A problematic nature
A problematic nature , also an enigmatic nature ( Russian Загадочная натура , Sagadotschnaja natura ), is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on March 19, 1883 in the weekly Oskolki . During the author's lifetime, the text was translated into Bulgarian, German, Finnish, Polish, Swedish, Serbo-Croatian and Czech. Anton Chekhov caricatures the epigones of the psychological novel.
action
In a Russian first-class train compartment, the young, writing governor attaché Woldemar kisses the hand of the pretty young lady half lying in the cushions. This amateur psychologist wants to capture the lady's story in one of his short stories and publish it in the government newspaper. That woman says she was loved by a young man but married a wealthy old general. Having become a rich widow after the military's death and finally free, a young man would have knocked on her door. But again the young lady was barred from happiness; again from a rich old man.
reception
Schklowski writes: "The doubling ... of the same motif ... makes the material of a salon novella the story of a very common prostitution ."
Secondary literature
- Wiktor Schklowski : Theory of prose. Edited and translated from Russian by Gisela Drohla . 192 pages. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1966 (translation of the Russian original edition О теории прозы (O teorii prosy), Moscow 1925)
Web links
- The text
- online in the Gutenberg-DE project
- A problematic nature . Pp. 182-185 in A Known Gentleman. Humorous stories , online in the Russian State Library (German, translator: Wladimir Czumikow , Verlag Eugen Diederichs, Leipzig 1901)
- Wikisource Загадочная натура (Чехов) (Russian)
- online in Lib.ru (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- online in the Komarow library (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 96 (Russian)
- Reference to first appearance in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)