the convict” (64).

On Friday, the narrator attempts to buy the grapnel for Miss Zwida. A suspicious fisherman tells him to visit a chandler. The chandler, too, is suspicious of the narrator’s desire to buy a grapnel. He refuses to make the sale because grapnels can be used in prison escapes.

On Saturday, Mr. Kauderer returns. He sends the narrator a message, asking to meet in the cemetery that evening. The narrator follows the instructions, but at the cemetery the gravedigger says the meteorologist isn’t there. As the narrator walks between the graves, Mr. Kauderer snatches him into the shadows. He accuses the narrator of endangering the observatory by trying to orchestrate a prison break and alludes to a mysterious “long-term plan” (66) that he considers more important than any prison escape. The police will visit the narrator to question him about the grapnel, Mr. Kauderer says, so the narrator mustn’t mention Mr. Kauderer’s name, and the narrator can no longer work at the observatory.

On Sunday, the narrator visits the observatory. A storm brews, and the narrator has the strange feeling that he’s in control of the weather. Hearing a creak, he turns to see a man with a scraggly beard and ragged clothes. The man begs the narrator not to betray him and asks him to send a message to a guest at the hotel.

The Reader listens to Professor Uzzi-Tuzii reading Leaning from the steep slope. The act of listening feels very different from the act of reading. As the professor continues, he’s increasingly fluent and excited but occasionally pauses to explain and contextualize his translation choices. The Reader, engrossed in the story, barely notices when Ludmilla enters. During one of the professor’s long pauses, she asks, “[A]nd then?” The narrator explains that this is the point in the novel when Ukko Ahti, overcome by depression, dies by suicide. The section the professor just read was published after Ahti’s death. The professor warns the Reader and Ludmilla not to search for the rest of the novel: All Cimmerian novels are unfinished since they’re written in “the wordless language of the dead” (71).

As Ludmilla and the professor talk academically about reading, the Reader feels overwhelmed. Ludmilla states her desire to finish the story. However, she’s interrupted by her sister, Lotaria, who enters, carrying a novel that she studied in a recent “seminar on the feminist revolution” (73). She thinks this novel would suit Ludmilla perfectly. Its title is Without fear of wind or vertigo. The professor has heard of the book; it isn’t an authentic Cimmerian novel, he claims, but an elaborate forgery by a rival nationality, the Cimbrians. At that moment, a pale man with a beard enters the room. He’s Professor Galligani, who teaches Lotaria’s class. He overheard Professor Uzzi-Tuzii and disputes his claim, countering that Without fear of wind or Vertigo is a genuine Cimmerian work. Ludmilla doesn’t care about the professors’ “Cimbro-Cimmerian debate” (74). She just wants to finish the story. Lotaria tells the Reader and Ludmilla to join her feminist seminar. The Reader listens to Professor Galligani lecture about Without fear of wind or vertigo. Galligani explains that the novel was translated into German to reach a wider audience. As Lotaria begins to read a passage, however, the Reader realizes that it has “no possible connection” (76) to any of the earlier novels.

A group of young people leaves a club after a night of listening to music. The group crosses the city of New Titania. The narrator is dressed in a soldier’s uniform and carries a heavy pistol in a holster. He’s accompanied by his friends, Valerian (who’s also armed with a pistol) and Irina, who seems to hold the two men in her control. They pass a church that has been turned into a ward for cholera patients. An old woman shakes her fist at them as they pass, calling “down with the gentry” (79). To the narrator, her protest feels ominous of what will come. The news tells of strikes at the Kauderer factory, which makes munitions, and mentions rumors of a counterrevolutionary force amassing to reclaim the city.

The narration flashes back to when the narrator and Irina met for the first time. An enemy army was advancing toward their position. As civilians, they took up arms and defended the city long enough for the noncombatants to find shelter. Amid the chaos, the narrator felt oddly in harmony with the people fleeing over the Iron Bridge. He saw Irina tumble in the crowd and helped her to her feet, saving her from being trampled. Irina insisted that she was fine and didn’t say thank you. The narrator introduced himself as Alex Zinnober and said that though his regiment had completely “abolished” (84) ranks, he was the equivalent of a lieutenant. He passed through the chaos of the city with Irina. Eventually, he lost her in a crowd. He visited his friend Valerian at the Heavy Industry Commission. Valerian was cleaning his pistol when the narrator entered. Irina interrupted their conversation. She admitted that she’d been listening from behind a screen. Taking the pistol from Valerian, she loaded a round, spun the cylinder, and pointed the gun at the narrator as if she was about to pull the trigger. The narrator told her not to joke, and she responded that the only joke was a revolution in which men but not women could have guns. When a messenger arrived, Irina hid. As Valerian took the message, the narrator asked whether Irina’s sarcastic comments were appropriate. Valerian, who seemed to know her, said that “Irina d[id]n’t joke” (87) about such matters.

The narration returns to the present. The narrator, Valerian, and Irina are having sex together in Irina’s apartment. The narrator thinks about a secret he’s hiding from his friends. He has been given a mission: to uncover “the identity of the spy who has infiltrated the Revolutionary Committee” (88). While Valerian and Irina are distracted, the narrator searches Valerian’s clothes. Inside, he finds a “death sentence for treason” (90), signed and stamped and bearing the narrator’s name.