Title: The Schoolmaster
Date Read: 18th May 2010
Briefly: Fyodor Lukitch Sysoev is the very proud master of a prestigious factory-maintained school. It’s the time of the year when the yearly exams are finished and all teachers, inspectors and the master himself are looking forward to the annual dinner. After a bit of hustle and bustle, and bad temper directed at his wife, Fyodor Lukitch finally makes it to the factory manager’s house where the dinner is taking place. Everyone is surprised to see him. “You ought to be at home, my dear fellow. You are not at all well to-day,” says the inspector as he leads him into the house. And so begins the annual festivities but everyone seems to be in a sympathetic, praiseworthy mood of the schoolmaster.
Afterthoughts: For the most part this is a fairly average tale from Chekhov but its real strength and quality comes in its ending. For this reason alone it’s well worth reading.
Notable Quote: “Let my illness alone!” cried Sysoev, angrily. “What is it to do with you? They all keep repeating it at me: illness! illness! illness! . . . As though I need your sympathy! Besides, where have you picked up the notion that I am ill? I was ill before the examinations, that’s true, but now I have completely recovered, there is nothing left of it but weakness.”
Rating: 
*Story read as part of my Checkin’ Off The Chekhov Shorts reading challenge.
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