My niece said she was reading some Chekhov stories and a play for her book club, now virtual book club. She was loving the stories and the play, “The Seagull”. So, I started reading Anton Chekhov’s stories, too.
Wow. All I can say is his characters are resonating in 2020 without one false move.
Here is a description of the man, Byelikov, in the story, ” The Man in the Case”.
You have heard of him, no doubt. He was remarkable for always wearing galoshes and a warm wadded coat, and carrying an umbrella even in the very finest weather. And his umbrella was in a case, and his watch was in a case made of grey chamois leather, and when he took out his penknife to sharpen his pencil, his penknife, too, was in a little case; and his face seemed to be in a case too because he always hid it in his turned-up collar. He wore dark spectacles and flannel vests, stuffed up his ears with cotton-wool, and when he got into a cab always told the driver to put up the hood. In short, the man displayed a constant and insurmountable impulse to wrap himself in a covering, to make himself, so to speak, a case which would isolate him and protect him from external influences. Reality irritated him, frightened him, kept him in continual agitation, and, perhaps to justify his timidity, his aversion for the actual, he always praised the past and what had never existed; and even the classical languages which he taught were in reality for him galoshes and umbrellas in which he sheltered himself from real life.
Anton Chekov, “The Man in the Case”.
You can read this story here for free, and the two others that part of this trilogy of stories on-line you can google: ‘Gooseberries’ and ‘About Love’.
What I have noticed so far is that a character like Mr. Byelikov, may be selected out to be the unlikable character who has this repository of unfortunate traits but Chekov manages to see these same traits in all the characters by the end of the story.
This trilogy of stories was written between 1883-1898 but I recognize every single character in my 2020 life. In fact, like in a Chekhov story, be careful who you feel sorry for or judge harshly as you may have many of the same traits. “The Woman in the Case.”
