Selected short stories -1892-1895- translated by Constance Garnett

And he thought:

'Let us live, and we shall see.'

NOTES

dedication day: a patron saint's day

M. Laptev: Monsieur Laptev; in Chekhov's time it was polite to refer to a gentleman as 'monsieur,' even if he was Russian

paysage: landscape, scenery

Poor Anton: refers to Anton Goremyka [Goremyka = 'woebegone'], the hero of the sentimental short story 'Anton Goremyka' (1847) by Dmitri V. Grigorovich (1822-1899)

Tolstoy: from Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina

thou: using the intimate form of 'you'

Gaspard: a comic figure in the 1877 operetta The Chimes of Normandy by the French composer Robert Planquette (1848-1903)

cayenne pepper: extremely rare in Russia

lips: it is normal in Russia for male family members or close male friends to kiss

opponent: Chekhov actually writes, 'for woman's heart is a Shamil,' referring to the Moslem guerrilla leader (1797-1871) who led the Caucasians in their struggle against the Russians

Fley's: a Moscow pastry shop

Iudushka: the sanctimonious hero of the novel The Golovlyov Family by M. Y. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889)

pater-familias: head of the household

calotte: a kamelaukion, a high brimless hat worn by Russian Orthodox priests

sacrifice: the passage is from 1 Samuel 16:4-5

Rubinstein: Rubinstein (1829-1894) was a pianist, composer and conductor

ninth symphony: Beethoven's last symphony (1824)

Becker piano: the Becker grand pianos were made in St. Petersburg by Jacob Becker

oleographs: imitation oil paintings

reinheit: purity

basta: enough

candle: he flings the candle away because candles are for the dead and his wife is still living at this point

twenty degrees: 13 below zero F.

lessons: Russian schools included Orthodox religion in the curriculum

Filippov's: Russian bakery chain; they had many stores in Moscow

censorship: nothing was published in Russia without approval by the state censor

decadents: the French symbolists

'The Maid of Orleans': 1801 play about Joan of Arc by Friedrich von Schiler (1759-1805)

Ermolova: Mariya Yermolov (1853-1928) was a famous Russian actress, one of whose roles was Joan of Arc

pounder: this might also be translated 'bouncer' (a strong person hired to get rid of undesirables at bars and clubs)

In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread: Genesis 3:19

privy councillor: Class 3 in the Table of Ranks

Rothschild: rich banking family; their name was a synonym for wealth in Chekhov's time

Shiskin's: Ivan I. Shishkin (1832-1898) was a Russian landscape painter

Exaltation of the Cross: September 14

tender friend: the words were from Pushkin's 1823 poem 'Night,' and the music was by Anton Rubinstein

Muscovite Tsars: the kings of the Moscow-ruled Russian state from the fourteenth through the early eighteenth century

Lyapunovs: the brothers P. P. Lyapunov and Z. P. Lyapunov; the first was a hero of the national resistance against the invading Poles in the early seventeenth century

Godunovs: Boris Gudunov (1552-1605) was Tsar of Muscovy from 1558 to 1605

Yaroslav or of Monomach: Yarsolav the Wise was prince of Kiev from 1019-1054; Vladimir Monomakh was prince of Kiev from 1113-1125

monologue of Pimen: a famous speech in Pushkin's Boris Godunov

Kalmuck: the Kalmyk were an Asian ethnic group

Polovtsy: or Cumans, a Turkic-speaking group who fought sporadicaslly with Kievan Russia between 1054 and