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A daily record of what I'm thinking about what I'm reading

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Friday, June 15, 2018

An overlooked Chekhov short story

Coming across a Chekhov story I'd never read (or at least don't remember having read), in this case in the Norton Anthology of short fiction (3e), Is always a revelation and a pleasure. Yesterday read A visit to Friends, sandwiched between 2 much more famous stories (lady w lap dog and the darling) and I have wonder how his one's been overlooked - maybe because there are so many great Chekhov works we can't find room in our brains for another? In this terrific story the protagonist is a 30something Moscow lawyer who receives a note from two women longtime friends inviting him to visit them in the country.  The invite stirs him to memories of youth when he was in love w one of the women (playfully called Va). But he knows what the invite means: they're in financial distress and  the other woman Ta, short for Tatiana) and her unfaithful and self-pitying husband , Sergei - want to hit him up for a "loan" and free legal advice. The young man goes and senses that he , that they all, have grown much older and their carefree youth is gone. He finds Sergei odious. And then there is Ta's sister, Na (Natalia?) - and the man senses without ever saying so that the whole purpose of the visit is to set him up w Na , which would solve their problems. He flirts w her, dances w her but in the end - this is Chekhov! - he cannot bring himself to live her and all go off into the despair and loneliness of their lives.  This fine short story has all the anguish and elements - the elusiveness of happiness, the longing for connection w others just out of reach, the pride of the wealthy on the verge of despair, self-centered "types" as he calls them (a great moment in this story is the man' s realization  that he too is a "type") characteristic of Chekhovs great dramas.

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