The groom and the dad
The Groom and the Papa ( Russian Жених и папенька , Schenich i papenka ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on July 31, 1885 in the daily newspaper Peterburgskaja Gazeta .
content
At a summer ball, Pyotr Petrovich Milkin, a young wage earner, is approached by an acquaintance. The latter is already looking forward to the bachelorette party that Milkin will celebrate soon. The groom plays stupid: bachelorette party, how that?
Answer: The sparrows whistle from the rooftops - Milkin will marry Nastenka, the daughter of Councilor Kirill Trofimytsch Kondraschkin. Milkin falls from the clouds. The next day the groom visits the councilor in his summer house. Milkin rejoices - Nastenka has just left the house. All he has to do is say goodbye to the bride's papa. The groom did the math without the landlord. All summer long, so the Councilor, he fed Milkin at noon. Milkin had held Nastenka's hands for nights and now Papa - father of seven daughters - was expecting a marriage proposal. At least one has to be under the hood.
Milkin pulls out all the stops: he and Nastenka differed in their beliefs and views. He was not worthy of Nastenkas as a quarter- drinker, as a civil servant he took bribes and there was a case of embezzlement against him. The Councilor does not accept any of the objections and has a passable solution ready for every flaw. For example - after being convicted of embezzlement, Nastenka will no doubt follow the husband she loves to Siberia . Milkin has to keep lying; admits falsification of documents and he is an escaped convict.
Kondraschkin is checkmated, but only for a while. Milkin is stopped while walking by the Councilor with a question: Why is the bridegroom then at large for months? Answer: Milkin lives under a false name. Then the dad: The groom shouldn't make any fisimatents and finally get married.
The unwilling to marry still comes up with an excuse: he is insane . When the ailment is not taken away from him, he tries to obtain a certificate from a doctor friend of his. The doctor has to refuse the desired testimony, because: "If you don't want to get married, you are not insane."
filming
- 1998, Russia , VID-TV and Chekhov Art Theater Moscow : Chekhov and Company , Season 3 (Russian) by Sinowi Roisman, Dmitri Brusnikin and Alexander Feklistow with Vyacheslav Newinny jun. as Milkin and Vyacheslav Newinny sen. as Kondrashkin.
Used edition
- Gerhard Dick (Hrsg.), Wolf Düwel (Hrsg.): Anton Chekhov: Collected works in individual volumes : The groom and the papa. P. 353–359 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
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 296 (Russian)
- Reference to first appearance in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edition used, p. 359, 16. Zvo
- ↑ Russian ВИD
- ↑ Russian Чехов и Ко
- ↑ Russian Ройзман, Зиновий Александрович
- ↑ Russian Брусникин, Дмитрий Владимирович
- ↑ Russian Невинный, Вячеслав Вячеславович
- ↑ Russian Невинный, Вячеслав Михайлович
- ↑ Entry in WorldCat