The Fish (short story)

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"The Fish"
Illustration to the Burbot by Chekhov.jpg
1941 illustration by Kukryniksy
Author Anton Chekhov
Original title"Налим"
Translator Constance Garnett
Country Russia
Language Russian
Published in Peterburgskaya Gazeta
Publisher Adolf Marks (1899)
Publication date1 July 1885

"The Fish" (translated also as "The Burbot", Russian : Налим, translit.  Nalim), is an 1885 short story by Anton Chekhov. [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

Characters

Plot summary

On a hot summer day two carpenters, Gerasim and Lyubim, sit in a pond, floundering about in the water under a willow tree, beside the unfinished bathing shed they were supposed to be working on. Blue from cold and wrangling, they struggle to drag a large eelpout by the gills, from under the root.

The eelpouts are the ray-finned fish family Zoarcidae. As the common name suggests, they are somewhat eel-like in appearance, with elongated bodies and the dorsal and anal fins continuous with the caudal fin. All of the roughly 300 species are marine and mostly bottom-dwelling, some at great depths.

A herd of cattle appears on the bank, followed by the shepherd Yefim. He joins the company, with his own set of directives on how exactly the fish should be extracted from its hiding. The sounds of panic are heard from the landlord's house: it turns out that the cattle have invaded the garden. The landord Andrey Andreitch appears, feeling very angry, but, intrigued by the news of an eelpout defying its catchers from under a tree, first orders his coachman Vasily to join the team, then, exasperated with the foursome's incompetence, undresses and goes into the pond himself.

It is Andrey Andreitch who, after all manages to pull the fish out from under a tree. He raises it triumphantly over his head, but then... "The fish makes a sudden upward movement with its tail and the fishermen hear a loud splash . . . they all put out their hands, but it is too late; they have seen the last of the eel-pout."

Background and publication

According to Chekhov's brother Mikhail, the story was based upon a curious real life incident. "I remember clearly how the carpenters in Babkino, working on a bathing-shed, struck upon an eelpout in the pond," he wrote in his book of memoirs. [2]

Mikhail Chekhov (writer)

Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov (Russian: Михаил Павлович Чехов; was a Russian writer and theater critic; the youngest brother and biographer of Anton Chekhov.

The story was published for the first time by Peterburgskaya Gazeta , in its 1 July 1885, No.177 issue, subtitled "A Scene" (Сценка) and signed A. Chekhonte (А. Чехонте). It was included in the Motley Stories (Пестрые рассказы) collection, published in 1886 in St Petersburg, and was included by Chekhov into Volume 2 of his Collected Works, published by Adolf Marks in 1899. During Chekhov's lifetime, the story was translated into Polish and Serbo-Croatian languages. [3]

Peterburgskaya Gazeta was a Russian political and literary newspaper, launched in 1867 by the publisher Ilya Arsenyev (1820-1888).

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.

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.

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References

  1. ↑ Shub, E. M. Commentaries to Налим. The Works by A.P. Chekhov in 12 volumes. Khudozhestvennaya Literatura. Moscow, 1960. Vol. 3, p. 505
  2. ↑ M.P. Chekhov. Anton Chekhov and His Plotlines // М. П. Чехов. Антон Чехов и его сюжеты, М., 1923, стр. 33).
  3. ↑ Commentaries to Налим // Чехов А. П. 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. 4. [Рассказы, юморески], 1885—1886. — М.: Наука, 1976. — С. 45—49
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