Fifty-Two Stories

Saint Mary of Egypt:

A sixth-century saint who began life as a prostitute in Alexandria but, after making her way to Jerusalem and undergoing a mystical conversion, retired to the desert for many years. She is commemorated on the fifth Sunday of the Great Lent, and her life written by St. Sophronius of Jerusalem is read on Thursday of the following week.

3.

Without my will…doth draw me:

Lines from Pushkin’s dramatic poem

Rusalka

(“The Water Nymph,” 1832), which was made into an opera (1848–55) by Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1813–69).

4.

The Leaflet

:

i.e.,

The Moscow Leaflet

, a cultural and political paper of the time.

5.

Marshal Bazaine:

François Achille Bazaine (1811–88) served under Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III, rose to the rank of maréchal, the highest rank in the French military, was accused of treason under the Third Republic in 1873, but escaped and died in exile.

6.

Aïda:

Heroine of the opera of the same name (1871), by Giuseppi Verdi (1813–1901), set in ancient Egypt, which tells the love story of a captured Ethiopian princess and an Egyptian general and is usually staged with elaborate costumes.

7.

Niva

:

a popular illustrated magazine.

8.

Wednesday:

Orthodox Christians abstain from eating meat on Wednesday and Friday.

THE PRINCESS

1.

Archimandrite:

In the Russian Orthodox Church, the title given to the abbot of a large and important monastery.

2.

lose the image and likeness:

See note 10 to “The Letter.”

3.

thirty-five thousand messengers:

A borrowing from a fantastical speech by Khlestakov, central character of

The Inspector

(1836), a comedy by Nikolai Gogol (1809–52).

4.

“How glorious is our Lord in Zion…”:

A hymn composed at the end of the eighteenth century by Dmitri Bortniansky (1751–1825) to words by the poet Mikhail Kheraskov (1733–1807).

5.

What is Hecuba to you…:

See

Hamlet

, Act II, scene 2, ll. 562–3: “What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba / That he should weep for her?”

AFTER THE THEATER

1.

the sort of letter Tatiana wrote:

In Book III of Pushkin’s novel in verse,

Evgeny Onegin

(1825–1832), Tatiana, the heroine of the novel, makes a desperate confession of her love in a letter to Onegin. Pushkin’s poem-novel was made into an opera by Tchaikovsky.

HISTORY OF A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE

1.

Mikhailovsky:

Nikolai Konstantinovich Mikhailovsky (1842–1904) was a social and literary critic and one of the founders of the Narodniki, a movement that favored “going to the people [

narod

].” He was an early supporter of the revolutionary “People’s Will” movement.

2.

Pisarev:

Dmitri Ivanovich Pisarev (1840–68), writer and critic, was an extreme proponent of utilitarianism, the cause of “the hungry and naked people.”

3.

The Messenger of Europe

:

See note 3 to “The Kiss.”

NEIGHBORS

1.

If you ever need my life, come and take it:

Chekhov later used this same line in act 3 of

The Seagull

(1896).

2.

humiliated and insulted:

The title of a novel by Dostoevsky published in 1861.

3.

Pisarev…Dobrolyubov:

For Pisarev, see note 2 above to “History of a Business Enterprise.” Nikolai Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov (1836–61) was a radical utilitarian journalist, critic, and poet.

4.

in Dostoevsky’s taste:

There are many mismatched marriages in Dostoevsky’s novels.

5.

Khoma Brut:

The naïve “philosopher” and seminary student who is suddenly confronted with otherworldly horror in Gogol’s story “Viy” (1835).

FEAR

1.

visions…in that sleep of death:

See

Hamlet

, Act II, scene 1, ll. 66–68: “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause.”

2.

Shakespeare’s…bench:

cf.

The Merchant of Venice

, Act V, scene 1, l. 54: “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!”

BIG VOLODYA AND LITTLE VOLODYA

1.

par dépit

:

“out of spite” (French).

2.

Pardon, je ne suis pas seul

:

“Excuse me, I’m not alone” (French).

3.

as Derzhavin had Pushkin:

Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin (1743–1816) was a statesman and the major poet of his generation. During a public examination at the imperial lycée in Tsarskoe Selo on January 8, 1815, the fifteen-year-old student Pushkin recited one of his own poems before the old master, who was greatly impressed.

THE TEACHER OF LITERATURE

1.

Count Nulin:

The horse is named after the hero of Pushkin’s poem

Count Nulin

(1825), a comic take-off on Shakespeare’s narrative poem

The Rape of Lucrece

(1594).

2.

Maria Godefroi: