The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 4 May 2000
by Anton Chekhov
This is actually a short story, but is so wonderful that it should be listed in these book reviews. This is a beautiful and dark tale of a small merchant family in the town of Ukleyevo, situated in a deep and shadowed ravine. This reader could never do justice to the complexity and genius of Chekhov's tale, but the location is clearly a metaphor for the dark amorality of many of its residents. The landscape itself is a character in this story, and throughout it is dark and brooding. Grigory Tzybukin, the patriarchal store-owner, and his chaotic family seem to be waiting for some event to occur. Chekhov then manages to compress several weddings and a funeral into their lives. The many characters in this story are incredibly well-drawn, and the various episodes compelling short tales in themselves.
In a languid dusty hot summer in Yalta, people of leisure come down by the sea and complain about how boring life is there. Dmitri, a gentleman from Moscow, married, but with a long record of sexual conquests, is taking the air when he encounters a pretty young woman walking her Pomeranian dog. He is nearly twice her age, but rakishly seduces her. For her part, Anna Sergeyevna is also married, and this her first transgression. She wallows in the guilt and bemoans the nature of fate, while Dmitri blithely munches on watermelons. But the tables turn, and Dmitri finds his fate is to be in love with this young beauty, perhaps as he realizes his creeping old age. This is, perhaps, not one of Chekhov's finest stories, as it feels incomplete, as if the entire tale is told at arm's length. The richest prose here is when he describes the dusty countryside around Yalta and other towns.
This, however, is a beautifully realized short story. A group of Russian officers, quartered in the nearby village, are invited to a gentleman's house for tea. They anticipate being regaled with stories until dawn, as at another country estate, but what they find is a somewhat reluctant family, still determined to entertain their guests as if on a point of honor. One of the officers, a young man, still naive in the ways of women, stumbles blindly into a dark room and is kissed by a passionate young woman he never sees. This fleeting moment. The softness of her touch, if even for a second, haunts him throughout the coming months. The magic of the first touch, the first kiss, is magnificently captured in Chekhov's prose. His descriptions of the countryside at night, languid and evocative, are just beautiful. He knows his obsession with this invisible woman is irrational, yet the warmth of the memory carries this young officer through his summer. The story is tight and complete.
See also: [Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter]