8
votes
Accepted
Quote from Chekhov about a person who does not answer a letter
Mentioned in Korney Chukovsky's diary entry for Jan. 23, 1910:
Вас. Ив. Немирович-Данченко был у меня сегодня и рассказывал между
прочим про Чехова; он встретился с Чеховым в Ницце: Чехов отвечал на
...
- 2,271
5
votes
In The Bet, why does the lawyer willingly stay fifteen years instead of five years for no extra reward?
I agree with the conclusion you've already posted: the lawyer upped the 5 years to 15 years because of impulsive pride. However, I think it's interesting to look at this in the wider context of the ...
- 76.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Chekhov story involving a "peeping tom" priest and a newly married couple?
This looks like В море ("On the sea"):
There is a newlyweds' cabin on the ship in the sea
The sailors have made two holes in the cabin walls to spy on the newlyweds for their own amusement
The cabin ...
- 2,641
4
votes
Accepted
How much is 95000 rubles from 1897 worth in today's money?
Approximately 100,000,000 roubles.
This is not a straightfoward conversion due to fluctuations in the value of the rouble after the collapse of communism.
This historical currency converter runs up to ...
- 23.6k
3
votes
What does this comparison between "Chekhovian" and "Hitchcockian" lines mean?
The sentences can be explained with the help of the fuller context:
I speak to Lisa and Lisa speaks of parallel crying, the crying that comes alongside art but not precisely from it. Plot does not ...
- 31.5k
3
votes
What does this comparison between "Chekhovian" and "Hitchcockian" lines mean?
Chekhov's gun … is a dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed.
…
"One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage ...
- 774
3
votes
Sparrows in "The Bear" by Anton Chekhov
Smirnov is not referring any one character in particular, but to women in general. In the lead-up to the quoted line, Smirnov is making a diatribe about the female sex, saying that he doesn't know how ...
- 18.9k
2
votes
Was Anton Chekhov the earliest to use stream-of-consciousness technique in his works?
Simon Karlinksy notes in an edition of Checkhov's letters that the short story Gusev, published in December 1890, uses "the device of subtly intermingling the soldier's speech patterns and his ...
- 51.1k
2
votes
Accepted
Why is the Lady "a suffering soul in some page of Dostoyevsky"?
This short story is a hilarious caricature on the--oh so typical--characters. Both of them are pathetically "ignoble1, repulsive, and senseless", and being such, they of course blame the ...
- 612
2
votes
Accepted
Why does Groholsky head toward the water barrel?
Drowning is out of question, for a few reasons.
First, the word translated as water-barrel in Russian original is кадушка; a vessel holding perhaps four or five gallons at most. It physically ...
- 1,190
1
vote
Is there a contrast between Trofimov and Lopakhin in Anton Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard"?
When you mention the "main character", I'm going to assume you are referring to Madame Ranyevskaya. (Checkov's plays tend to be ensemble pieces, and I'm not sure it's useful to designate a main ...
- 4,303
1
vote
In The Bet, why does the lawyer willingly stay fifteen years instead of five years for no extra reward?
The most likely reason is this is simply just because of pride. As you mentioned, the lawyer isn't receiving additional compensation, but I personally think that the lawyer got fired up in the heat of ...
- 4,625
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