Debut of a lawyer
Debut of a Lawyer ( Russian Первый дебют , Perwy debjut ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on January 13, 1886 in the daily newspaper Peterburgskaja Gazeta .
"The lawyer is the devil!" Admits the lawyer Pyatjorkin as he is being driven home from the district town of N. through rain and slush. When he defended one of the grocer accused of arson, he remembered Pyatjorkin looking sad. Pjatjorkin stuttered so thoroughly entangled himself in simple sentence constructions that prosecutor von Pach and plaintiff Semetschkin had to apologize many times for this booby and sheep's head in front of the audience in the conference room.
Coming home soon is unthinkable in the horrible weather. You have to spend the night in the hut of the auxiliary forester Luka. Who is sitting at the table inside? Von Pach and Semechkin welcome Pyatjorkin and ramble about that unfortunate meeting. “Pigs,” thinks the lawyer and “squinted at his enemies. You have insulted a person and dragged him in the dirt, and now they talk as if nothing had happened. "
After drinking hot tea together and sleeping next to each other “in this stall”, it seems to the two professionals as if the newcomer Pyatjorkin fell asleep straight away. Von Pach and Semetschkin wonder how they could have insulted Schestjorkin - as they wrongly call the newly qualified lawyer - and praise his appearance in front of the court: "... so hot and full of temperament". Both gentlemen agree - "in five years he will be a good lawyer".
Pyatjorkin can't stand the talk any longer. He cries hysterically in front of the two colleagues about their meanness in front of the judge. The two think there was nothing mean about it. On the contrary - “everything was as it should be.” Pyatjorkin cannot calm down. Von Pach and Semetschkin look after him "all night long like a child".
Used edition
- Gerhard Dick (Hrsg.), Wolf Düwel (Hrsg.): Anton Chekhov: Collected works in individual volumes : Debut of a lawyer. P. 459–467 in: Gerhard Dick (Ed.): Anton Chekhov: From rain to eaves. Short stories. Translated from Russian by Ada Knipper and Gerhard Dick. With a foreword by Wolf Düwel. 630 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1964 (1st edition)
Web links
- The text
- Wikisource: Первый дебют (Чехов) (Russian)
- online at Lib.ru (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 354 (Russian)
- Notice of first publication in the Labor der Fantastik (Russian)