Verochka (story)

The story of A.P. Chekhov “Verochka” was written in 1887, first published in 1887 in the newspaper “New Time” No. 3944 dated February 21 with the signature An. Chekhov, in 1887, was included in the collection “ At Twilight ”, in 1889 it was published in Lviv, and was included in the collection of works of A. Chekhov published by Adolf Marx .

In the story, Chekhov used the material provided to him by Bilibin, who wrote: “What right did you have to expose my Olena as the heroine of the story“ Verochka “? Here, look, I will describe you under the name "Antosha." M.P. Chekhov noted that “the garden described in Verochka in the moonlight with wisps of fog crawling through it is a garden in Babkin.” The story takes place in the town of Voskresensk , located near Babkin ^[1] .

The story "Verochka" was a favorite work of the writer. During the life of Chekhov, the story was translated into Hungarian, German, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak and Czech.

In a letter to Chekhov dated February 27, 1887, the publisher considered Verochka an “unsuccessful little thing”, contrasting it with a humorous one: “You are better at making small stories. This is not said by me alone. On Tuesday, in the first week of fasting, I was at Mikhnevich on sour cabbage, there was a lot of writing fraternity, a conversation came about you, and they said the same thing. ”

VV Bilibin noted "the landmark significance of the story in the development of Chekhov's work." He advised Chekhov to stop writing “trifle”: “Of course, the stories in“ New ›Time”, despite their relative size, present too narrow a frame for your artistic physiognomy. From here often comes ambiguity, incompleteness, etc. Take “Verochka”. She is probably not understood either by “critics” or by an ordinary reader. It seems to me that you didn’t want to limit yourself to painting such a usual and often interpreted plot: “she” accidentally fell in love with “him”, but “he” accidentally does not love “her”, and what came of it. ”

The critic K.K. Arsenyev became the sketchy “Verochka” story: “What made Vera break with custom, what prevented her from anticipating Ognev’s refusal in advance, which kept the latter from the hobby that was so close and so possible - all this was hardly outlined by the author or was not outlined at all. In order to understand both Faith and Ognev, in order to survive a decisive moment with them, we would have to know both of them much closer ” ^[2] .

L. Tolstoy attributed the story to Chekhov's “2nd grade” stories that he liked ^[3] .

• Ivan Alekseevich Ognev: a young official, 29 years old, single, sent from St. Petersburg to the Russian province to collect statistics.
• Gavrila Kuznetsov: bald old man in a pique jacket. He sometimes settled Ivan Ognev.
• Vera Gavrilovna Kuznetsova: Kuznetsov’s daughter, Vera, an interesting girl of 21 years old, often sad, dressed casually.

The story takes place on an August evening in one county town. Young official Ivan Ognev is about to leave his small provincial town for his mother in Oryol. In the spring, Ivan was sent from St. Petersburg to collect statistical information from St. Petersburg. Along the way, he encountered Gavrila’s daughter, Vera Gavrilovna. Ognev liked Vera. They said goodbye, but Vera decided to take Ognev to the forest. During the farewell, Vera confessed her love to Ognev, who was puzzled: “What is this? But I ... love her or not? That’s the task! ”

Vera “crying, laughing, sparkling with tears on her eyelashes, ... told him that from the very first days of his acquaintance, he struck her with his originality, intelligence, kind, smart eyes, his tasks and goals of life, that she fell in love with him passionately, madly and deeply” . Ognev, on the other hand, felt "compassion for Vera, pain and regret that a good man suffers because of him."

Then Vera left, and Ognev felt awkward and remorseful because he refused the girl who loved him. He returned, walked past the house of Vera and left.

• Chekhov A.P. Verochka // 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.
• Françoise Darnal-Lesné, Dictionnaire Tchekhov, p. 304, Édition L'Harmattan, 2010, ISBN 978 2 296 11343 5 .
• Anton Tchékhov (trad. Édouard Paraire, préf. Claude Frioux), Œuvres, t. II: Récits (1887–1892), Paris, Gallimard, coll. "Bibliothèque de la Pléiade", octobre 2008 (1re éd. 1970), 1016 p. ISBN 978-2-07-010550-2.

• Chekhov A.P. Verochka . Original Russian text