The witch (Chekhov)
The Witch ( Russian Ведьма , Wedma) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on March 8, 1886 in the St. Petersburg newspaper Novoje wremja .
The translation into German by Korfiz Holm came out in 1901 at Albert Langen in Munich . In 1903 the story was translated into Czech ( Bosorka ).
background
Anton Chekhov lived from 1885 to 1887 west of Moscow on the Babkino estate of the Kisselews. His brother Michail remembers his first summer stay in 1885. His brother was looking for mushrooms in the neighboring forest. There was a church there. Michail: "This church on Poststrasse with the guard house, it seems, gave my brother Anton the idea of writing The Witch ..."
action
The stagecoach went astray in the snowstorm. The young, light-blonde postman warms himself up in the guard house of the sexton Saveli Gykin near the church on Guljajew-Höhe before continuing on. Saweli married four years ago after his predecessor passed away. Saweli's marriage of convenience with the beautiful young Raissa Nilowna is unhappy. The sexton also believes that his wife is a witch who "rules the winds and the stagecoaches with the help of the dark forces." It seems that Saweli is not entirely wrong. While the sexton describes the way to the stagecoach outside the house, the young postman thaws inside in the warmth. Raissa and the boy get closer to each other. Saweli can disrupt the tête-à-tête just in time. The mail goes off. The sexton crawls into the warm bed of his incomprehensibly charming wife. Raissa, the witch, shows Saweli in her place with a powerful nosebreak.
filming
- 1958, Soviet Union , Lenfilm : The Witch - 31 min short film (Russian) by Alexander Abramow.
German-language editions
Used edition
- The witch , pp. 53-68 in Gerhard Dick (ed.) And Wolf Düwel (ed.): Anton Chekhov: The Swedish match . Short stories and early narratives. German by Wolf Düwel. 668 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1965 (1st edition)
Web links
- The text
- The witch (Chekhov)
- online in the Gutenberg-DE project (translator Korfiz Holm anno 1920)
- The Witch (English, translator Constance Garnett )
- Ведьма (Чехов) (Russian)
- online in the Komarow library (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- online at litmir.co (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 370 (Russian)