A trifle
A Bagatelle , also Little Incident ( Russian Житейская мелочь , Schiteiskaja melotsch ), is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on September 29, 1886 in the daily newspaper Peterburgskaja Gazeta under the heading Fleeting Notes . During the author's lifetime the text was translated into German, Polish and Czech.
Ms. Olga Ivanovna Irnina has a steady relationship with the 32-year-old fat house owner Nikolai Ilyich Belyayev from Petersburg . The latter meets the eight-year-old son Aljoscha instead of the woman. With his calm black eyes, the little one reminds the visitor of the young Olga when he met her. During the subsequent chat, it turns out that Aljoscha and his sister Sonja see their papa every Tuesday when governess Pelageja takes them to the pastry shop. Beljajew has to give Alyosha his word of honor that he will not reveal the secret to his mother. Because - so Aljoscha continues - Papa is angry with Belyayev because this mother has plunged into ruin.
Olga Irnina is finally coming home. The lover pours out his heart to her right away: he alone should be the villain in the triangular relationship . Aljoscha, who has to listen to everything, withdraws to Sonja and cries. For the first time in his life he met a wrongdoer who did not keep his word of honor.
German-language editions
Used edition
- Little incident. Pp. 205–211 in Gerhard Dick (ed.) And Wolf Düwel (ed.): Anton Chekhow: The Swedish match. Short stories and early narratives. German by Georg Schwarz. 668 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1965 (1st edition)
Web links
- The text
- Eine Bagatelle , Translator: Alexander Eliasberg , Musarion, Munich 1920
- Wikisource: Житейская мелочь (Чехов) (Russian)
- online at Lib.ru (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 425 (Russian)
- Reference to first appearance in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)