The Duel (version 2)
Anton Chekhov
Read by Expatriate
Known for his plays and short stories, Anton Chekhov also wrote a series of novellas, astonishing for their psychological complexity and compelling human portraiture. In The Duel, the wastrel and libertine Laevsky absconds to the Caucasus with another man's wife, Nadyezhda Fyodorovna. While there, he forms several acquaintanceships with a colorful array of characters: Von Koren the zoologist, Samoylenko the doctor, and Pobyedov the giddy deacon. Before long, both Laevsky and his mistress succeed in offending local society by their dissolute lifestyles, leading to the inevitable insult, challenge, and duel. Duels having been exploited as plot twists throughout the writings of Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dostoyevsky (all ironically alluded to by the author), the challenge for Chekhov is to make it work one more time in 1891, at a time when duelling had nearly died out in both society and literature. The result is a richly layered, utterly original, philosophically and psychologically ambiguous story of human love and friendship. ( summary by Expatriate) (4 hr 0 min)
Chapters
Chapter 01 | 18:54 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 02 | 11:24 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 03 | 15:50 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 04 | 10:58 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 05 | 13:16 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 06 | 16:18 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 07 | 5:45 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 08 | 4:50 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 09 | 13:37 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 10 | 14:44 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 11 | 12:25 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 12 | 10:43 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 13 | 5:40 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 14 | 6:55 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 15 | 16:39 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 16 | 13:34 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 17 | 11:31 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 18 | 9:17 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 19 | 12:12 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 20 | 5:42 | Read by Expatriate |
Chapter 21 | 10:34 | Read by Expatriate |
Reviews
Ma Foi!
Jacques-Aussi
What a fantastic short story! Expatriate does a good job breathing life into this story. His performance is a bit flat, but never over-the-top exuberant either. Still, well read, indeed.