The Project Gutenberg EBook of The House with the Mezzanine and Other
Stories, by Anton Tchekoff

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Title: The House with the Mezzanine and Other Stories

Author: Anton Tchekoff

Translator: S.S. Koteliansky
Gilbert Cannan

Release Date: December 4, 2008 [EBook #27411]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE HOUSE

WITH THE MEZZANINE

AND OTHER STORIES

BY

ANTON TCHEKOFF

TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY

S. S. KOTELIANSKY
AND
GILBERT CANNAN

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1917

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Published August, 1917

CONTENTS

THE HOUSE WITH THE MEZZANINE

TYPHUS

GOOSEBERRIES

IN EXILE

THE LADY WITH THE TOY DOG

GOUSSIEV

MY LIFE

THE HOUSE WITH THE MEZZANINE

(A PAINTER'S STORY)

It happened nigh on seven years ago, when I was living in one of the
districts of the J. province, on the estate of Bielokurov, a landowner,
a young man who used to get up early, dress himself in a long overcoat,
drink beer in the evenings, and all the while complain to me that he
could nowhere find any one in sympathy with his ideas. He lived in a
little house in the orchard, and I lived in the old manor-house, in a
huge pillared hall where there was no furniture except a large divan, on
which I slept, and a table at which I used to play patience. Even in
calm weather there was always a moaning in the chimney, and in a storm
the whole house would rock and seem as though it must split, and it was
quite terrifying, especially at night, when all the ten great windows
were suddenly lit up by a flash of lightning.

Doomed by fate to permanent idleness, I did positively nothing. For
hours together I would sit and look through the windows at the sky, the
birds, the trees and read my letters over and over again, and then for
hours together I would sleep. Sometimes I would go out and wander