The Bet
by Anton Chekhov(1889)
Short Storyc. 8 pages
“To prove to you in action that the death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life, I agree to remain in solitary confinement for fifteen years.”
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One great work, every day
by Anton Chekhov(1889)
“To prove to you in action that the death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life, I agree to remain in solitary confinement for fifteen years.”
Anton Chekhov(1889)
A story you can read in fifteen minutes that will haunt you for years. A banker and a lawyer argue about capital punishment; the lawyer wagers he can endure fifteen years of solitary confinement. Chekhov traces what happens to a man who reads everything, learns everything, and emerges transformed in ways neither party anticipated. The ending arrives like a trapdoor opening beneath you. This is Chekhov at his most economical and devastating, proving that the profoundest questions about human existence can fit on a handful of pages.