Title: The Head of the Family
Date Read: 22 March 2009
Word Count: 1467
Briefly: In typical ‘bear with a sore head’ fashion, Stepan Stepanitch Zhilin (who always suffers from the ill-effects of a bout of dyspepsia after a night out), berates everyone around him – servants, wife, son, midwife, for their intolerable ‘shortcomings’.
Afterthoughts: Standard comedic fare from Chekhov. A nice flow to the story, but rather a predictable ending. Nice to see Chekhov in this story paying tribute to the fashionable aristocratic practice in Russia during the period, of speaking French.
Notable Quote: “One must have the taste of a pig to eat hogwash like that! There’s too much salt in it; it smells of dirty rags . . . more like bugs than onions. . . . It’s simply revolting, Anfissa Ivanovna,” he says, addressing the midwife. “Every day I give no end of money for housekeeping. . . . I deny myself everything, and this is what they provide for my dinner! I suppose they want me to give up the office and go into the kitchen to do the cooking myself.”
Rating: 
*Story read as part of my Checkin’ Off The Chekhov Shorts reading challenge.
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