The standout of this collection for me was Doctor Startsev. At first you assume the eponymous doc will be making a big mistake if he marries the pretty awful, in fact, awful and pretty, Catherine Turkin, aka Pussy. She turns him down, which she comes to see as a bad mistake. Then you realise that her understanding that she is mistaken tells us the marriage would have been better than the bleakness of Startsev's life once he is saved from her. The moments in which he gets a vague inkling of this before deciding to have nothing more to do with her are about as poignant, and real, as it gets.
It's Chekhov's recognition of the possibility of simple happiness that makes his characters' lack of it so painful.
No comments:
Post a Comment