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The Duel

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

1,185 ratings
The Duel | Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The Duel

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The plot centers around Laevsky, who is living in a small seaside town in the Caucasus after running away with another man's wife, Nadyezhda Fyodorovna, amid dreams of starting a new life. The dreams have come to nothing as Laevsky idles away his life drinking and playing cards, and Nadyezhda begins to have other affairs. Laevsky's scheme to run away again, this time without his mistress, brings him into conflict with the rationalist Von Koren, who believes in Darwinian principles of natural selection and extinction of the weak and useless. Matters come to a head when an outburst from Laevsky leads to a duel. Von Koren is determined to teach Laevksy a lesson
peasants carrying the banners and the women and children the ikons, then the boy choristers and the sacristan with his face tied up and a straw in his hair, then in due order himself, the deacon, and behind him the priest wearing his calotte and carrying a cross, and behind them, tramping in the dust, a crowd of peasants—men, women, and children; in the crowd his wife and the priest's wife with kerchiefs on their heads. The choristers sing, the babies cry, the corncrakes call, the lark carols. . . . Then they make a stand and sprinkle the herd with holy water. . . . They go on again, and then kneeling pray for rain. Then lunch and talk. . . .

"And that's nice too . . ." thought the deacon.

VII

Kirilin and Atchmianov climbed up the mountain by the path. Atchmianov dropped behind and stopped, while Kirilin went up to Nadyezhda Fyodorovna.

"Good-evening," he said, touching his cap.

"Good-evening."

"Yes!" said Kirilin, looking at the sky and pondering.

"Why 'yes'?" asked Nadyezhda Fyodorovna after a brief pause, noticing that Atchmianov was watching them both.

"And so it seems," said the officer, slowly, "that our love has withered before it has blossomed, so to speak. How do you wish me to understand it? Is it a sort of coquetry on your part, or do you look upon me as a nincompoop who can be treated as you choose."

"It was a mistake! Leave me alone!" Nadyezhda Fyodorovna said sharply, on that beautiful, marvellous evening, looking at him with terror and asking herself with bewilderment, could there really have been a moment when that man attracted her and had been near to her?

"So that's it!" said Kirilin; he thought in silence for a few minutes and said: "Well, I'll wait till you are in a better humour, and meanwhile I venture to assure you I am a gen

David 09/07/2022
This was my introduction to Anton Chekhov in any format, and I was thoroughly impressed. The short story is indeed an art form that few people do well. There are a number of genre writers (Stephen King, David Morrell, Ray Bradbury, Robert McCammon) who do quite well, but in literary fiction there ar
M.R. 01/25/2022
Coming in at over 100 pages and by far the longest piece here, 'The Duel' is a superb piece of work. I loved the way Chekhov shifts the perspective between the four main chatacters and I was pleasantly surprised at how hopeful the ending was - anyone looking for some great literature which is not a
Phrodrick 11/26/2018
In a brisk 142 pages we have the 6 short stories in The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov. Consider that the title story, The Duel is 88 pages and brisk is indeed very fast.

The title story is not my favorite. As seems to be the case in short story duels, the cause is hard to consider as worth
Shanmugam 09/21/2015
I had always wanted to read Chekhov. However, I hate to admit that if not for the tag 'Contemporary Anton Chekhov' on Alice Munro, I wouldn't have started this book yet. All of a sudden, I wanted to read a Munro, then the meticulous me ended up landing here.

Halfway into the book, I thought I would p
Theresa 08/12/2012
I enjoyed all of Chekhov's stories in this book but his short story The Duel is the best. Set in the seaside town of Caucasus (interestingly, as I write this, in 2012, one is highly discouraged by the U.S. government from visiting this area, which is a shame, because it is, from Chekhov's descriptio
Richard 08/06/2008
Some great stories in here, though I'm not convinced yet that Chekhov could pull off a long piece (the title story takes some great directions, but overall doesn't compel). But my main quibble here has to do with some translation choices--some of what was probably colloquial Russian was translated i

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