Joke

The narration is conducted on behalf of the main character, a young man. He calls the girl Nadia to ride down the snow hill, which she is very afraid of, but still agrees. During the descent, when the wind howls in the ears of a frightened girl, the narrator whispers: “I love you, Nadia.” At the foot of the hill, the young man portrays indifference, making Nadia doubt that he was saying anything. She agrees to ride again to see if it was her friend’s words or howling wind. And again the young man makes the same joke with Nadia. They continue to ride for several days, while the narrator continues to play the girl. She longs to understand the nature of the words, but every time a scary descent from the hill does not allow her to concentrate on time. Winter is passing, the hill has melted, and Nadia cannot solve the riddle. When one evening she is sad standing on the porch, the narrator, hiding behind the fence, says those words again, and the girl flashes with joy. Soon the young man left for another city, Nadia later got married and gave birth to children. The narrator is sure that those memories remained the happiest for her in her life, and he himself no longer understands why he was joking.

The story was the second published by Chekhov in the magazine " Cricket ". The first was “ Night at the Cemetery (A Sacred Story) ”, which appeared in the debut issue of January 8 and caused Chekhov’s conflict with Leikin , the publisher of the main distributor of his works, the Fragments magazine. Therefore, the next story, the publisher of "Cricket" Werner was forced to wait 2 months.

The story was seriously revised before it was sent to Chekhov by the publisher Marx in 1899, when he prepared the complete works of the writer. The protagonist has turned from a wit into an intelligent young man, to match what the story has become more restrained. The denouement became different: instead of marrying Nadia, the hero now leaves the city and does not return to her.

Critics drew attention to the story from the publication of Marx. The theologian Vvedensky wondered why the main character made the other person suffer ^[1] . Angel Bogdanovich noted the literary grace of the story and the dreary feeling evoked by the reader with the ending ^[2] .

In 1966, the story was filmed by a short film directed by Andrei Smirnov . The main roles were played by Nikita Mikhalkov and Nonna Terentyev .

In 2006, the short film of the same name was directed by Ekaterina Grokhovskaya. In the role of Nadia - Glafira Tarhanova .

• Chekhov A.P. Joke // Chekhov A.P. Complete Works and Letters: In 30 vols. Works: In 18 vol. / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Institute of World Lite. them. A. M. Gorky. - M .: Nauka, 1974-1982.