# Anton Pavlovich Chekhov writes a story about a horse. A literary essay

de Overwood Henry

MMMDCLXXXVII. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov writes a story about a horse. A literary essay. - August 14, 2025.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov writes a story about a horse. A literary essay.


Chekhov returns home. It's evening, it's raining, and the streets are muddy.


This is not Taganrog, this is Moscow.


In Taganrog, it was hard for him, - for a young man, - to live. He was alone - after the family fled to Moscow.


The bankruptcy process required at least someone from the family be at a "place of events". He, a schoolboy, lived alone, wrote letters to Moscow. He tried to save the family.


A hardworking family, - striving for knowledge and honest labor, talented and numerous.


A caring mother, a strict and decent father. Energetic, talented children.


He, Anton, is moving along a literary path... One of his brothers is a good, talented, promising artist.


The father was doing everything he could to "get ahead", to "get upstairs": there was a children's (family) choir, there was an attempt to learn to play musical instruments, there was a study at a Greek school - to breathe in an air of Greek entrepreneurship...


Despite hard work and honesty, decency, and talent - no normal life.


The father became bankrupt, the mother fusses around her husband and numerous children, but what is the result? The children - their careers are not developing, their family life is falling apart. Alcoholism, tuberculosis.


Last night, he, Anton, returned home. He ate a dinner, which was prepared by his mother, and couldn't get up from the dining table for several minutes because of fatigue. The father came in the dining room, looked at his son, and began to talk. Father was speaking a words of sympathy to his son. The son is carrying the whole family on his shoulders.


He, Anton, remained silent - he was very tired.


Anton Pavlovich is returning home in a cab (in a horse carriage). The twilight of the evening streets of Moscow.


The world of tired horses.


A story about a horse is being prepared for a writing.


Chekhov's thoughts glide over possible plots.


Two cab drivers stopped.


Two horses are talking (each other) about their hard lives. No! This is closer to a children's literature, to stories about animals.


Two horse carriage drivers are conversing with each other. These two cab drivers met in the city and are talking - they are conversing. What can unfamiliar people, who happened to meet on the street, talk about? About passengers, about other people? No!


A horse tells (to) a driver about it's (horse's) difficult life. This is too straightforward, rectilinearly. Last night he, Anton, remained silent. The father was speaking.


So: a cab driver speaks, he is empathizing. The horse listens. Chekhov smiled. The horse carries, it stops, it carries again. And, also: horse - listens.


His, Anton's, talented brother, while creating paintings and drawings, met several young promising artists. Perhaps their lives will turn out well - without constant financial problems? What if their patron will face accusations of misusing the entrusted (to him, patron) stock (share) capital - and the benefited artists, having gained a recognition, will have to rescue the patron from a difficult situation? Chekhov sighed.


The editor of the newspaper, the owner of a publishing house, lives on "his own (financial means)."


Soon Chekhov will get home, will drink tea, will eat a sandwich, and will write a story about a horse that a coachman talks to. The editor will pay off three kopecks - for each word.


In the creative space, there are already "Three Sisters" - a work about fairy-tale ephemeral not-real female beings; they are not occupied - even with home and family - like Chekhov's mother; and "The Cherry Orchard" - someone feels sorry for the cherry orchard, while the respected writer willingly sold a forests for logging - and who cared about the cut-down forests and its' inhabitants-animals ? A change of masks...


An irreal world - a world of twilight, of rain, of tired horses.


The time will come - honest, talented, and hardworking Anton Chekhov - will live in a relative financial comfort, his father will speak of him with pride. But this period of moderate financial well-being will not last very long: overworking, tuberculosis...


August 14, 2025, 21:22


Translation from Russian into English: August 16, 2025 20:16

Владимир Владимирович Залесский ' Антон Павлович Чехов пишет рассказ о лошади. Литературное эссе. '


{3716. Антон Павлович Чехов пишет рассказ о лошади. Литературное эссе. - 14 августа 2025 г.

MMMDCLXXXVII. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov writes a story about a horse. A literary essay. - August 14, 2025.


Vladimir Zalessky Internet-bibliotheca. Интернет-библиотека Владимира Залесского}