The Duel (version 2)


Read by Expatriate

(4.7 stars; 14 reviews)

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!


(4 stars)

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.