Getting back into reading, one short story a day, Day 3 – “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekov

A short story about love! In Russia, no less! It reminded me of "A Gentleman in Moscow" because without having seen the pilot episode of that series, I would have had a hard time imagining the snow and opera and general Russian landscape. I haven't seen more of that series though, so instead I'd like to bring into focus how nicely the short story brings to life the setting, and how subtly it places that into it's indicated time period. At first you wonder about it, then you discover it, and it's fun. I like how the theme of love and the change it affects in a person is what the story is about. At first I thought it was about subtly preaching propriety but it's not. I both liked and disliked the story, the dislikes talked of below, along with how amoral the man seems to me. What I liked though is how human the condition of love is and how well that part is written. Therefore this isn't a romance but a story about love and humanness. The frustration, the rut, the dissatisfaction, guilt, longing, change, all of it is described so plainly that you can relate to those even when you dislike the characters.

Yet, I struggled with this story and almost dropped it a couple times. I found it hard to fully picture the story and it's setting until the latter half of the narrative. It was in part due to me being unable to understand certain words, causing gaps in reading comprehension. I looked up all the words but their modern definitions and occasionally even their archaic definitions did not help, it was probably the language itself that i found hard? For example, a keeper is mentioned and I looked it up and none of the meanings fit, and then i realised it was probably short for gatekeeper, housekeeper, or some such other keeper as befitted that time probably? Same with dandies, I only vaguely understand what it means within the narrative. The second was the characters, for whom I did not feel any sympathy or likeness and to underscore the theme of the story, the author starts off with certain negative impressions of the main character. I generally do not enjoy such stories where the main character is introduced and then painted in such a complicated "bad person but not really" vibe. And last but not the least, the story felt a bit long to me compared to other short stories I've read but that's not really a critic. I hardly understand such literary devices and am only merely a reader.

Thank you! There was a minor hiccup for my Day 2 post but it's all good and looking forward to more discussions!