The house with the mezzanine
The house with the mezzanine ( Russian Дом с мезонином , Dom s mesoninom) - also The house with the mezzanine , The house with the attic , The house with the gable room , The house with the gable - is a story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which - written down in the winter of 1896 - appeared in the April 1896 issue of the Moscow magazine Russkaya Mysl . A German-language version by C. Berger was published in Vienna in 1904 .
overview
The mezzanine of a dilapidated country house is occupied by the 24-year-old Lidija Woltschaninowa - called Lida and her younger sister Shenja - called Missjus. Her father, a Moscow privy councilor, has died. The first-person narrator , a landscape painter, spends some time in the neighborhood in the house of the landlord Belokurov and, during a thunderstorm, rummages through the two half-orphans in that house behind a neglected park. Lida earns her living as a teacher. The painter and Missjus are two idlers.
The painter visits the Wolchaninovs in their old house more and more often. Ekaterina Pavlovna Volchaninova, the mother of the girls, gets used to the guest. The painter falls in love with Missjus. Lida, who is socially committed to schools and hospitals in the village as well as in the wider area, has very different views than the painter. The dispute between Lida and the painter, for example, is sparked as soon as the planned medical center in Malosjomowo is discussed. Lida wants to reduce maternal deaths in rural births and the painter believes medical facilities, schools and libraries are instruments for further enslavement of the people. According to the painter, the root cause of the problem should be tackled, i.e. the hard physical labor of the rural population should be reduced.
As a result of the argument between Lida and the painter, Lida sends her sister to live with relatives. Missjus as the weaker character obeys. The painter stands abandoned and asks: "Missjus, where are you?"
filming
- 1960 Soviet Union , Yalta cinema studio : The house with the mezzanine (Russian) feature film by Jakow Lwowitsch Baseljan with Vera Altaiskaya .
German-language editions
- The house with the mezzanine. Translated from the Russian by Gerhard Dick. contained in the volume of Rothschild's violin . Stories 1893–1896 in: The narrative work in ten volumes . Diogenes, Zurich 1976, ISBN 978-3-257-20265-6
First edition
- The house with the gable. Translation by C. Berger . In the short story volume: Anton Chekhov: The Kitten . Wiener Verlag, Vienna 1904
Used edition
- The house with the mezzanine. An artist's story. German by Gerhard Dick . P. 376–397 in Wolf Düwel (ed.): Anton Chekhov: The lady with the dog . Master tales. (also contains: The wife. Anna on the neck . White forehead . The murder . Ariadna. My life. The peasants . The Pechenege. At home. On the wagon. With friends. The person in the case . The gooseberries . On love . Jonytsch . A case from practice . Hearts . The new country house. On the business trip. At Christmas time. In the gorge . The bishop. The bride ). 612 pages. Rütten & Loening , Berlin 1967 (1st edition)
Web links
- The text
- Дом с мезонином (Чехов) (Russian)
- An Artist's Story (English, translator: Constance Garnett )
- online at litmir.info (Russian)
- online at Lib.ru / Classic (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 554 (Russian)
- December 12, 2004: Hans-Georg Lützenkirchen in literaturkritik.de: "Truths of life" from the province . The volume "The Lady with the Dog" brings together the late stories of Anton Chekhov
annotation
- ↑ In some Russian editions this short story is subtitled with The Story of an Artist (Russian Рассказ художника).