“Chekhov Shorts”: In a Strange Land
April 19, 2009 by Rob
Filed under Checkin Off the Chekhov Shorts
Title: In a Strange Land
Date Read: 16 April 2009
Word Count: 1480
Briefly: Rich landowner Kamyshev has recruited the rather effeminate Frenchman Monsieur Champoun for no other purpose, than to act as a captive listener to the Russian’s ceaseless murmurings at the dinner table. This babble consists mainly of hailing everything Russian, and denouncing everything French. It seems at this particular mealtime however, Kamyshev may have taken his opinions a little too far.
Afterthoughts: Classic Chekhov! Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! What more can I say?.
Notable Quote: “No, not perhaps, but certainly! It’s no use your frowning, it’s the truth I am speaking. The Russian intelligence is an inventive intelligence. Only of course he is not given a free outlet for it, and he is no hand at boasting. He will invent something — and break it or give it to the children to play with, while your Frenchman will invent some nonsensical thing and make an uproar for all the world to hear it.”
Rating: 
*Story read as part of my Checkin’ Off The Chekhov Shorts reading challenge.
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Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell were lined with books)
