The Mirror (Chekhov)
Der Spiegel ( Russian Зеркало , Serkalo ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on December 30, 1885 in the daily newspaper Peterburgskaja Gazeta . The young, pretty Nelly, whose thoughts revolve around getting married, only dreamed of the hair-raising experiences.
Nelly, the daughter of a general and landlord, looks wearily in the mirror in her room. Then the girl sees how she wants to be admitted to the district doctor Stepan Lukitsch on a cold winter night. Nelly's husband is sick with typhus . The doctor is unable to provide emergency aid. For days he was in the district because of that epidemic. He wants to come tomorrow because he has to rest because he is sick himself. Nelly cannot be turned away. Lukitsch refers Nelly to the Zemstwo doctor. It's a cheek. Nelly can't drive an additional twenty-five werst . She threatens the doctor with a lawsuit. Lukitsch finally gives in. Both put the forty werst back home in the equipage . On the way, the doctor fantasizes just like her husband.
Nelly sees the death of her husband, the father of her six children, in great detail. Even the shavings that the coffin maker made can be clearly seen in the mirror. Chekhov writes: "... the previous life with her husband appears to her only as a stupid useless preface to this death."
Used edition
- Gerhard Dick (Hrsg.), Wolf Düwel (Hrsg.): Anton Chekhov: Collected works in single volumes : Der Spiegel. P. 451–456 in: Gerhard Dick (Ed.): Anton Chekhov: From the rain to the 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: Зеркало (Чехов) (Russian)
- online at Lib.ru (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 343 (Russian)
- Notice of first publication in the Labor der Fantastik (Russian)