The Darling
by Anton Chekhov(1899)
Short Storyc. 12 pages
“Olenka, the daughter of the retired collegiate assessor Plemyanikov, was sitting on her porch, which gave on the courtyard, deep in thought.”
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One great work, every day
by Anton Chekhov(1899)
“Olenka, the daughter of the retired collegiate assessor Plemyanikov, was sitting on her porch, which gave on the courtyard, deep in thought.”
Anton Chekhov(1899)
Olenka, called the Darling, loves whoever she is with, adopting his opinions, his business, his very speech, and without someone to love, she becomes nothing. Chekhov wrote this story and thought it satire on a woman without inner life. Tolstoy read it and thought it celebration of feminine love. Chekhov did not object to either reading. The story resists easy judgment; Olenka's emptiness is also fullness, her dependence also devotion. When she has no one to love, she fades. When she finds another, she revives. Chekhov shows us what he sees. What it means, we must decide.