Summary
Summary of The Schoolmistress, and Other Stories
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Ordinary moments carry hidden feelings
A schoolmistress travels a muddy road, a cab driver waits in falling snow, and a young man enters a street he knows only by reputation. These ordinary scenes open onto longing, shame and kindness. Chekhov follows clerks, ferrymen, students and shoemakers, finding feelings inside moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed.
The people do not need grand adventures to reveal what matters to them. A journey, a meeting or an attempt to speak can show how much someone wants, and how little room daily life leaves for that desire.
Key idea 2
A teacher's world narrows around work
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Key idea 3
Pity breaks through an evening's amusement
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Key idea 4
Grief searches for someone to listen
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Key idea 5
Desire reaches beyond the present moment
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Key idea 6
Avoiding pain may mean surrendering joy
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Key idea 7
Journeys reveal what people cannot control
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Key idea 8
Comedy leaves room for human sympathy
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Key idea 9
Small details hold the larger questions
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
Readers who enjoy short stories full of small scenes, quiet feeling and sharp portraits will love these tales. They speak to an interest in Russian life and the everyday hopes and worries of ordinary people.
What this book is
A schoolmistress bumps along a muddy road, a cab driver sits in falling snow, and a young man walks into a street he knows only by reputation. Anton Chekhov wrote these tales of ordinary Russians, from clerks and ferrymen to students and shoemakers. Each story takes a plain moment and shows the longing, shame or kindness hiding inside it. In this summary you meet the people of the collection, starting with a teacher whose whole life has shrunk to one road.
In this summary
- 1A tired teacher rides home through spring mudFree
- 2A student meets a street he only read about
- 3Grief needs a listener, and the city has none
- 4Youth and chance slip by in three small stories
- 5Exiles argue over whether wanting anything is worth it
- 6Hard journeys expose bribes, habit and late regret
- 7Official duty and a quiet scare make strangers feel connected
- 8Vanity, shame and small lies shape short comic tales
- 9Fear, faith, beauty and greed close the collection
Key point 1 of 9
A tired teacher rides home through spring mud
Marya Vassilyevna has taught at a village school for thirteen years. The title story follows one cart ride back from town, where she has gone to collect her pay. The April sun is warm and the sky is huge, yet she wants only one thing, to arrive.
Chekhov fills the ride with small troubles. A watchman beats the schoolboys, the school guardian is rude, and her complaints get little attention. Then the landowner Hanov overtakes her in a four-horse carriage. He is handsome and he drinks, and he has given the school nothing but globes. She pities him, pictures saving him, and then lets the thought go.
The road shows how a life can shrink to one route and one worry. Watch how her worries about the school keep interrupting her thoughts about Hanov.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What does Iona Potapov keep trying to tell his passengers?
Right. “Iona Potapov drives a sleigh in St. Petersburg, and his son has died this week.”Not quite. “Iona Potapov drives a sleigh in St. Petersburg, and his son has died this week.”
Why does the young Tatar disagree with Semyon's advice to want nothing?
Right. “The Tatar answers that the gentleman's three years with his wife were a gift, and that having nothing is bad.”Not quite. “The Tatar answers that the gentleman's three years with his wife were a gift, and that having nothing is bad.”
How do the comic tales treat their characters' pride and fear?
Right. “Yet each one lets a human feeling show through the joke.”Not quite. “Yet each one lets a human feeling show through the joke.”
Questions about The Schoolmistress, and Other Stories
What is The Schoolmistress and Other Stories about?
Each story shows a small moment of longing, loneliness, fear or kindness.
Which stories are in the collection?
The collection includes The Schoolmistress, A Nervous Breakdown, Misery, Champagne, After the Theatre, A Lady's Story, In Exile, The Cattle Dealers, Sorrow, On Official Duty, The Bet, The Beauties and The Shoemaker and the Devil, among others.
What is the main message of these stories?
Chekhov does not state one message. Together, the tales show that everyday life holds longing, shame, pity and hope, and that people often fail to listen to one another. The reader is left to feel and judge.
Are the stories easy to read?
The language is plain and direct, while dialogue and details of everyday life make the characters easy to picture. Their conversations bring out longing, fear, kindness and shame.
When were the stories written?
The stories portray nineteenth-century Russian life, with its railways, village schools, taverns, sleighs and small officials.
