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Monday, October 12, 2015

Two teachable Chekhov stories

No surprise that Chekhov is part of the ten modern classics story anthology I reading but I was surprised to see his work represented by two very short pieces that I had never read or at least don't remember. I think part of anthologist r g Davis's thinking was teachability and no doubt shorter pieces such as these that make one clear point are a better entry point for students than say ward 6 or the kiss or lady w a lap dog. One is a trifle from real life - piece in which a man is visiting the house of a divorcee w whom he is having an affair. She's not home and practically from the first time he engages in conversation w her young son. The son blurts out that the nurse or nanny has been taking him and his sister to secretly meet w their estranged father. The boy gets the man to promise "honor bright" that he will not tell but as soon as the mother comes home he asks what the hell this is all about. The boy is in tears, betrayed. The surprise and beauty of this piece is that it turns out and we realize this only at the end to be a story about the boy not the man - his first glimpse into the cruelty and narcissism of the adult world. The other story, The Student,mis of a clerical student walking home from a day of shooting very cold and miserable and down on the world. He stops to warm himself by a fire tended by two woman mother and daughter both widows and hentellsnthem of peters and his three denials of Christ. The older woman bursts into tears. And he realizes and believes that St. Peter is very meaningful to her life and that gives him comfort and confidence as he continues on his passage home. Obviously this is an analog for his journey thru life toward death and marks a moment in which he finds his life and calling potentially have value but only to the extent that he can find that value in service to people even those much less fortunate less educated - he must bring them the word. We don't know what his future will be but we see this possibility for warmth and deliverance. Actually if I had come across this story without knowing the author I would have guessed Tolstoy as it doesn't have the concluding note of sorrow and elusiveness and missed opportunity that we associate w Chekhov.

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