Mark André ’s Reviews > Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov > Status Update

A fool is as a fool does . ..”
“So you tell me that you were unscrewing this nut in order to make a sinker out of it?”
“What else? Can’t play knucklebones with it!”
“But you could use a bit of lead for a sinker, a bullet . . . a nail of some sort . . .”
“You won’t find lead lying about, you’ve got to buy it, and a nail’s no good. There nothing better than a nut . . . It’s heavy, and it’s got a hole in it.”
MALEFACTOR

. . She sees his moving shoulders blades, his dashing head, his lazy, nonchalant stride, and her eyes fill with sadness and a tender caress . . . Her gaze moves over the tall, skinny figure of her husband and caresses and fondles it . . . He seems to feel this gaze, stops, and looks back . . . He is silent, but Pelageya can see from his face, from his raised shoulders, that he wants to say something to her.
HUNTSMAN

You stopped for a minute on Easter Day, and that God knows how . . . In a drunken state . . . You swore at me, beat me, and left . . . I’ve been waiting and waiting . . . I’ve looked my eyes out waiting for you . . . Eh, Yegor Vlasych, Yegor Vlasych! If only you’d come one little time!”
“What’s there for me to do at your place?”
“There’s nothing to do there, of course, just . . .

The need for a new, better life wrung his heart with unbearable anguish.

. . . and there’s a hissing samovar, and some little object beside you . . . You drink a glass, chuck her under the chin, and it feels good . . . you feel you’re a human being . . .

SMALL FRY