In a foreign land

The story of A.P. Chekhov "In a Foreign Land" was written in 1885, first published in 1885 in the literary and artistic magazine " Fragments " No. 41 of October 12 with the signature of A. Chekhonte. In 1885, the story was banned by the censor "Shards", allowed to be published only after re-consideration in the censorship committee. In 1887, the story was printed in the collection “Innocent Speeches”, entered the collection of writer's works, published by A.F. Marx.

During the life of Chekhov, the story was translated into Bulgarian, Hungarian, German, Polish, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, French and Czech.

Chekhov’s story traces his childhood memories. The grandmother of the writer was a Ukrainian, serf peasant woman from a family of horse breeders Yefrosinya Yemelyanovna Shimko (1798-1878) ^[1] . Grandmother was simple-minded, she believed in God and evil spirits. According to the memoirs of the writer's sister, Maria Pavlovna Chekhova , in Chekhov’s story “In Foreign Land”, the following was reflected: “Once in the Bolshe-Princesa feast day, Yegor Mikhailovich was invited to the hostess, Countess Platova, for dinner. Filed crayfish. Grandma, wanting to show her good manners, wanted to take the cancer from the dish with a fork. Yegor Mikhailovich pushed her with his elbow and leg under the table, but he did not achieve anything. I had to explain in words ... " ^[2] .

Leo Tolstoy attributed “In a Foreign Land” to the number of the best stories of Chekhov ^[3] .

Modern researchers of Chekhov's work point out that the writer takes the stereotypical description of a representative of a particular culture as the basis for a national character characteristic. An example of this is the image of a Frenchman in the story "In a foreign land" - a small, patriot and stifled. In this case, the author sounds the theme of his superiority over someone else ^[4] .

• Kamyshev, landowner, lover of "idling."
• Alphonse Ludovicovich Shampoo, an old Frenchman, former tutor of Kamyshev.

The story takes place in the house of a rich landowner Kamyshev. He lives old Frenchman, former tutor Shampoo. He once taught landlord children French, good manners and dancing. And now his duties, like his salary, are vague. His task is to dress well, smell perfume and listen to Kamyshev's conversations.

At breakfast, Kamyshev talks about France and the French. In his opinion, France is so small a country that it can be traveled in one day. He speaks about the French and their attitude towards them: “No one loves French, unless it is only the French. And to the Frenchman, whatever they eat, they will eat everything: the frog, the rat, and the cockroaches ... You, for example, do not like this ham, because it is Russian, and give you fried glass and say that it is French, you will eat and smack your lips ... ". Comparing the Russians and the French, Kamyshev believes that the French love to boast that they have “acquired mind, from books, and our mind is innate.” He also believes that the French are immoral and "live like dogs." Kamyshev thinks that “the French are mannered” do not allow ignorance, crayfish will not eat with a fork, do not spit on the floor, but there is no special spirit in them. Such conversations do not like the Frenchman, he is offended and decides to go home.

At lunchtime, Kamyshev was left without an interlocutor and began to find out what the Frenchman was doing. And the Frenchman Shampoo at this time was packing the suitcase. Seeing this, Kamyshev told the Frenchman that he had lost his passport, and that without a passport he would not go anywhere and would be in chains. The Frenchman is in despair, but Kamyshev calms him down, saying that he was joking and asks not to take his conversations to heart. He behaves with everyone in such a way and orders him to take an example from the tenant Lazar Isakich. As for Lazar Isakich, Kamyshev, as soon as he doesn’t call him a Jew, or Parhom, and “he makes a pig ear from the floor,” and he is enough for the pieces , but he does not take offense for anything. Shampoo calms down and goes to dinner. At dinner, history repeats itself.

• 1998 - the short story “In Foreign Land” in the sixth series of the television series “ Chekhov and Co ”. Cast: Oleg Efremov - landowner Kamyshov ; William Rosius - Alphonse Shampoo

• A.P. Chekhov. In a Foreign Land // A.P. Chekhov. Complete Works and Letters: 30 t. Works: 18 t. / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of World Literature them. A. M. Gorky. - M .: Science, 1974-1982.
• Abramova V.S. Images of “another” culture in the works of A.P. Chekhov // Chekhov's readings in Yalta: Vol. 18: A.P. Chekhov - traveler. Sat scientific works. - Simferopol: SHARE, 2013. - p. 80-88.
• En terre étrangère, traduit par Édouard Parayre, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, éditions Gallimard, 1967 ( ISBN 978 2 07 0105 49 6 ).
• Voir Dictionnaire Tchekhov, Page 88, Françoise Darnal-Lesné, Édition L'Harmattan, 2010, ( ISBN 978 2 296 11343 5 )

• In a foreign land . Original Russian text.