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Дом с мезонином и другие повести и рассказы

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В книгу вошли произведения, созданные А.П.Чеховым в 1896-1903 гг.: повести "Моя жизнь", "Мужики", "В овраге", а также рассказы "Дом с мезонином", "Ионыч", "Человек в футляре", "О любви", "Душечка" и другие.

320 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1896

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About the author

Anton Chekhov

5,996 books9,810 followers
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

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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for John.
103 reviews
March 14, 2012
3.5. I love Chekov; even in his short stories, his characters are incredibly colorful and nuanced. You get a truly 3-dimensional sense of the individuals in the tale, which is something many authors can't do with a much broader palette.
Profile Image for Liudmila.
38 reviews18 followers
February 1, 2018
Rereading “The House with the Mezzanine” so many years later has been a gust of fresh air. The power of observation and the ability to transfer the author’s experiences through fictional characters in a vivid manner made me dive in the reality of those days. Very relevant story even today. “The point isn’t pessimism or optimism, but that ninety-nine people out of a hundred are witless.”
Profile Image for Simon.
141 reviews32 followers
July 6, 2015
A very good collection of Chekhov short stories, but with some lengths and strongly tending towards melancholy and tragedy. I liked The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 better, seemed more balanced as well.

Slightly spoilery mini-reviews of individual short stories:

The House With the Mezannine - 4/5. a calm melancholy reflective romance story. very sweet. also, clash of political/ideological views with love.
Typhus - ?/5. Hard to rate, short. Impressive show of delirium and the titular disease though.
Gooseberries - 4.5/5. Short but rich. Meaning of life, the idle unreflected happiness of common people, the ignored unhappiness of the masses of unfortunate ones.
In Exile - */5. short. stark image of resigned life exiled in Siberia.
The Lady with the Toy Dog - ?/5. read this before in the other collection, titled The Lady with the Little Dog.
Goussiev - 1.5/5. confusing, hard to get into, nothing of interest for me. Maybe have to reread this one.
My Life - 4/5. Quite long, probably a novella. Often spirited, another tragic melancholic life story with highly troubled family, marriage, social and work life.
Profile Image for Artjom Juferov.
10 reviews
February 7, 2022
I was inspired to read this story again by my daily Stoic's reading. The topic was "Don't seek out strife" and I thought that the Checkhov's story was about the same.

After I had finished the story, I realized that I was wrong. I found there a conflict between serving to people who are in need or to something eternal. I found there a unsuccessful love story. Well many other obvious things. But I wanted to prove my feeling that Chekhov also find simple, not epic life comforting. I was disappointed.

I was disappointed not only by being wrong, but by the story itself, it's really sad. Though I could not believe that there is nothing more, there should have been a key. I started to remember was there at least a few seconds when I felt good and comfortable while I was reading the story. And I could remember only the description of the House With The Mezzanine and slow, cozy, family life inside.

So Stoics say "Don't seek out strife" but Chekhov can add "but seek your House With The Mezzanine"
Profile Image for Marcus Kielly.
27 reviews1 follower
December 26, 2017
I read this collection after a Carver binge, hearing that Chekov was considered a master of the short story. I found the collection quite varied, in both length and in my involvement with the stories. The depiction of Russian life, alien both in time and geography, was absorbing in and of itself. In terms of plot and character however, a few stories stood out. My Life, for the inner voice of it's protagonist as he struggles against his privilege to live an honest life, The Bride for it's horrifying and damning ending, but most of all, The Lady with the Little White Dog, for capturing perfectly the essence of love and the unhappiness it can bring. Not sure if I'd recommend the collection as a whole - but I'm glad I read it.
Profile Image for Travis.
Author 6 books28 followers
April 28, 2019
I've been told that Chekhov is the master of short stories.

This is the second collection I've read recently, and sorry, but I ain't seein' it.

One thing that Chekhov does very well is capture time and place, Russia in the late 1800s. He also does a decent job of weaving in some philosophy of society and station. He's got some decent stories that held my attention, but overall I'm left underwhelmed.

And "My Life: The Story of a Provincial"? It was like watching paint dry.

I did listen to this on audio, which very well might have impacted my take on Chekhov's work.
Profile Image for Jeremy.
383 reviews3 followers
February 27, 2021
It's really interesting how you can look at most of his stories and see superficial entertainment of the period...young women wondering if they'll get married, married couples having affairs, etc. But looked at another way, all the characters are so real and detailed. And in a way characters in more sophisticated works of literature aren't.
Profile Image for Charlotte.
200 reviews10 followers
October 30, 2021
Is art meaningful or useful? How helpful is charity work and what other ways are there to eliminate poverty? During the Covid crisis the significance of art and culture has been heavily debated, and they were muffled by other activities. So I did not react in particular to this story.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews

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