Pastime (Chekhov)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anton Chekhov

Pastime ( Russian От нечего делать , Ot netschewo delat - nothing to do ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared on May 26, 1886 in the daily newspaper Peterburgskaja Gazeta .

content

The well-deserved afternoon rest of the notary Nikolai Andrejewitsch Kapitonow will not work. Wishes to go into the study as a master of the house in search of the newspaper from the bedroom, he caught his 33-year-old wife Anna Semyonovna in tête-à-tête with the Repetenten Vanya Stschupalzew. Barely twenty, the beardless first year student and the notary's wife kiss. The student storms out of the room. The kissed woman justifies herself with the excuse that she only made the young man happy.

In the subsequent discussion among men, the notary asks the student for understanding. He could no longer live under the same roof with him. His wife owns the country house. Assuming that Stschupaltsev would like to live with Anna, so Kapitonov wanted to leave. The lover doesn't want to understand. The notary makes it clear that either the seducer will pay for Anna's livelihood or that all that remains is a duel. The student protects against poverty and still does not want to understand. Quite simply, the notary continues his plausibility checks that he loved his wife more than his life and is now in front of a pile of broken glass.

Nonsense, replies the suddenly rebellious student, the money marriage of the notary, a tyrant, has nothing in common with love.

That, it goes through the head of the notary, the young man could only get from Anna. This denies such opening.

In the evening the two men happened to meet in the garden. The student does not want to duel, but wants to give the notary any satisfaction . The notary laughs heartily at such nonsense and forgives. The student again does not understand the notary when he explains to him that he should avoid Anna, the "hideous woman". But finally it seems as if the student grasps. Both leave the country house.

filming

Used edition

  • Pastime. Novel from summer freshness p. 126-132 in Gerhard Dick (ed.) And Wolf Düwel (ed.): Anton Chekhov: The Swedish match. Short stories and early narratives. German by Wolf Düwel. 668 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1965 (1st edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Note under Pastime (Russian) in FEB, p. 633
  2. ↑ Russian ВИD
  3. ↑ Russian Чехов и Ко
  4. ↑ Russian Ройзман, Зиновий Александрович
  5. ↑ Russian Брусникин, Дмитрий Владимирович
  6. ↑ Entry in WorldCat