Chekhov’s 150th and NOSE Award Winners

As a late celebration of Anton Chekhov’s 150^th birthday, which was January 29, today I reread “Пари” (“The Bet”), a very short story that I enjoyed in sixth grade. I think it must have been the first piece of Russian literature that I ever read… if I don’t count my beloved Baba Yaga tales.

The bet in “The Bet” originates with a conversation about capital punishment and imprisonment. The bet involves one man volunteering (with the hope of a fat payoff) for a long stretch of solitary confinement. The end gave our teacher a perfect chance to explain irony, though I seem to recall that “a priori” was far more problematic. The wonder of Chekhov is that “The Bet” was simple enough to discuss in sixth grade but doesn’t feel simplistic all these years later.

I’d love to hear readers’ Chekhov recommendations. “Дама с собачкой” (“The Lady with the Little Dog”) and Палата No. 6 (Ward No. 6) are two of my old favorites. I never seem to read enough Chekhov, but I’m hoping to get to some new novellas – Степь (The Steppe) and Дуэль (The Duel) – this year.

On a more contemporary note, Elena Eltang won the first-ever NOSE Award for her novel Каменные клены (The Stone Maples). I’m not sure, but I think this must be the only Russian novel that includes a bed and breakfast in the Welsh moors. Winner of the readers’ award was Vladimir Sorokin’s Сахарный Кремль (Sugar Kremlin). I listed the award finalists in this previous post and wrote about the award itself here. The NOSE award winner were determined through open debate with prize finalists present.