Page Reprint: The Duel by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Дуэль на Антон Павлович Чехов)

It is through his plays that I best know Anton Chekov. The Duel is the first prose work of this Russian writer that I’ve read and the impetus for the reading was the adaption of the novella into a film, which I recently viewed. Although The Duel (1891) was written four years before Chekhov’s first play, The Seagull (Чайка), a four-act play structure, preferred by Chekhov, can be seen in this prose piece with the addition of a Prologue and Epilogue. Chekhov wrote the piece in twenty-one sections and the following is my break down of the prose work into a play format. This is one approach to the reading of The Duel. The titles given to the sections/scenes are mine.

Prologue – Section I – Summer Morning in the Caucasus
Here on an early Summer morning in a small town located in the Caucasus, the reader is introduced to two men swimming in the sea and later having coffee In the pavilion. First is the main character of the story, Ivan Andreich Laevsky (hereafter, Laevsky), a young government official whose unhappiness with his life away from Moscow and Petersburg has come to a crisis point and he longs to escape “To the pines, to the mushrooms, to people, to ideas…” (page 122). And the second man is Alexander Davidych Samoilenko (hereafter, Samoilenko), older and an army doctor who is the focal character of the narrative, the person others seek out and who willingly gives them his advice.

Act I – Summer Afternoon
During the afternoon of the morning in the Prologue, lunchtime is presented in two households. The first is the one that Laevsky shares with Nadezhda Fyodorovna (hereafter, Nadezhda), the married woman Laevsky ran away with from Petersburg to the Caucasus and the second is Samoilenko’s, who provides lunch for the zoologist Nikolai Vassilievich von Koren (hereafter, von Koren), who is hostile to Laevsky “’…everything comes down to drink, cards, slippers, and women. Women play a fatal, overwhelming role in his life.’” (page 137) and for the deacon Pobedov (hereafter, the deacon).
Scene 1 – Section II – Lunch with Laevsky and Nadezhda
Scene 2 – Section III – Samoilenko’s Table d’Hôte
Scene 3 – Section IV – Von Koren Discusses Laevsky with Samoilenko

Act II – Sunday and Monday
The reader meets more inhabitants of the small Caucasus town during an evening picnic in the countryside. Three of them are Marya Konstantinovna Bitiugov (hereafter, Marya), who provides the moral compass for Nadezhda; the police chief Ilya Mikhailych Kirilin (hereafter, Kirilin), Nadezhda’s discarded lover; and young Atchmianov, Nadezhda’s would-be lover. And Laevsky’s opinion of von Koren is voiced “’Despotism is a strong in science as in war. And he’s living for the second summer in this stinking little town, because it’s better to be first in a village than second in a city. Here he’s a king and an eagle; he’s got all the inhabitants under his thumb and oppresses them with his authority. He’s taken everybody in hand, he interferes in other people’s affairs, he wants to be in on everything, and everybody’s afraid of him. I’m slipping out from under his paw, he senses it, and he hates me’” (page 169).
Scene 1 – Section V – Nadezhda and Marya at the Shore
Scene 2 – Section VI – Picnic at the Black and Yellow Rivers
Scene 3 – Section VII – Nadezhda Talks with Kirilin and Atchmianov
Scene 4 – Section VIII – Von Koren Dismisses Nadezhda to Samoilenko
Scene 5 – Section IX – Laevsky Discusses von Koren with Samoilenko

Act III – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Revelations come forth over the course of three days. Marya was the only woman of the town to receive Nadezhda “You horrified me from the very first day, but I was unable to treat you with scorn, like everyone else. I suffered for dear, kind Ivan Andreich as for a son.” (page 173); some of the money for Laevsky’s “escape” would come from von Koren; and Kirilin is actually repulsive not respectable.
Scene 1 – Section X – Nadezhda and Marya Speak of Domestic Issues
Scene 2 – Section XI – Roubles for Laevsky
Scene 3 – Section XII – Kostya’s Birthday Celebration
Scene 4 – Section XIII – Laevsky’s Nervous Breakdown
Scene 5 – Section XIV – Nadezhda Meets Kirilin and Misses Atchmianov

Act IV – Friday and Saturday
Resolutions are made between persons: the affair between Nadezhda and Kirilin; the love of Laevsky and Nadezhda; the philosophies of von Koren and the deacon; and the hate between Laevasky and von Koren “…coming back from a cemetery where they had just buried a difficult, unbearable man who had interfered with all their lives.” (page 231).
Scene 1 – Section XV – The Challenge and the Betrayal
Scene 2 – Section XVI – Philosophy of the Strong Versus the Weak
Scene 3 – Section XVII – Duel Day Dawns
Scene 4 – Section XVIII – The Deacon’s Journey
Scene 5 – Section XIX – Duelists Arrive, Duelists Fire
Scene 6 – Section XX – Duel Dénouement

Epilogue – Section XXI – Autumn Night in the Caucasus
It is three months after the events and von Koren is taking his leave of the town. So on the night of a storm-filled day and before he is rowed out to the waiting steamer, von Koren says good-bye to some of the people of the town. As he has always been von Koren’s friend, Samoilenko sees him off at the shore with a fond farewell into the dark “’Don’t forget me, Kolya…Write…We’ll expect you next spring.’” (page 236).


Note: The adage has always been “to not judge a book by its cover”. However, I propose that a book cover can be judged by its art. The cover of the short novel collection in which I read The Duel can be seen above right. I don’t like the dots that go across most of the cover (they don’t add anything positive to the overall image) and the red rectangle should be higher on the cover so that there is space between it and the heads of the people in the photograph. Actually, my suggestion for a revision of the elements on this cover would be to eliminate the dots; to keep the photograph; to put Chekhov’s name across the top (above the heads!) in red lettering (no rectangle); to move the title down a little to below the man’s hand; and to keep the white lettering as is for the title, et.al.


Book Facts: Title: The Complete Short Novels, Author: Anton Chekhov, Translators: Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky, Table of Contents: Introduction, Select Bibliography, Chronology, The Steppe, The Duel, The Story of an Unknown Man, Three Years, My Life, Notes, Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Book Division: Borzoi, Book Series: Everyman’s Library, Book Format: Hardcover with dust jacket, Year: 2004, Pages: 600, Language: English, ISBN: 1-4000-40249-3


Images:
Left: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov from the website upload.wikimedia.org
Center: Graphic interpretation of The Duel by Adrean Darce Brent
Right: Front cover of The Complete Short Novels