Hopeless

Anton Chekhov

Hopeless ( Russian Безнадёжный , Besnadjoschny ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on April 18, 1885 in the satirical weekly Budilnik .

content

Spring in Russia : Zemstvo chairman Yegor Fjodorytsch Schmachin, a widowed landlord, watches the path of this or that delayed ice floe from his property on the rushing river. The landowner wants to get up and away with such a clod. Actually, if it weren't for the flood, a game of cards with the neighbors in the evening or today's birth celebration with the neighbor would be an option. The waiting “without a goal, without an end ... is to hang up”. It's too early for dinner. Schmachin plays checkers against herself . Because thoughts get confused while fighting on the board, the landlord is happy when his servant Ilyushka steps into the room. The servant is ordered to the board and must serve as an opponent. Schmachin registers sullenly that Ilyushka, who smells of onions, is socially quite far below him. The master throws the servant out when this opponent on the board gradually tries to gain the upper hand. Rain pounds on the window panes. The monotony wears down. How is time to be killed? Schmachin goes into his study and finds a Turgenev on the shelf ; reads Das Adelsnest a second time. Chekhov concludes: “And his restless soul found peace with the great writer.” After a while, Ilyushka comes on tiptoe, takes the book from the sleeping gentleman and puts him to bed temporarily with a pillow.

filming

• 1998, Russia , VID-TV and Chekhov Art Theater Moscow : Chekhov and Company , Season 8 (Russian) by Sinowi Roisman, Dmitri Brusnikin and Alexander Feklistow with Alexander Kalyagin as Yegor Schmachin and Vladimir Sterschakow as his servant Ilyushka.

Used edition

• Gerhard Dick (ed.), Wolf Düwel (ed.): Anton Chekhov: Collected works in individual volumes : Hopeless. Sketch. P. 281–285 in: Gerhard Dick (Ed.): Anton Chekhov: From rain to 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

• The text
  • Wikisource: Безнадёжный (Чехов) (Russian)
  • online in Lib.ru (Russian)
  • online in FEB (Russian)
• Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 256 (Russian)
• Reference to first appearance in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Note under Hopeless (Russian) in FEB, p. 585
2. ↑ Edition used, p. 282, 1. Zvu
3. ↑ Edition used, p. 285, 14th Zvu
4. ↑ Russian ВИD
5. ↑ Russian Чехов и Ко
6. ↑ Russian Ройзман, Зиновий Александрович
7. ↑ Russian Брусникин, Дмитрий Владимирович
8. ↑ Russian Калягин, Александр Александрович
9. ↑ Russian Стержаков, Владимир Александрович
10. ↑ Entry in WorldCat