Note-Book of Anton Chekhov Part 3

Two wives: one in Petersburg, the other in Kertch. Constant rows, threats, telegrams. They nearly reduce him to suicide. At last he finds a way: he settles them both in the same house. They are perplexed, petrified; they grow silent and quiet down.

His character is so undeveloped that one can hardly believe that he has been to the University.

And I dreamt that, as it were, what I considered reality was a dream, and the dream was reality.

I observed that after marriage people cease to be curious.

It usually takes as much time to feel happy as to wind up one's watch.

A dirty tavern near the station. And in every tavern like that you will find salted white sturgeon with horse radish. What a lot of sturgeon must be salted in Russia!

Z. goes on Sundays to the Sukharevka (a market-place in Moscow) to look for books; he finds a book, written by his father, with the inscription: "To darling Nadya from the author."

A Government official wears on his chest the portrait of the Governor's wife; he feeds a turkey on nuts and makes her a present of it.

One should be mentally clear, morally pure, and physically tidy.

It was said of a certain lady that she had a cat's factory; her lover tortured the cats by treading on their tails.

An officer and his wife went to the baths together, and both were bathed by the orderly, whom they evidently did not consider a man.

"And now he appeared with all his decorations."

"And what decorations has he got?"

"He has a bronze medal for the census of 1897."

A government clerk gave his son a thras.h.i.+ng because he had only obtained five marks in all his subjects at school. It seemed to him not good enough. When he was told that he was in the wrong, that five is the highest mark obtainable, he thrashed his son again--out of vexation with himself.

A very good man has such a face that people take him for a detective; he is suspected of having stolen s.h.i.+rt-studs.

A serious phlegmatic doctor fell in love with a girl who danced very well, and, to please her, he started to learn a mazurka.

The hen sparrow believes that her c.o.c.k sparrow is not chirping but singing beautifully.

When one is peacefully at home, life seems ordinary, but as soon as one walks into the street and begins to observe, to question women, for instance, then life becomes terrible. The neighborhood of Patriars.h.i.+ Prudy (a park and street in Moscow) looks quiet and peaceful, but in reality life there is h.e.l.l.

These red-faced young and old women are so healthy that steam seems to exhale from them.

The estate will soon be brought under the hammer; there is poverty all round; and the footmen are still dressed like jesters.

There has been an increase not in the number of nervous diseases and nervous patients, but in the number of doctors able to study those diseases.

The more refined the more unhappy.

Life does not agree with philosophy: there is no happiness which is not idleness and only the useless is pleasurable.

The grandfather is given fish to eat, and if it does not poison him and he remains alive, then all the family eat it.

A correspondence. A young man dreams of devoting himself to literature and constantly writes to his father about it; at last he gives up the civil service, goes to Petersburg, and devotes himself to literature--he becomes a censor.