The Black Monk
Written by Anton Chekhov
Narrated by Max Bollinger
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
"The Black Monk" by Anton Chekhov follows the life of Andrey Vasilievich Kovrin, a brilliant scholar who experiences hallucinations of a mystical black monk. As his visions intensify, Kovrin grapples with the blurred lines between genius and madness, leading to a tragic confrontation with reality and his own aspirations. The novella explores themes of creativity, mental instability, and the pursuit of an idealized self. Read in English, unabridged.
Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian doctor, short-story writer, and playwright. Born in the port city of Taganrog, Chekhov was the third child of Pavel, a grocer and devout Christian, and Yevgeniya, a natural storyteller. His father, a violent and arrogant man, abused his wife and children and would serve as the inspiration for many of the writer’s most tyrannical and hypocritical characters. Chekhov studied at the Greek School in Taganrog, where he learned Ancient Greek. In 1876, his father’s debts forced the family to relocate to Moscow, where they lived in poverty while Anton remained in Taganrog to settle their finances and finish his studies. During this time, he worked odd jobs while reading extensively and composing his first written works. He joined his family in Moscow in 1879, pursuing a medical degree while writing short stories for entertainment and to support his parents and siblings. In 1876, after finishing his degree and contracting tuberculosis, he began writing for St. Petersburg’s Novoye Vremya, a popular paper which helped him to launch his literary career and gain financial independence. A friend and colleague of Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, and Ivan Bunin, Chekhov is remembered today for his skillful observations of everyday Russian life, his deeply psychological character studies, and his mastery of language and the rhythms of conversation.
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Reviews for The Black Monk
35 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is one of those stories that appeals to something, which I haven't a clue because I lack the intellectual tools. I read it on Daily Lit.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was intrigued by this, not just as a skillful handling of one man's descent into madness, but the lack of bias in the author's treatment of the situation. Who should we sympathise with? Tanya and her father, long suffering by standers and "victims" of Audrey's behaviour? Or Audrey himself, whose thoroughly delusional yet relatively benign behaviour causes little serious harm and keeps him happy. The drive by Tanya and her father to bring him back to "normality", destroying his genius in the process, seems cruel from his point of view. Their view of his odd behaviour seems understandable from theirs...The quote that stands out for me is when the Black Monk talks of genius and madness: "Nowadays scientists say genius is akin to madness". I suspect the urge t come down on the side of one or the other is futile-and not what Chekhov was wanting for his readers. I think it is more the genius/madness that exists in humanity, which can be delusional, difficult and sometimes damaging, but which is more damaging when "cured". I'm a newbie to Chekhov so I need to read more to make sense of him.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed these two stories even though the backdrop is depressing. Both are philosophical and I believe they would be made better if read for a book club or class and discussed. In The Black Monk, my question is, is he crazy?In Peasants, the question is, do situations people are placed in cause them to be unhappy with their lives or is it the individual who ultimately has control of their happiness with outside forces being minimal in that respect.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These two stories are both weightier and more serious affairs than the author's many vignettes of Russian life in his Selected Short Stories. The title story is rather ambiguous and I am not sure if the author is making a specifically anti-religious point (the monk as the instrument of the protagonist's fall in life) or showing simply a generally cynical and pessimistic outlook on life. The protagonist dies of consumption, as did the author. Peasants is a vivid depiction of grinding poverty, starkly unlike the humorous peasant characters in the author's other story vignettes. This culminates in the death of the main character and a horrible line "Far from having any fear of death, Marya was only sorry that it was such a long time coming, and was glad when any of her children died".