#Anton chekhov a visit to friends pdf how to

It comes from a lack of boldness, sincerity, and simplicity. We're just the same: when we have got to talk of trifles we treat them only from an exalted point of view.

#Anton chekhov a visit to friends pdf how to

The Russian actor does not know how to be funny he acts with profundity even in a farce. We are so intellectual, so solemn, that we utter nothing but truths and can discuss only questions of a lofty order. 'Yes, when Russians come together they discuss nothing but abstract subjects and women. The gentleman with the little round beard sat down beside me and continued: It was rather damp the vessel swayed a little, and the ladies had retired to their cabins. Afterwards, on the way to Odessa, I saw him carrying little pies and oranges to the ladies' compartment. We had returned from abroad the evening before in the same train, and at Volotchisk when the luggage was being examined by the Customs, I saw him standing with a lady, his travelling companion, before a perfect mountain of trunks and baskets filled with ladies' clothes, and I noticed how embarrassed and downcast he was when he had to pay duty on some piece of silk frippery, and his companion protested and threatened to make a complaint. This gentleman's face was familiar to me already. But for some reason or other when we Russians get together we never discuss anything but women and abstract subjects - but especially women.' 'Notice those Germans sitting near the shelter? Whenever Germans or Englishmen get together, they talk about the crops, the price of wool, or their personal affairs. On the deck of a steamer sailing from Odessa to Sevastopol, a rather good-looking gentleman, with a little round beard, came up to me to smoke, and said: