A chameleon

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Illustration for A Chameleon
by Dmitri Kardowski from 1910

A chameleon ( Russian Хамелеон , Chameleon ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on September 8, 1884 in the weekly Oskolki . During the author's lifetime the text was translated into Bulgarian, Hungarian, German, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Finnish and Czech.

content

A young white greyhound with a pointy snout has bitten the goldsmith Chrjukin on the market square. The passing police officer Ochumelow disliked the crowd. He wants to create order and scolds that this villain who lets a dog roam free should be severely punished. Someone in the crowd suspects the dog belongs to General Shigalow. The police superintendent breaks a sweat and doubts how the puppy could have gotten to the tall goldsmith's finger. According to the policeman Jeldyrin at the side of the police superintendent, the general cannot be the owner of the dog. Because the white greyhound, this monster, is limping and has a yellow mark on its back. But the general only keeps expensive pedigree animals. Unsettled, the police officer sends his policeman Jeldyrin to the general. Then Prochor, the general's cook, comes across the market and is questioned. When Prochor testifies that the general does not have such dogs, the police officer wants to have the abandoned animal killed. Prochor, who has not yet finished testifying, adds: "It belongs to the general's brother ...".

Unforgivable, smiles the police overseer, the general's brother, a greyhound lover, has come to visit and he, the police overseer, did not know anything about it. The goldsmith is disgraced by the police. Ochumelow, the top police officer on site, says: "... such a cute dog ...".

Adaptations

  • Short film (8 min, Russian) with Igor Ilyinsky on YouTube .
  • Performance (8 min, Russian) on YouTube.
  • 1929, Soviet Union , Meschrabpom : Officials and People - 65 min episode film by Jakow Protasanow and Michail Doller with Ivan Moskvin as Otschumelow.
  • 1971, Soviet Union, TV company Screen : These different, different, different faces ... - episode film by Igor Ilyinsky (Russian).
  • 2009, Russia , Studio Animos : Otschumelow - 13 min animated film (Russian) by Alexei Djomin.

reception

Gorky wrote Chekhov in July 1902 that a shoemaker from Boryspil had spoken to him about the story; wanted to read more from this author.

Used edition

  • Gerhard Dick (Hrsg.), Wolf Düwel (Hrsg.): Anton Chekhov: Collected works in individual volumes : A chameleon. P. 213–217 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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reference to first publication in the Laboratory of Fantasticism (Russian)
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 217, 16. Zvo
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 217, 7th Zvu
  4. ↑ Russian Ilyinsky, Igor Wladimirowitsch
  5. ↑ Russian Чины и люди
  6. ↑ Russian: Москвин, Иван Михайлович
  7. ↑ Russian Экран (творческое объединение)
  8. ↑ Russian Эти разные, разные, разные лица…
  9. ↑ Russian Очумелов
  10. ↑ Russian Дёмин, Алексей Михайлович
  11. ↑ Notes on the chameleon on p. 550 (Russian)
  12. ↑ Entry in WorldCat