The House with the Mezzanine: ClassicsEdition

by Anton Chekhov

Excerpt It happened nigh on seven years ago, when I was living in one of the districts of the J. province, on the estate of Bielokurov, a landowner, a young man who used to get up early, dress himself in a long overcoat, drink beer in the evenings, and all the while complain to me that he could nowhere find any one in sympathy with his ideas. He lived in a little house in the orchard, and I lived in the old manor-house, in a huge pillared hall where there was no furniture except a large divan, on which I slept, and a table at which I used to play patience. Even in calm weather there was always a moaning in the chimney, and in a storm the whole house would rock and seem as though it must split, and it was quite terrifying, especially at night, when all the ten great windows were suddenly lit up by a flash of lightning. Doomed by fate to permanent idleness, I did positively nothing. For hours together I would sit and look through the windows at the sky, the birds, the trees and read my letters over and over again, and then for hours together I would sleep. Sometimes I would go out and wander aimlessly until evening. Once on my way home I came unexpectedly on a strange farmhouse. The sun was already setting, and the lengthening shadows were thrown over the ripening corn. Two rows of closely planted tall fir-trees stood like two thick walls, forming a sombre, magnificent avenue. I climbed the fence and walked up the avenue, slipping on the fir needles which lay two inches thick on the ground. It was still, dark, and only here and there in the tops of the trees shimmered a bright gold light casting the colours of the rainbow on a spider’s web. The smell of the firs was almost suffocating. Then I turned into an avenue of limes. And here too were desolation and decay; the dead leaves rustled mournfully beneath my feet, and there were lurking shadows among the trees. To the right, in an old orchard, a goldhammer sang a faint reluctant song, and he too must have been old. The lime-trees soon came to an end and I came to a white house with a terrace and a mezzanine, and suddenly a vista opened upon a farmyard with a pond and a bathing-shed, and a row of green willows, with a village beyond, and above it stood a tall, slender belfry, on which glowed a cross catching the light of the setting sun. For a moment I was possessed with a sense of enchantment, intimate, particular, as though I had seen the scene before in my childhood. By the white-stone gate surmounted with stone lions, which led from the yard into the field, stood two girls. One of them, the elder, thin, pale, very handsome, with masses of chestnut hair and a little stubborn mouth, looked rather prim and scarcely glanced at me; the other, who was quite young–seventeen or eighteen, no more, also thin and pale, with a big mouth and big eyes, looked at me in surprise, as I passed, said something in English and looked confused, and it seemed to me that I had always known their dear faces. And I returned home feeling as though I had awoke from a pleasant dream. Soon after that, one afternoon, when Bielokurov and I were walking near the house, suddenly there came into the yard a spring-carriage in which sat one of the two girls, the elder. She had come to ask for subscriptions to a fund for those who had suffered in a recent fire. Without looking at us, she told us very seriously how many houses had been burned down in Sianov, how many men, women, and children had been left without shelter, and what had been done by the committee of which she was a member. She gave us the list for us to write our names, put it away, and began to say good-bye. “You have completely forgotten us, Piotr Petrovich,” she said to Bielokurov, as she gave him her hand. “Come and see us, and if Mr. N. (she said my name) would like to see how the admirers of his talent live and would care to come and see us, then mother and I would be very pleased.” I bowed. When she had gone Piotr Petrovich …

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Russia, Russian Literature, Audiobook, 19th Century

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Antón Chéjov (Spanish)

Dramas, such as The Seagull (1896, revised 1898), and including "A Dreary Story" (1889) of Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, also Chekov, concern the inability of humans to communicate.

Born ( Антон Павлович Чехов ) in the small southern seaport of Taganrog, the son of a grocer. His grandfather, a serf, bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught to read. A cloth merchant fathered Yevgenia Morozova, his mother.

"When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." Tyranny of his father, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, open from five in the morning till midnight, shadowed his early years. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog from 1867 to 1868 and then Taganrog grammar school. Bankruptcy of his father compelled the family to move to Moscow. At the age of 16 years in 1876, independent Chekhov for some time alone in his native town supported through private tutoring.

In 1879, Chekhov left grammar school and entered the university medical school at Moscow. In the school, he began to publish hundreds of short comics to support his mother, sisters and brothers. Nicholas Leikin published him at this period and owned Oskolki (splinters), the journal of Saint Petersburg. His subjected silly social situations, marital problems, and farcical encounters among husbands, wives, mistresses, and lust; even after his marriage, Chekhov, the shy author, knew not much of whims of young women.

Nenunzhaya pobeda , first novel of Chekhov, set in 1882 in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Mór Jókai. People also mocked ideological optimism of Jókai as a politician.

Chekhov graduated in 1884 and practiced medicine. He worked from 1885 in Peterburskaia gazeta.

In 1886, Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him, a regular contributor, to work for Novoe vremya, the daily paper of Saint Petersburg. He gained a wide fame before 1886. He authored The Shooting Party , his second full-length novel, later translated into English. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in later her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . First book of Chekhov in 1886 succeeded, and he gradually committed full time. The refusal of the author to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intelligentsia, who criticized him for dealing with serious social and moral questions but avoiding giving answers. Such leaders as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, however, defended him. "I'm not a liberal, or a conservative, or a gradualist, or a monk, or an indifferentist. I should like to be a free artist and that's all..." Chekhov said in 1888.

The failure of The Wood Demon , play in 1889, and problems with novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890, he traveled across Siberia to Sakhalin, remote prison island. He conducted a detailed census of ten thousand convicts and settlers, condemned to live on that harsh island. Chekhov expected to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. Hard conditions on the island probably also weakened his own physical condition. From this journey came his famous travel book.

Chekhov practiced medicine until 1892. During these years, Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgmental author. He outlined his program in a letter to his brother Aleksandr: "1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6. compassion." Because he objected that the paper conducted against [a:Alfred Dreyfu

Reviews

[Ilse · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a melancholy August night—melancholy because it already smelled of the autumn : the moon rose behind a purple cloud and hardly lighted the road and the dark fields of winter corn on either side. Stars fell frequently, Zhenya walked beside me on the road and tried not to look at the sky, to avoid seeing the falling stars, which somehow frightened her.

Anton Chekhov’s The house with the mezzanine (A Painter’s story)(1896) revolves around a rather despondent landscape painter staying on a friend’s estate who gets into contact with a mother and her two quite different daughters, Lydia (Lida) and Zhenya (Missyuss) Volchaninova, living on a neighbouring estate, in the titular house with the mezzanine. Lida, the elder daughter, is a school teacher with strong opinions, and in a way reminiscent of Irina Prozorova in Chekhov’s play The Three Sisters (when she exclaims “What we must do is work, and work, and work”), focused on action (“Ah ! My God, but we must do something!”). In fierce debates with the painter she shows scornful and antagonistic to the painter’s ‘useless life’ and idleness, while he mocks her political views and charitable actions in the community, which according to the disillusioned once utopian painter rather than structurally change the situation of the peasants keep them in place and render them even more unhappy

"Teaching peasants to read and write, giving them little moral pamphlets and medical assistance, cannot decrease either ignorance or mortality, just as the light from your windows cannot illuminate this huge garden," I said. "You give nothing by your interference in the lives of these people. You only create new demands, and a new compulsion to work."

While Lida gets annoyed by the painter’s idle passiveness and trenchant nihilism, he criticizes her activism as a superficial one, only making the peasants life harder by making them more aware of their deprivation and lack of life of the mind, dismissing the actions Lida undertakes – actions which are exactly those who Chekhov performed in his personal life too (giving medical care to the peasants free of charge, establishing schools). This left me wondering if Chekhov here was self-deprecating on his own actions and thought them futile or rather suggested such actions are worth the trouble anyway even if one is aware a more sweeping, structural change of society is necessary to really solve the issues one tries to tackle.

Despite the clashes with Lida, the painter keeps being drawn to the neighbouring house because of the younger sister Zhenya, nicknamed ‘Missyuss’ – she is of a dreamy, receptive and sensitive nature, tender, book-loving. She admires the painter and almost triggers him into overcoming his feelings of isolation and his unproductivity. They are kindred souls, and spend hours together in the garden, or walking.


(Lithograph by Oleg Vassiliev which the artist was asked to produce in response to ‘The House with the Mezzanine’, 1991)

Even if the tensions between artistic-intellectual passivity (symbolised here by painting and reading) and the more activist stand might have been specific to the Russian society at that time, Chekhov’s story, apart from its beauty and poignancy, came across as touching on issues which are still relevant today, echoing a society’s prejudices and distrustful attitude towards artists of which some traces can be still seen today. Does art matter? Is art more than a mere adornment or allurement to life? Can art co-exist peacefully next to the suffering and deprivation from a moral point of view? Can art stay indifferent and aloof to the society that gives birth to it? Rather than financing art, shouldn’t we focus on and put our energy and resources in alleviating and solving societal needs which seem more pressing and urgent instead? Shortly before the lockdown, discussions and protests in my country were the order of the day, as one of the governments intended to cut the means for the cultural sector, so giving the impression of taking a populist stance and docilely following those who like to depict artists as idlers and profiteers (‘subside-slurpers’), a bunch of leftist and elitist criticasters biting the hand that feeds them and contributing nothing useful to society. Nihil novum sub sole?

The battle of ideas between Lida and the painter ends undecided as there simply isn’t an easy solution to the societal issues they both sense but on which their response is so different. Neither Lida nor the painter wins this fight, but there is another one going on of which the outcome will be much more affecting.

Chekhov beautifully contrasts the rundown estate and orchard where the painter is staying and the picturesque house with the mezzanine, both sisters who embody stern austerity versus poetry, the tense and sharp scenes of discussion and confrontations with Lida in the house and the happy, idyllic moments the painter spends with Zhenya in the garden, the forest or the field.

As not uncommon in Chekhov’s stories, chances on happiness, dreams on living a more meaningful life, more often than not vanish into thin air precisely at the moment they might seem within reach, on the moment one almost experience the honeysweet taste and smoothness of happiness on one’s tongue.

I have already begun to forget about the house with the mezzanine, and only now and then, when I am working or reading, suddenly—without rhyme or reason—I remember the green light in the window, and the sound of my own footsteps as I walked through the fields that night, when I was in love, rubbing my hands to keep them warm. And even more rarely, when I am sad and lonely, I begin already to recollect and it seems to me that I, too, am being remembered and waited for, and that we shall meet.

I try not to use the word ‘heart-breaking’ too lightly not to banalise it, but Chekhov’s closing sentences here seem to leave me little choice.

[BookHunter M ُH َM َD · Rating 4 out of 5]

تلوح بشدة بوادر الثورة الروسية فى هذه القصة

شاب رسام فقير يلتقى بأسرة اقطاعية متوسطة و حوارات عن حل مشاكل المجتمع هل يكون بانشاء مؤسسات خدمية لتسهيل أعباء الحياة أم بتحرير الانسان من ذل العمل أو توزيع العمل بعدالة على الجميع

[Gaurav Sagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”
― Pablo Picasso



It often happens in human life that when we get a glimpse of something, we have been planning for a long time, we would crave more to overcome the self-guilt which inflates our consciousness on account of not dipping our senses into that earlier. It was a dark, gloomy Sunday evening, I was looking out of my window into the greyness of clouds, amidst the chirping of birds and insects, thinking about something short to read to satiate my little appetite for words; my anxious mind took a dive into the sea of memories, gladly to find The House with Mezzanine in just below the surface there, having read its beautiful review by Ilse in the morning itself. It was my first brush with Anton Chekov, who is considered as one of the best authors of short fiction, started off with resplendent beauty having scenic peace which took me to stroll down the memory lane to childhood years as if to foray into some old harmonious building of some village. The visit to old memories is like a bittersweet sojourn down the memory lane with a tinge of pain but some dark force keeps fueling your inquisitiveness to explore the guilty pleasure, though at the back of your mind you know that it is fruitless. But that’s how human life, the tangible benefits often lose to the sensual pleasure of life we seem to crave for throughout our life.

What may appear a simple heart-wrenching tale of human emotions-love, hate, and loss on the surface, is actually a carefully thought out rendition of role of art- the age-old classical tussle between mundane works and the art- in human life. The poetic charm of people and their world, built upon creative abilities rather than prosaic bourgeois people wherein art doesn’t seem to provide any tangible benefits, always keep us enthralled to think about manifold possibilities of art. The story revolves around the sparkling contrast between work and idleness-the poetic and mundane prosaic worlds. So does work or job represent compulsions of human beings who could not rise above their mere existence to reach noble occupations such as art, philosophy, science, or others? Do the activities which are meant for the betterment of our life-style or life per se, not provide solace to our hearts, our souls and perhaps that’s why keep on seeking refuge in art- literature, cinema or philosophy or others, and should that the ultimate goal of human essence? Probably, our grand inquisitiveness, which is the most unique feature of us, roams around like a lone wanderer seeking ultimate solace of mind. These are some of the questions which the story brings up.


The prose of the story is like some impressionist painting wherein the reader has to actively delve deep into its themes. The undercurrents of the story, which were completely ignored when it was first published, came as the most striking feature of the story and perhaps that’s why Anton Chekov is regarded as one of the progenitors of modernism. It is as if the characters speak more during the in-between breaks of lines wherein they seem to convey what they feel and think , what they actually want to say. Chekov writes with the precision of a surgeon as each word and theme seem to be chosen after long mediation, perhaps being a medical practitioner, he brought this aspect from his other occupation to his truthful essence. Does it reflect Chekov’s life itself, as he once said-“Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress."


The story brings up another important question- is art only for mature societies, in which the majority of people do not have to strive to full fill their basic needs, the Russian society of Chekov’s time seems to have an indifferent or rather hostile attitude towards artists or art in general. Do people care about these noble forms of life only after satiating their hunger for food, as Sartre used to maintain- “Existence precedes essence”.

“No. I like to face things I do not understand and I do not submit to them. I am superior to them. Man must think himself higher than lions, tigers, stars, higher than anything in nature, even higher than that which seems incomprehensible and miraculous. Otherwise he is not a man, but a mouse which is afraid of everything." .


The House with Mezzanine combines the confrontation of Lyda and the narrator, her devotion to the Zemstvo in contrast to the narrator’s advocacy of access of higher and noble forms to every human being and that regarding love and devotion of him towards Genya. The narrator fails to recognize that his imagination may actually perish, which reminds me of how, subconsciously, we succumb to the social pressure, people’s expectations put on us. "Certainly. We are superior beings, and if we really knew all the power of the human genius and lived only for higher purposes then we should become like gods. But this will never be. Mankind will degenerate and of their genius not a trace will be left."The narrator maintains that Lyda’s methods actually represents a new form of slavery wherein they are being forced to work even harder and ironically without even realizing it, a kind of slavery which did not allow even her sister to escape. Perhaps that explains the title of the story or maybe because the most pivotal events of the story happen on the Mezzanine floor of the house.

Whatever may be the actual reason, it is one of the most profound short- stories ever, as I reached its end I felt a tinge of pain in my heart as if tears were about to roll down from my eyes but perhaps my own shame hold them back.


My life is tedious, dull, monotonous, because I am a painter, a queer fish, and have been worried all my life with envy, discontent, disbelief in my work: I am always poor, I am a vagabond, but you are a wealthy, normal man, a landowner, a gentleman—why do you live so tamely and take so little from life? Why, for instance, haven't you fallen in love with Lyda or Genya?"


Highly recommended
4.5/5

[Issa Deerbany · Rating 4 out of 5]

نقاشات رائعة لمشاكل المجتمع الروسي في ذلك الوقت، شاب رسّام يترك الرسم لانه رفاهية زائدة للاغنياء الذين يستغلون الفقراء.
وانا انشاء المراكز الصحية والصيدليات والمدارس للفقراء يعتبره بطل القصة من أساليب الاستغلال للفقراء والحل يكون بالحرية وتوزيع الثروات .
اختلاف وجهات النظر يؤدي الى تفريق حبيبين .
ولكنه ما زال يأمل باللقاء معها مرة اخرى .

[Mohamed Ramadan · Rating 3 out of 5]

❞ وهكذا تمضى مئات السنين، بينما يعيش مليارات البشر أسوأ مما تعيش الحيوانات.. فقط من أجل كسرة الخبز، وهم يعانون من الخوف الدائم. والفظاعة فى وضعهم إنه لا وقت لديهم للتفكير فى أنفسهم وفى أرواحهم. ❝

أعجبتني في "المنزل ذو العلية" الأسئلة التي طرحها تشيخوف حول الحرية والعمل والحياة التي نعيشها من أجل البقاء، ثم لا نجد فيها وقتًا كافيًا للتفكير في أنفسنا وأرواحنا.

ليدا ترى أن الخلاص يبدأ من المدارس والمستشفيات ومساعدة الفقراء، بينما يرى الرسام أن المشكلة أعمق من ذلك، وأن الإنسان يحتاج إلى الحرية والوقت للتأمل والإبداع والفن، حتى يجد طريقه إلى الخلاص الروحي.

ورغم اختلافهما، شعرت أن كليهما كان ينظر إلى المشكلة نفسها من زاوية مختلفة. وربما لهذا السبب لم أستطع الانحياز إلى أحدهما بالكامل.

أما الجانب العاطفي في القصة، فأعجبني تعلّق جينيا بالرسام، لكن خضوعها لأختها الكبرى وتخليها عنه جعل نهايتها مؤلمة، خصوصًا مع تمسك ليدا بمبادئها إلى الحد الذي جعلها تتدخل حتى في علاقتهما.

قصة تحمل أفكارًا أكبر من أحداثها، وتتركك أمام سؤال صعب:
هل نحتاج أولًا إلى إصلاح حياة الإنسان، أم إلى تحريره حتى يمتلك الوقت والقدرة على التفكير في معنى هذه الحياة؟

~تمت القراءة في أغسطس 2026~

[فايز Ghazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

- من خلال محورية ذاتية ينطلق تشيخوف الى ابداء آراءه في الثورة والحضارة وتوزيع العمل والإقطاع....

- في خضم هذه الآراء تنشأ قصة حب بين المصور و ميسوس، لكن الأخت الكيرى، الأقوى و"الأفهم" تبعدهما عن بعض لتبقى ميسوس في وجدان الشاعر صورة لحب ريفي ذهب كما اتى...

- الفلسلفة الروحية في هذا النص، وكيف على الإنسان ان يكون متحرراً ولديه الوقت للغوص في روحه لإكتشاف سر هذا الكون هو التعبير الدقيق عن ان الحضارة ابنة الكسل.

[محمد خالد شريف · Rating 4 out of 5]

"وعلى هذا النحو تمر المئات من السنين وتعيش ملايين البشر في ظروف أسوأ من ظروف الحيوان، لا لشيء إلا لكسب كسرة من الخُبز ومواصلة العيش في خوف دائم."

يقوم (تشيخوف) ببساطة شديدة ومن خلال الحوارات بين شخصيتين أن يستعرض وجهة نظره في العمل وتوزيعه على الجميع.. وبعض الأمور الأخرى كالفن ورفاهيته.. بكل سلاسة تجد نفسك داخل الأحداث.. بكلمات قليلة وموجزة تفهم دوافع وخلفيات الشخصيات.. لتُفاجئ مرة واحدة بإنك وصلت إلى النهاية.

الحوارات مكتوبة بدقة وبدون تكلف كبير، وستشعر بلهيب قادم منها.. بين شخصية الرسام الذي يرى أن العمل شيء إختياري وليس إجباري.. لأنه يجب على الإنسان أن يجد وقت فراغ ليُفكر فيه بروحه وقلبه ودينه.. ولكن (ليدا) القاسية الطباع ترى أن العمل شيء أساسي في الحياة لا غنى عنه.

قد ترى في وجهتين النظر شيء من الصواب.. رُبما هُنا قليلاً وهُنا قليلاً.. ولكن الأكيد أن كُل تلك الأفكار التي تمت إثارتها بداخلك لتُفكر فيها هي نتيجة لقصة لم تتجاوز الـثلاثين صفحة!
هكذا هو تشيخوف!

[Ola Al-Najres · Rating 5 out of 5]

هذا هو تشيخوف الذي كنت أبحث عنه، أديب الصراعات النفسية والفكرية بدون إطالة ولا تشتيت، من يشق طريقه مباشرةً إلى صلب الموضوع دون أن يحرمك من تحليلاته العميقة وفلسفته الخاصة …

موضوعه هنا لا يزال هاجساً لكثير منا في هذا العصر، تضارب أسلوب الحياة العملي مع الروحاني، الواقع الخارجي ضد الحياة الداخلية، فمن كان يشعر أن العمل بضغوطاته المستمرة يسلبه طاقته وهدوءه وسلامه النفسي سيميل إلى بطل تشيخوف وسيفهمه تماماً، حيث يرى أنه لو وُجد توزيع عادل للعمل والطاقات والخدمات لقلّت احتياجات المرء (الحيوانية) وتفرّغ للبحث عن ذاته وعن حقيقة الحياة …

وبرأيي أن الحب الذي فقده البطل هو كناية عن الأشياء الجميلة التي تُسلب منا لتحليقنا خارج سرب العمل والنظام المادي .


وفي أحيان نادرة، عندما تؤرقني الوحدة وأشعر بالحزن أتذكرها بصورة مبهمة، وشيئاً فشيئاً يخيّل إليّ أيضاً أن هناك من يتذكرني، وينتظرني، وأننا سنلتقي … 🤍

[Mostafa · Rating 4 out of 5]

يناقش تشيخوف في تلك الرواية القصيرة ، فلسفة أفلاطون عن العمل في جمهوريته الفاضلة .. حيث يري أفلاطون أن الأصلح بين البشر هو تقسيم العمل وتقسيم عدد ساعاته بينهم ..
تعطينا الرواية ملمح عن المجتمع الروسي الإقطاعي في هذا الوقت كأغلب المجتمعات التي كانت في العالم التي كانت من نبلاء وأسياد .. ويضع فضيلة الخير عند أحد النبلاء تحت الإختبار ، هل ما يمكن تقديمه للفقراء حقاُ هو علاجهم وتعليمهم ومساعدتهم ، أم تخفيف العبأ عن كاهلهم وإراحتهم ؟
وكعادة الأسر النبيلة هناك تلك الفتاة التي تتوق إلي فكر مخالف لما نشأت عليه فتقع في الحب مع الفنان الفقير صاحب الفلسفات العدة عن الحرية والعلم وقيمة النفس والبشر والحياة ، الذي يتهم النبلاء بالتصنع في ما يظهرونه من مساعدة للفقراء والفلاحين .. ولكن النهاية لم تكن " رد قلبي " ، بل كانت واقعية جداً لما يمكن أن يحدث حيث أن الفقر والنبل لا يلتقيان ؟!

[Tawfek · Rating 3 out of 5]

القصة تحكي عن مصور يمضي أجازته في الريف و أثناء ذلك يتعرف عن طريق صديقه صاحب الأملاك علي عائلة مكونة من أم و إبنتيها
و تعرض القصة المناقشات الحادة بينه و بين الإبنة الكبري و التي تعمل في نقابًة ما محاولة مد المساعدة الي الفقراء المحتاجين
بينما تختلف وجهة نظرها عن الحياة تمامًا عن وجهة نظر المصور و يدخلون في مجادلات يمكن الخروج منها ببعض العبر الفلسفية و بعض الحلول لواقع هذا الزمان بالطبع
و في أثناء ذلك يحب المصور الأخت الصغري و عندما يصارحها بحبه تخبر أختها الكبري و أمها
فتأمرهم الأخت الكبري المتسلطة علي حياتهم بأن عليهم الرحيل لمكان آخر و ان علي أختها الصغري نسيان المصور نهائيًا.

[Ath 🌵 Raa · Rating 3 out of 5]

بغض النظر عن الهدف من القصة أو ما كان يصوره الكاتب من أحداث والافكار التي أراد أن يوصلها عن تحرر الانسان من العبودية التي يعيشها
أعجبت بشخصية ليدا الواقعية ولم أتفق مع الكاتب !

[Numidica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chekhov is growing on me, and this was another good story.

[Fdwa Omar · Rating 4 out of 5]

يرددون دائما أن اختلاف الآراء لا يفسد الود،لكنه يفسده،ينسفه و يورث دهرا من الجفاء والبعد.
رواية مؤثرة معبرة جدا من قلب الواقع المرّ لوجهات نظر متناقضة تماما،وما أكثر التناقضات حولنا..

"وفي أحيان نادرة عندما تؤرقني الوحدة وأشعر بالحزن،أتذكرها بصورة مبهمة،وشيئاَ فشيء يخيل إلي أن هناك من ينتظرني ويتذكرني وأننا سنلتقي"

[Siwara · Rating 4 out of 5]

أعجبتني الحوارات جدًا بين الشخصيات. لا ينفكّ أنطون عن إبهاري ببساطة سرده وعمق قضاياه

[Esraa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"وعلى هذا النحو تمر المئات من السنين وتعيش ملايين البشر في ظروف أسوأ من ظروف الحيوان، لا لشئ إلا لكسب كسرة من الخبز ومواصلة العيش في خوف دائم"

[ناني ماكفي لا أملك حساب ثاني · Rating 4 out of 5]

هي فقط ثلاثون صفحة لكنه تشيخوف!
فماذا تتوقع أن تجد؟!!
على السطح مثلا ستجد قصة تدور حول شاب رسام فقير أحب بنت من الطبقة الإقطاعية المتوسطة لكن أختها المتزمتة حالت بينهما وفشلت قصة الحب
لكنها 30صفحة فقط ونحن نتحدث عن تشيخوف 🩷
إذن ماذا نجد أيظا ؟!!
🌟 ستجد الصراع العالق بين مدرستين الفلسفة والعلوم
ماذا يحتاج الإنسان؟ تغذية روحه والبحث في كينونته والإهتمام بدينه أم العلم ونتاجه كالطب والمعرفة كفك الخط والقراءة..
صراع بين مدرسة الخلود وبلوغ المعرفة القصوى الشاملة الكلية والتفرغ لها لتفكير بها مقابل العلم وهو الجزئي تفصيلي وتراه هدر طاقة وربط البشر لٱحتياجات حيوانية زائلة لٱستعبادهم وامعان حيونتهم وعدم السمو بهم
🌟 ماذا نجد أيظا؟ بوادر ثورة روسية قريبة
🌟 وماذا أيظا؟ماذا يحتاج الإنسان ليكون إنسان ؟
🌟هل يدوم الحب حين تختلف المبادئ .هل يصمد ؟
إنها 30صفحة فقط
لكنه تشيخوف ❤️

[Paul Ataua · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and yet puzzling short story that begins with a fairy tale feel where the artist climbs over a fence into what seems a secret garden where way above in the trees ‘a vivid golden quivered here and there and transformed spiders’ webs into shimmering rainbows’. Here he finds the house with the mezzanine . It is the story of a young painter and his somewhat tenuous romance with two sisters. With one sister, there is conflict over how we should act in the social world, with the other there is no discord, just a simple harmony. It seems simple but there is definitely much more to the story than first appears and it is one to read and reread. Reading just once is not an option.

[Ahmed Gamal · Rating 3 out of 5]

هذا هو تشيخوف اذا
تركيز على موضوع القصه المطروح بدون اللجوء الى الحشو او التطويل


فى هذه القصه يصور تشيخوف
ما كان يعانيه المجتمع فى روسيا منذ مئات السنين من فجوه وخلل بين الطبقات
واستبداد الحكومات وعدم توافر خدمات وتدهور الصحه ..الخ..نعانيه نحن المصريون
الان

[Yassmeen Altaif · Rating 4 out of 5]

كيف يعيش المجتمع بإختلاف طبقاته وتفكيره، وكيف يكون هو الحب.

هذا ماكان في المنزل ذو العلية بقصة أو رواية قصيرة جداً كتبها أنطوان بلغة بسيطة و بساطة رائعة دون تمعن في ماهو ليس مهم لذكره.

هنا يكمن الإبداع في بساطة السرد و عمق المعنى

[TarasProkopyuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Как жаль...

Жаль, что даже благородные устремления и деятельность одних могут недопонимать видение и мысли людей, которые умеют заглянуть немного дальше и глубже.

И очень грустно, что это недопонимание и вызывает некий инстинкт сопротивления и побуждает расставить преграды на пути оппонента и ещё грустнее, если одной из таких преград является разлука с единственным понимающим человеком, с зарождающей любовью...

[Yasmine Mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

تشيكوف بنظرة مقربة صور لنا حال الطبقة المتوسطة الروسية قبل الثورة و الاختلاف في رؤية الحل للازمات التي تطحن الطبقة الدنيا و ما أشبه الغد بالبارحة!!!

أعجبتني ليدا و محاولتها المستميتة لتغير ما حولها ببذل كل ما تستطيع من جهد و للاسف كرهت تشبثها برأيها لدرجة تكاد تفرضه على الاخرين و رفض أي رأي آخر و أكثر ما كرهت هو أنها فرقت بين حبيبين دون ذنب بسبب فقط الاختلاف في الرأي.

[Vesna · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

4.5

[Mai Ibrahim · Rating 2 out of 5]

مشكلتي مع الكاتب أن القصص القصيرة مش بطلع منها بحاجه ولا بتعلق معايا .. انا بتسلى بس بسمعها ع أقرألي وانا بشتغل مش اكتر 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Driss El bouki · Rating 4 out of 5]

في هذه القصة لم يترك لي تشيخوف مجالا للتعليق...
لقد قال كل شيء وأكتفي بالاقتباسات (الرصاصات)...
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إن مئات الكيلومترات من السهوب الخاوية،الرتيبة،العارية،لا تستطيع أن تصيبك بهذه الكآبة التي يصيبك بها شخص واحد،عندما يجلس ويتحدث،ولا تدري متى يرحل
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[leni_hermanni · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I love his narration and how soothing every description of nature is. Chekhov is quickly turning to be one of my favourites, especially as his short stories have a calmness and serenity as well as an underlying internal struggle and agony on behalf of the lonesome narrator. At times it's almost as if the author is aware of your very own thoughts and has put them there years ago for you to discover.

[منةُ الله · Rating 4 out of 5]

كل مرة أقرر أن الأدب المُترجَم لا يُشبِع ثم يعاودني اشتياقي لعوالم تشيكوف فأمضي وقتًا معه لأعلن امتناني لمن ينقلونها إلى العربية بهذا الرونق، وإن كنت سأظل فضولية تجاه رونقه الأصلي، أن يا تُرى كم ستزداد عظمة المشهد بلغته الأصلية؟!
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أحببت ميسوس جدا وأشفقت على ليدا وأعجبت بالراوي المصور، وفي المجمل علق أكثر من مشهد في ذهني. تفاصيل تشيكوف تثير مخيلتي، دافئة رغم غلبة طابع البؤس عليها!

[Marnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not particularly memorable plot-wise BUT this book is my go-to for literary comparison in my English essays with regards to literature functioning as socio-political commentary. So reading it served me well, hence the 4 stars 😂

Shall be reading more Chekhov in the future and might well revisit this. If such an event should ever unfold I will properly review it then.

[Omar Kassem · Rating 3 out of 5]

اجمل ما في هذه القصة هو التوازن الذي خلقه تشيخوف بين وجهتي النظر دون أن يتحيّز لاحداهما على حساب الاخرى ، وعندما تبدا بفهم وجهات نظر الشخصيات وسير الاحداث ترى فجأة نفسك قد وصلت لنهاية القصة!
الحوار مكتوب بشكل سلس وعميق ومشوق..أحببتها

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Nicoletta · Rating 4 out of 5]

lida, my queen, i love you!

- 1 star for the painter really believing he was ever truly in love with eugenia... istg, man, don't piss me off!