The Bride (Chekhov)

The bride ( Russian: Невеста , Newesta) is the last story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , the writing of which - begun in autumn 1902 - was finished in spring 1903 and which appeared in the St. Petersburg magazine Schurnal dlja wsech in December 1903 . The first translation into German came out in 1926.

Anton Chekhov

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The 23-year-old half-orphan Nadja lives with her mother Nina Ivanovna with her grandmother Marfa Michailowna - known as Babulja - in a Russian city not too far from Moscow . In four weeks, more precisely on July 7th, her wedding to the idler Andrej, son of the high priest of the cathedral in that provincial town, is to be celebrated. Nadja has wanted to get married since she was 16.

The architect Alexander Timofejitsch, a distant relative of Babulja, arrives. Sascha, as he is called, has a lung disease , works in a Moscow lithographic workshop and recovers every summer at Babulia's.

As the wedding date is getting closer and closer, Nadja has a bad feeling. The latter is reinforced by Sascha's talk: Only educated people would be needed. Nadja should study. The proposal no longer lets Nadja sleep peacefully. After all, her mother has lived in complete material dependence on Babulja since her father's death.

Because the summer is humid and cool, Sascha breaks off his vacation at the end of June. Nadja accompanies him to Moscow, travels on to Petersburg and studies there. In May of the following year Nadja travels to her hometown after the exams. Everything is different there now. Babulja has not been able to receive any guests since the police raided the house. The landlord was a forger and committed embezzlement. Nadja realizes she has become a stranger at home. Your place is in Petersburg. Sascha has shown her the way.

Schascha dies of consumption .

filming

• In 1956 Grigori Nikulin filmed the story together with Wladimir Schredel.

reception

• Nadja's departure is not only the separation from the unloved fiancé, but actually breaking out of a cramped space dominated by the bigoted grandmother.
• In a memorial to Chekhov, the laudator pays tribute to four narrative features of the important Russian author - nothing superfluous, suffering from the epoch, renunciation of pathos and an open ending . The open end - something like no happy ending - is also present in the bride and is “Chekhov's last word in writing”.

German-language editions

• Anton Chekhov: The Bride and Other Love Stories. 157 pages. Artemis, Zurich 1986. Artemis Library 26

Used edition

• The bride. German by Hertha von Schulz . P. 555-577 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. The house with the mezzanine . My life. The peasants . The Pechenege. At home. On the wagon. With friends. The person in the case . The Gooseberries . Of love . Jonytsch . A case from practice . Hearts . The new country house. On the business trip. At Christmas time. In the gorge . The bishop ). 612 pages. Rütten & Loening , Berlin 1967 (1st edition)

literature

• Wolf Schmid (Hrsg.): Ornamental narration in Russian modernism: Čechov - Babel ' - Zamjatin . 200 pages. In: Slavic literatures. Texts and treatises, Vol. 2. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1992. ISBN 3-631-44242-4

Web links

• The text
  • Невеста (Чехов) (Russian)
  • online at litmir.info (Russian)
  • online at Lib.ru / Classic (Russian)
• Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 571 (Russian)

Remarks

1. ↑ Chekhov does not inform Naja's subject of study.
2. ↑ Presumably Nadja's late father is meant.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Düwel in the follow-up to the edition used, p. 604
2. ↑ Russian Никулин, Григорий Георгиевич
3. ↑ Russian Шредель, Владимир Маркович
4. ↑ Schmid, pp. 97-99
5. ↑ July 10, 2004 in the NZZ : The writer Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) died a hundred years ago. The high school of the lack of illusions