Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
Reminiscences of Anton Chekhov By: Alexander I. Kuprin |
---|
![]()
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully
as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation.
Some corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made. They
are listed at the end of the text. Italic text has been marked with underscores .
]
REMINISCENCES OF
ANTON CHEKHOV BY
MAXIM GORKY, ALEXANDER KUPRIN
and I. A. BUNIN TRANSLATED BY
S. S. KOTELIANSKY and LEONARD WOOLF NEW YORK
B. W. HUEBSCH, Inc.
MCMXXI
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
B. W. HUEBSCH, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
FRAGMENTS OF RECOLLECTIONS BY MAXIM GORKY, 1 TO CHEKHOV'S MEMORY BY ALEXANDER KUPRIN, 29 A. P. CHEKHOV BY I. A. BUNIN, 91
ANTON CHEKHOV FRAGMENTS OF RECOLLECTIONS
BY
MAXIM GORKY
Once he invited me to the village Koutchouk Koy where he had a tiny
strip of land and a white, two storied house. There, while showing me
his "estate," he began to speak with animation: "If I had plenty of
money, I should build a sanatorium here for invalid village teachers.
You know, I would put up a large, bright building very bright, with
large windows and lofty rooms. I would have a fine library, different
musical instruments, bees, a vegetable garden, an orchard.... There
would be lectures on agriculture, mythology.... Teachers ought to know
everything, everything, my dear fellow." He was suddenly silent, coughed, looked at me out of the corners of his
eyes, and smiled that tender, charming smile of his which attracted one
so irresistibly to him and made one listen so attentively to his words. "Does it bore you to listen to my fantasies? I do love to talk of it....
If you knew how badly the Russian village needs a nice, sensible,
educated teacher! We ought in Russia to give the teacher particularly
good conditions, and it ought to be done as quickly as possible. We
ought to realize that without a wide education of the people, Russia
will collapse, like a house built of badly baked bricks. A teacher must
be an artist, in love with his calling; but with us he is a journeyman,
ill educated, who goes to the village to teach children as though he
were going into exile. He is starved, crushed, terrorized by the fear of
losing his daily bread. But he ought to be the first man in the village;
the peasants ought to recognize him as a power, worthy of attention and
respect; no one should dare to shout at him or humiliate him personally,
as with us every one does the village constable, the rich shop keeper,
the priest, the rural police commissioner, the school guardian, the
councilor, and that official who has the title of school inspector, but
who cares nothing for the improvement of education and only sees that
the circulars of his chiefs are carried out.... It is ridiculous to pay
in farthings the man who has to educate the people. It is intolerable
that he should walk in rags, shiver with cold in damp and draughty
schools, catch cold, and about the age of thirty get laryngitis,
rheumatism, or tuberculosis. We ought to be ashamed of it. Our teacher,
for eight or nine months in the year, lives like a hermit: he has no one
to speak a word to; without company, books, or amusements, he is growing
stupid, and, if he invites his colleagues to visit him, then he becomes
politically suspect a stupid word with which crafty men frighten fools.
All this is disgusting; it is the mockery of a man who is doing a great
and tremendously important work.... Do you know, whenever I see a
teacher, I feel ashamed for him, for his timidity, and because he is
badly dressed ... it seems to me that for the teacher's wretchedness I
am myself to blame I mean it." He was silent, thinking; and then, waving his hand, he said gently:
"This Russia of ours is such an absurd, clumsy country." A shadow of sadness crossed his beautiful eyes; little rays of wrinkles
surrounded them and made them look still more meditative. Then, looking
round, he said jestingly: "You see, I have fired off at you a complete
leading article from a radical paper... Continue reading book >>
|
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|