Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (novels for beginners TXT) 📕

God.⁠ ⁠… Weeps. My dear, dear sisters, don’t believe me, don’t believe me.⁠ ⁠… Exit. Fire-alarm. The stage is clear. Irina Behind her screen. Olga, who’s knocking on the floor? Olga It’s doctor Ivan Romanovitch. He’s drunk. Irina What a restless night! Pause. Olga! Looks out. Did you hear? They are taking the brigade away from us; it’s going to be transferred to some place far away. Olga It’s only a rumour. Irina Then we shall be left alone.⁠ ⁠… Olga! Olga Well? Irina My dear, darling sister, I esteem, I highly value the Baron, he’s a splendid man; I’ll marry him, I’ll consent, only let’s go to Moscow! I implore you, let’s go! There’s nothing better than Moscow on earth! Let’s go, Olga, let’s go! Act IV

The old garden at the house of the Prosorovs. There is a long avenue of firs, at the end of which the river can be seen. There is a forest on the far side of the river. On the right is the terrace of the house: bottles and tumblers are on a table here; it is evident that champagne has just been drunk. It is midday. Every now and again passersby walk across the garden, from the road to the river; five soldiers go past rapidly.

Chebutikin, in a comfortable frame of mind which does not desert him throughout the act, sits in an armchair in the garden, waiting to be called. He wears a peaked cap and has a stick. Irina, Kuligin with a cross hanging from his neck and without his moustaches, and Tuzenbach are standing on the terrace seeing off Fedotik and Rode, who are coming down into the garden; both officers are in service uniform. Tuzenbach Exchanges kisses with Fedotik. You’re a good sort, we got on so well together. Exchanges kisses with Rode. Once again.⁠ ⁠… Goodbye, old man! Irina Au revoir! Fedotik It isn’t au revoir, it’s goodbye; we’ll never meet again! Kuligin Who knows! Wipes his eyes; smiles. Here I’ve started crying! Irina We’ll meet again sometime. Fedotik After ten years⁠—or fifteen? We’ll hardly know one another then; we’ll say, “How do you do?” coldly.⁠ ⁠… Takes a snapshot. Keep still.⁠ ⁠… Once more, for the last time. Rode Embracing Tuzenbach. We shan’t meet again.⁠ ⁠… Kisses Irina’s hand. Thank you for everything, for everything! Fedotik Grieved. Don’t be in such a hurry! Tuzenbach We shall meet again, if God wills it. Write to us. Be sure to write. Rode Looking round the garden. Goodbye, trees! Shouts. Yo-ho! Pause. Goodbye, echo! Kuligin Best wishes. Go and get yourselves wives there in Poland.⁠ ⁠… Your Polish wife will clasp you and call you “kochanku!”6 Laughs. Fedotik Looking at the time. There’s less than an hour left. Soleni is the only one of our battery who is going on the barge; the rest of us are going with the main body. Three batteries are leaving today, another three tomorrow and then the town will be quiet and peaceful. Tuzenbach And terribly dull. Rode And where is Maria Sergeyevna? Kuligin Masha is in the garden. Fedotik We’d like to say goodbye to her. Rode Goodbye, I must go, or else I’ll start weeping.⁠ ⁠… Quickly embraces Kuligin and Tuzenbach, and kisses Irina’s hand. We’ve been so happy here.⁠ ⁠… Fedotik To Kuligin. Here’s a keepsake for you⁠ ⁠… a notebook with a pencil.⁠ ⁠… We’ll go to the river from here.⁠ ⁠… They go aside and both look round. Rode Shouts. Yo-ho! Kuligin Shouts. Goodbye! At the back of the stage Fedotik and Rode meet Masha; they say goodbye and go out with her. Irina They’ve gone.⁠ ⁠… Sits on the bottom step of the terrace. Chebutikin And they forgot to say goodbye to me. Irina But why is that? Chebutikin I just forgot, somehow. Though I’ll soon see them again, I’m going tomorrow. Yes⁠ ⁠… just one day left. I shall be retired in a year, then I’ll come here again, and finish my life near you. I’ve only one year before I get my pension.⁠ ⁠… Puts one newspaper into his pocket and takes another out. I’ll come here to you and change my life radically⁠ ⁠… I’ll be so quiet⁠ ⁠… so agree⁠ ⁠… agreeable, respectable.⁠ ⁠… Irina Yes, you ought to change your life, dear man, somehow or other. Chebutikin Yes, I feel it. Sings softly. “Tarara-boom-deay.⁠ ⁠…” Kuligin We won’t reform Ivan Romanovitch! We won’t reform him! Chebutikin If only I was apprenticed to you! Then I’d reform. Irina Feodor has shaved his moustache! I can’t bear to look at him. Kuligin Well, what about it? Chebutikin I could tell you what your face looks like now, but it wouldn’t be polite. Kuligin Well! It’s the custom, it’s modus vivendi. Our Director is clean-shaven, and so I too, when I received my inspectorship, had my moustaches removed. Nobody likes it, but it’s all one to me. I’m satisfied. Whether I’ve got moustaches or not, I’m satisfied.⁠ ⁠… Sits. At the back of the stage Andrey is wheeling a perambulator containing a sleeping infant. Irina Ivan Romanovitch, be a darling. I’m awfully worried. You were out on the boulevard last night; tell me, what happened? Chebutikin What happened? Nothing. Quite a trifling matter. Reads paper. Of no importance! Kuligin They say that Soleni and the Baron met yesterday on the boulevard near the theatre.⁠ ⁠… Tuzenbach Stop! What right⁠ ⁠… Waves his hand and goes into the house. Kuligin Near the theatre⁠ ⁠… Soleni started behaving offensively to the Baron, who lost his temper and said something nasty.⁠ ⁠… Chebutikin I don’t know. It’s all bunkum. Kuligin At some seminary or other a master wrote “bunkum” on an essay, and the student couldn’t make the letters out⁠—thought it was a Latin word “luckum.” Laughs. Awfully funny, that. They say that Soleni is in love with Irina and hates the Baron.⁠ ⁠… That’s quite natural. Irina is a very nice girl. She’s even like Masha, she’s so thoughtful.⁠ ⁠… Only, Irina your character is gentler. Though