At acquaintances

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Anton Chekhov

With acquaintances ( Russian У знакомых , U snakomych ) is a story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which was written in Nice at the end of 1897 and appeared in the February issue of the Russian edition of the international magazine Cosmopolis in Saint Petersburg in 1898 . The translation into German was brought out by Eugen Diederichs in Leipzig in 1902 .

The Moscow lawyer Podgorin, a bachelor, received a written invitation to the Kuzminki estate, only two hours away by train, from his acquaintance Tatiana Alexejewna Lossewa and her friend Varvara Pavlovna, called Varya, in the early summer. Six years ago Tatjana brought the estate into the marriage. Her husband Sergei Sergejitsch Lossew - an incompetent, lazy city dweller - had quickly run down it. The drinker and gambler Losev is considered a notorious Moscow philanderer.

Podgorin arrives and wants to stay three days. Soon after his arrival, Tatiana confesses to him the hopeless economic situation of the estate. Losev was offered a job as a tax inspector in Perm or Ufa , but Tatiana would like to stay with her "extraordinary daughters" and Losev on Kuzminki - in their "home nest". Podgorin found out about bankruptcy matters, please come up with something. The lawyer Podgorin usually speaks bluntly plain text in such cases, but he sneaks around the bush with good friends.

Varya has a solution in private with the lawyer. Podgorin should propose marriage to Tatyana's sister Nadezhda, called Nadja. Podgorin thinks back to the time when he, at that time a student of rights, was employed as an assistant teacher on Kuzminki. The times are over. Varya, now a doctor in a factory near Tula , can hardly survive there. The practitioner Podgorin is convinced that Varya's interference in foreign affairs - here in Kuzminki's bankruptcy - is of no use.

Podgorin also speaks - again in private - with Nadja. After the inevitable bankruptcy, she wants to part with her sister Tatjana and go her own way. Nadja wants to work. Podgorin knows better because he knows his former student well. Nadja doesn't even know what work means.

When, on the evening of the first day of the visit, all five adults realized that Kuzminki could not be saved and would go under the hammer on August 7th, Losev took the lawyer aside and pumps him on. Podgorin slips the landlord a hundred rubles, but asks for an occasional return because he needs his money.

With the marriage proposal it won't work. On the contrary - on the cozy early summer night Podgorin hides from Nadja, thus preventing the tête-à-tête and travels back to Moscow early the next morning - without saying goodbye to the three women.

German-language editions

Used edition

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annotations in the FEB under With acquaintances , pp. 354–361 (Russian) and edition used, pp. 591–592
  2. ↑ Russian Кузьминки