Babbler (Chekhov)

Anton Chekhov

Schwätzer ( Russian Свистуны , Swistuny ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on August 23, 1885 in the weekly Oskolki . The author satirizes the Slavophiles .

content

The landowner Alexei Fyodorovich Vosmyorkin has a visitor. He shows his brother, the Magister, the estate. Both enter a dilapidated hut. The servants spooning pea soup at a long table interrupted the meal and stood up. Alexej Vosmjorkin emphasizes the Russian people gathered around the table as the better than the French and Germans . The Magister contradicts and is called Westerner by the landlord . Alexej Vosmjorkin now substantiates the correctness of his assertion with a few living examples. Then it is the turn of the herdsman Filka. This grants instead of an answer. The next example, the coachman Antip, is more talkative. He speaks to his Slavophile master to the mouth and is praised for it. The strong cattle girl Dunjaschka, as an example number three, blushes and cannot utter a word. The lead singer Ljubka has to finish off with a song. Everyone at the table dutifully sings along with the chorus. The Magister finds that worth noting. It is a variant of the folk song that Kirejewski recorded in the 7th edition of his collection.

The brothers then dine and rest extensively in the manor house. At the behest of the landlord, Ljubka is to perform a dance in honor of the guest as the crowning glory of the instructive day with the servants . But it has to be quick, determined Alexei Vosmjorkin.

filming

• 1998, Russia , VID-TV and Chekhov Art Theater Moscow : Chekhov and Company , Season 7 (Russian) by Sinowi Roisman, Dmitri Brusnikin and Alexander Feklistow with Boris Shcherbakov as landowner Vosmjorkin, Igor Wassiljew as Magister and Vladimir Kashpur as coachman Antip.

Used edition

• Babbler. 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 (= Gerhard Dick, Wolf Düwel (Hrsg.): Anton Chekhov: Collected works in individual volumes . Volume 1). Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1964, OCLC 770631122 & , SS 364-369.

Web links

• The text
  • Wikisource: Свистуны (Чехов) (Russian)
  • online in Lib.ru (Russian)
  • online in FEB (Russian)
• Chekhov Bibliography, Entry Stories No. 302 (Russian)
• Reference to first appearance in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Note under Schwätzer (Russian) in the FEB, p. 481
2. ↑ Russian ВИD
3. ↑ Russian Чехов и Ко
4. ↑ Russian Ройзман, Зиновий Александрович
5. ↑ Russian Брусникин, Дмитрий Владимирович
6. ↑ Russian Щербаков, Борис Васильевич
7. ↑ Russian Васильев, Игорь Алексеевич
8. ↑ Russian Кашпур, Владимир Терентьевич