Gusew (Chekhov)
Gussew ( Russian Гусев ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on December 25, 1890 in the daily newspaper Novoje wremja .
history
The author reflects on his experiences on the return trip from the island of Sakhalin . On the sea route to Singapore , two deceased Russians were transported into the sea via a slide . During the author's lifetime, the text was translated into Bulgarian, German, French, Norwegian, Polish and Hungarian.
The Russian reservist Gusev served in the Far East for five years - fifteen thousand wererst from home - as an officer's boy, contracted consumption and is now on his way home. On the deck of the steamer in the hospital , among four hundred healthy sailors and soldiers, a handful of sick people - paralytics and consumptives in the last stage - go unnoticed. Gusev also suffers from seasickness . Nonetheless, he plays cards with the other sick people, talks to the seriously ill Pavel Ivanytsch or thinks about his homeland - about the big frozen pond, about the porcelain factory and his brother Aleksei and his son Vanyka. In Gussew's memory, both relatives wear felt boots and the brother is drunk.
In the five years Gusev had only received a slap in the face from his disgruntled lieutenant for "just" beating up four Chinese .
Stepan - one of the sick - dies. Pavel Ivanych estimates that there are still four weeks to go to Odessa . Then he will go to Kharkov . Pawel, the priest's son, is friends with a writer there. Two days later, Pavel was no longer sitting, but lying. It seems like his nose has become more pointed. In the ubiquitous heat on board, Gusev is always drinking water and thinking his favorite thoughts - glorifying the penetrating Russian frost. Pavel dies. A sick soldier in a bandage predicts the imminent end to the emaciated Gusev. Gusev doesn't want to die because order has to be created at home. There's his brother, the drunkard. In the stifling air, Gusev slept for two days under nightmares with a dry mouth. Then two sailors carry him out of the hospital. Sewn in canvas, weighted down with iron, Gusev is sprinkled with earth by the clergy. Then he slips into the water. A shark tears the canvas. The iron rod slides out and sinks.
German-language editions
Used edition
- Gusew . P. 109–127 in AP Chekhov: Master narratives. German by Reinhold Trautmann . 431 pages. Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung , Leipzig 1953 (7th edition 1983, 27 pages foreword by JF and RM), without ISBN
Web links
- The text
- Wikisource: Гусев (Чехов) (Russian)
- online at Lib.ru (Russian)
- online in FEB (Russian)
- Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 530 (Russian)
- Reference to first appearance in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)