The Duel (version 2)
Known for his plays and short stories, Anton Chekhov also wrote a series of novellas, astonishing for their psychological complexity and compelling human portraiture. In The Duel, the wastrel and libertine Laevsky absconds to the Caucasus with another man's wife, Nadyezhda Fyodorovna. While there, he forms several acquaintanceships with a colorful array of characters: Von Koren the zoologist, Samoylenko the doctor, and Pobyedov the giddy deacon. Before long, both Laevsky and his mistress succeed in offending local society by their dissolute lifestyles, leading to the inevitable insult, challenge, and duel. Duels having been exploited as plot twists throughout the writings of Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dostoyevsky (all ironically alluded to by the author), the challenge for Chekhov is to make it work one more time in 1891, at a time when duelling had nearly died out in both society and literature. The result is a richly layered, utterly original, philosophically and psychologically ambiguous story of human love and friendship. ( summary by Expatriate)
Genre(s): Literary Fiction
Language: English
Group: Chekhov's Novellas
Section | Chapter | Reader | Time |
---|---|---|---|
Play 01 | Chapter 01 | Expatriate |
00:18:54 |
Play 02 | Chapter 02 | Expatriate |
00:11:24 |
Play 03 | Chapter 03 | Expatriate |
00:15:50 |
Play 04 | Chapter 04 | Expatriate |
00:10:58 |
Play 05 | Chapter 05 | Expatriate |
00:13:16 |
Play 06 | Chapter 06 | Expatriate |
00:16:18 |
Play 07 | Chapter 07 | Expatriate |
00:05:45 |
Play 08 | Chapter 08 | Expatriate |
00:04:50 |
Play 09 | Chapter 09 | Expatriate |
00:13:37 |
Play 10 | Chapter 10 | Expatriate |
00:14:44 |
Play 11 | Chapter 11 | Expatriate |
00:12:25 |
Play 12 | Chapter 12 | Expatriate |
00:10:43 |
Play 13 | Chapter 13 | Expatriate |
00:05:40 |
Play 14 | Chapter 14 | Expatriate |
00:06:55 |
Play 15 | Chapter 15 | Expatriate |
00:16:39 |
Play 16 | Chapter 16 | Expatriate |
00:13:34 |
Play 17 | Chapter 17 | Expatriate |
00:11:31 |
Play 18 | Chapter 18 | Expatriate |
00:09:17 |
Play 19 | Chapter 19 | Expatriate |
00:12:12 |
Play 20 | Chapter 20 | Expatriate |
00:05:42 |
Play 21 | Chapter 21 | Expatriate |
00:10:34 |