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How clearly can you judge another person when you cannot face your own failings?
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s The Duel and Other Stories opens in a seaside town in the Caucasus. Laevsky wants to escape his unhappy life with Nadyezhda Fyodorovna, a married woman who has left her husband. But his wish to leave runs ahead of his willingness to accept responsibility.
Around them, the doctor Samoylenko offers practical kindness, while the zoologist von Koren turns contempt into judgment. The shorter stories—Excellent People, At Home, The Princess, and The Chemist’s Wife—carry these questions into households and social circles, where convictions, loneliness, and flattering self-images meet the needs of other people.
What you’ll discover
- Kindness against contempt Meet Samoylenko and von Koren, whose opposing responses to weakness sharpen the conflict around Laevsky.
- More than his account See how Nadyezhda’s loneliness, desires, and social pressures complicate Laevsky’s picture of their shared life.
- Words that reach a child In At Home, a father discovers the difficulty of making a sound argument matter.
- Good intentions under pressure Excellent People and The Princess test cherished convictions against personal relationships and the experience of others.
- A quiet provincial night The Chemist’s Wife brings loneliness and flirtation into a setting where ordinary encounters carry emotional weight.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy short stories full of real people, sharp dialogue, and gentle humor, and if you like to see how hopes, vanity, and kindness shape a day.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Laevsky makes excuses for leaving
- A theory can harden the heart
- Shame turns escape into confrontation
- Opinions can crowd out affection
- An errand becomes an entanglement
- Principles falter before someone loved
- Freedom needs somewhere to lead
- Self images meet inconvenient facts
- Grand explanations leave blind spots
Who’s who
- Ivan Andreitch LaevskyA clerk worn out by heat and boredom who wants to flee the woman he lives with and blames his age for everything.
- Nadyezhda FyodorovnaLaevsky's lover, lonely and vain, who carries debts and guilty secrets she dares not tell him and longs for a better life.
- Alexandr Daviditch SamoylenkoThe kind, gruff army doctor who lends money, cooks for his friends, and tries to keep the peace between everyone.
- Nikolay Vassilitch Von KorenA confident young zoologist who believes weak and useless men should be removed and dreams of a great Arctic expedition.
- Deacon PobyedovA cheerful young churchman who laughs at everything, dreams of becoming a bishop, and cannot stay away from the action.
- KirilinThe tall, haughty police captain who presses Nadyezhda for meetings and insists on being treated as a gentleman.
- Vladimir Semyonitch LiadovskyA Moscow critic proud of his program, who wants his sister to admire his writing as she always did.
- Susanna MoiseyevnaA witty, restless young distillery owner who says she hates women and plays tricks on her visitors.
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The Duel and Other Stories
A bored clerk on the Black Sea coast wants to flee his lover, and the zoologist Von Koren wants him drowned.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“If Chekhov had not been such a remarkable writer, he would have been a great doctor.”
In short
Picture a hot morning on the Black Sea shore. The Duel and Other Stories gathers eight tales by Anton Chekhov, a doctor who watched people closely and judged them with quiet sympathy.
The Duel and Other Stories at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 50 min3 h 50 min fast, 5 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 68,500 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Laevsky wants to run from the life he built
Ivan Laevsky is a thin, fair-haired clerk of twenty-eight in a hot seaside town. Two years ago he ran away from Petersburg with Nadyezhda Fyodorovna, who left her husband for him. Now he has decided he never loved her.
On the beach he asks Samoylenko, the kind army doctor, what a man should do when he no longer loves the woman who depends on him. Samoylenko says to pay her and say goodbye, then says he would stay with her until he died. Laevsky also hides a letter saying her husband has died, because showing it would be like asking her to marry him.
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Details
- Language
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- Reading time
- 5 h 20 min
- Level
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Cite this edition
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich. The Duel and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-duel-and-other-stories.
Chekhov, A. P. (2026). The duel and other stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-duel-and-other-stories
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich. The Duel and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-duel-and-other-stories.
@book{chekhov2026duel,
author = {Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich},
title = {The Duel and Other Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-duel-and-other-stories}
}
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What is The Duel by Chekhov about?
It follows Laevsky, a bored clerk in a Caucasian seaside town who wants to leave the woman he lives with, and Von Koren, a zoologist who despises him. Their conflict grows toward a duel, with friends and a deacon watching.
What stories are in The Duel and Other Stories?
Besides the title story, the book holds Excellent People, Mire, Neighbors, At Home, Expensive Lessons, The Princess, and The Chemist's Wife. Each is a short portrait of a person whose self-image and real life do not quite match.
Who is Von Koren in The Duel?
Von Koren is a young zoologist studying marine life on the Black Sea coast. He believes in natural selection applied to society, treats Laevsky as a harmful type, and plans a polar expedition, with the deacon as a possible companion.
The author
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
1860–1904 · Russian playwright and story writer
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian writer and physician. He was born in Taganrog and lived in Moscow and later Yalta. He wrote short stories and plays, including The Seagull (1896), Uncle Vanya (1897), and The Cherry Orchard (1904). He died in Badenweiler, Germany.
“No one knows the real truth.”
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