Surgery (short story)

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"Surgery"

Illustration to Chekhov's Surgery.png

1905 illustration by A.Apsit
Author Anton Chekhov
Original title "Хирургия"
Country Russia
Language Russian
Published in Oskolki (1884)
Publisher Adolf Marks
Publication date 11 August 1884

"Surgery" (Russian : Хирургия, translit.  Khirurgiya) is a short story by Anton Chekhov, first published in 1884 by Oskolki . [1]

Russian language East Slavic language

Russian is an East Slavic language, which is official in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as being widely used throughout Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It was the de facto language of the Soviet Union until its dissolution on 25 December 1991. Although, nowadays, nearly three decades after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russian is used in official capacity or in public life in all the post-Soviet nation-states, as well as in Israel and Mongolia, the rise of state-specific varieties of this language tends to be strongly denied in Russia, in line with the Russian World ideology.

Romanization of Russian Romanization of the Russian alphabet

Romanization of Russian is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script.

Short story Brief work of literature, usually written in narrative prose

A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a "single effect" or mood, however there are many exceptions to this.

Contents

Publication

"Surgery" was written by Chekhov in August 1884. It was first published in the humorous literary and art weekly magazine Oskolki (No. 32, 11 August 1884), signed A. Chekhonte and subtitled "A Scene".

In 1886, the short story was included in Motley Stories collection. Later, after some stylistic editing, it was also included into the Volume 2 of Chekhov's Collected Works, published by Adolf Marks in 1889. For this edition, Chekhov replaced some colloquial words in the story with more literary ones.

Adolf Marks Russian-German publisher

Adolf Fyodorovich Marx, last name also spelled Marcks and recently Marks, known as A. F. Marx, was an influential 19th-century German publisher in Russia best known for the weekly journal Niva. He obtained Russian citizenship.

During its author's lifetime, the story was translated into Bulgarian, Polish and Serbo-Croatian languages. [2]

Bulgarian language South Slavic language

Bulgarian, is an Indo-European language and a member of the Southern branch of the Slavic language family.

Polish language West Slavic language spoken in Poland

Polish is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In addition to being an official language of Poland, it is also used by Polish minorities in other countries. There are over 50 million Polish language speakers around the world and it is one of the official languages of the European Union.

Serbo-Croatian South Slavic language

Serbo-Croatian is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually intelligible standard varieties.

Background

The story was based on Chekhov's experience as a doctor. Mikhail Chekhov, the younger brother of Anton Chekhov, linked the plot of the story with the residence of Chekhov in the summer of 1884 in Voskresensk and his work as a doctor at the Chikinsky zemstvo hospital. [2] [1]

Michael Chekhov Russian actor and director

Mikhail Aleksandrovich "Michael" Chekhov was a Russian-American actor, director, author and theatre practitioner. He was a nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov and a student of Konstantin Stanislavski. Stanislavski referred to him as his most brilliant student.

Voskresensk is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia.

Zemstvo

A zemstvo was an institution of local government set up during the great emancipation reform of 1861 carried out in Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Nikolay Milyutin elaborated the idea of the zemstva, and the first zemstvo laws went into effect in 1864. After the October Revolution the zemstvo system was shut down by the Bolsheviks and replaced with a multilevel system of workers' and peasants' councils ("soviets").

Plot summary

Feldsher Kuryatin, substituting for a chief doctor in a clinic, meets the church sexton Vonmiglasov who suffers from toothache. After thorough examination he decides to remove the tooth. His two unsuccessful efforts, causing much stress and pain both for himself and the patient, result in a quarrel. Vonmiglasov leaves outraged and disgusted, Kuryatin feels quite offended with his client's choice of language and lack of understanding.

Feldsher

According to the World Health Organization, a feldsher is a health care professional who provides various medical services limited to emergency treatment and ambulance practice. In Russia and in other countries of the former Soviet Union, feldshers provide primary-, obstetric- and surgical-care services in many rural medical centres and clinics across Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

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References

  1. 1 2 Commentaries to Хириргия. Полное собрание сочинений и писем: В 30 т. Сочинения: В 18 т. АН СССР. Ин-т мировой лит. им. А. М. Горького. — М.: Наука, 1974—1982. // Т. 3. [Рассказы. Юморески. «Драма на охоте»], 1884—1885. — М.: Наука, 1975. — С. 40—43
  2. 1 2 "Хирургия - Повести и рассказы по дате - Антон Павлович Чехов". chekhov.velchel.ru. Retrieved 2017-06-09.