Ionitch

By Anton Chekhov

A district doctor moves to town and is encouraged to meet Turkins family only to fall helplessly in love with their daughter. The Turkins are the smartest family in a small, unnamed town. The father plays puns on words, the wife writes and reads aloud unrealistic novels, and the daughter pounds the keyboards of the piano with the hope of becoming a professional pianist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Interactive Media
• Release date: Oct 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781787249516

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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Anton Chekhov

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Anton Chekhov

Ionitch

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New Edition

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This Edition

First published in 2018

Copyright © 2018 Sovereign

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9781787249516

Contents

IONITCH

NOTES

IONITCH

I

WHEN visitors to the provincial town S--- complained of the dreariness and monotony of life, the inhabitants of the town, as though defending themselves, declared that it was very nice in S----, that there was a library, a theatre, a club; that they had balls; and, finally, that there were clever, agreeable, and interesting families with whom one could make acquaintance. And they used to point to the family of the Turkins as the most highly cultivated and talented.

This family lived in their own house in the principal street, near the Governor’s. Ivan Petrovitch Turkin himself – – a stout, handsome, dark man with whiskers – – used to get up amateur performances for benevolent objects, and used to take the part of an elderly general and cough very amusingly. He knew a number of anecdotes, charades, proverbs, and was fond of being humorous and witty, and he always wore an expression from which it was impossible to tell whether he were joking or in earnest. His wife, Vera Iosifovna – – a thin, nice-looking lady who wore a pince-nez – – used to write novels and stories, and was very fond of reading them aloud to her visitors. The daughter, Ekaterina Ivanovna, a young girl, used to play on the piano. In short, every member of the family had a special talent. The Turkins welcomed visitors, and good-humouredly displayed their talents with genuine simplicity. Their stone house was roomy and cool in summer; half of the windows looked into a shady old garden, where nightingales used to sing in the spring. When there were visitors in the house, there was a clatter of knives in the kitchen and a smell of fried onions in the yard – – and that was always a sure sign of a plentiful and savoury supper to follow.

And as soon as Dmitri Ionitch