The Enemies (Chekhov)

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Die Feinde , also enemies ( Russian Враги , Wragi), is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on January 20, 1887 in the St. Petersburg newspaper Novoje wremja . The author had with An. Signed Chekhov .

J. Treumann's transmission Die Feinde brought Reclam to the German-language book market in Leipzig in 1891 . Translations into other languages: 1887 into Slovak ( Nepriatelia ), 1890 into Czech ( Nepřátelé ), 1892 into Serbo-Croatian ( Neprijatelji ) and Hungarian ( Csalódások ), 1895 into French ( Ennemis ), 1897 into Bulgarian ( Враговете ), 1903 into English and 1904 into Japanese.

Two men, who only know each other briefly, become enemies after two strokes of fate. Anton Chekhov sums up their behavior: "Unhappy people are selfish, angry, unjust, tough and are even less able to understand one another than fools."

Anton Chekhov

action

Six -year-old Andrei - the only son of 44-year-old doctor Kirilov - has just died of diphtheria when a certain Abogin drives up to the grieving Kirilov couple in his carriage. Abogin's wife is dying. Hurry. Dr. Kirilov sees himself incapable of the rather long journey overland: he cannot leave his wife alone in this situation. Abogin - with his restrained and persistent art of persuasion - reaches the goal. Arrived at the stylishly furnished house of the wealthy Abogin, the modestly living doctor falls from the clouds. Abogin's wife faked her sudden, life-threatening state of health, took advantage of her husband's hasty carriage ride that followed, and ran off with her lover. Abogin, who adored his wife, who looked after her more than his own mother, has no sympathy for Kirilov's outburst. The doctor's nerves are not the best after three nights' vigil on the deathbed of the only son. When Kirilov abreaks his anger about the way of life of the wealthy, the subscription becomes too much and he wants to pay the deeply offended doctor with money. Krilov rejects the payment and lets the carriage come.

Quote

Anton Chekhov observes: “Generally speaking, words, as beautiful and deep as they may be, only work on indifferent people, but they rarely satisfy those who are happy or unhappy; this is precisely why silence appears to us as the highest expression of happiness or unhappiness ... "

radio play

1965, GDR , 30-minute radio play by Wolf-Dieter Panse based on a translation by Rudolf Marx. With Dietrich Körner as Kirilow and Gerd Ehlers as subscriber.

reception

  • In 1944, Fadeev tore Anton Chekhov and cited the Kirilov as an example of the “really boring characters”.

German-language editions

Used edition

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian Ан. Чехов
  2. ↑ Russian reference to first publication
  3. ↑ Russian references to translations
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 82, 6. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 71, 9. Zvo
  6. ↑ Radio play 1965
  7. ↑ Fadeyev in Urban, S. 217, the first ZVO
  8. ↑ eng. John Middleton Murry