The Bet
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.”
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.