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

railway station should be thirteen miles away.⁠ ⁠… Nobody knows why. Soleni I know why. All look at him. Because if it was near it wouldn’t be far off, and if it’s far off, it can’t be near. An awkward pause. Tuzenbach Funny man. Olga Now I know who you are. I remember. Vershinin I used to know your mother. Chebutikin She was a good woman, rest her soul. Irina Mother is buried in Moscow. Olga At the Novo-Devichi Cemetery. Masha Do you know, I’m beginning to forget her face. We’ll be forgotten in just the same way. Vershinin Yes, they’ll forget us. It’s our fate, it can’t be helped. A time will come when everything that seems serious, significant, or very important to us will be forgotten, or considered trivial. Pause. And the curious thing is that we can’t possibly find out what will come to be regarded as great and important, and what will be feeble, or silly. Didn’t the discoveries of Copernicus, or Columbus, say, seem unnecessary and ludicrous at first, while wasn’t it thought that some rubbish written by a fool, held all the truth? And it may so happen that our present existence, with which we are so satisfied, will in time appear strange, inconvenient, stupid, unclean, perhaps even sinful.⁠ ⁠… Tuzenbach Who knows? But on the other hand, they may call our life noble and honour its memory. We’ve abolished torture and capital punishment, we live in security, but how much suffering there is still! Soleni In a feeble voice. There, there.⁠ ⁠… The Baron will go without his dinner if you only let him talk philosophy. Tuzenbach Vassili Vassilevitch, kindly leave me alone. Changes his chair. You’re very dull, you know. Soleni Feebly. There, there, there. Tuzenbach To Vershinin. The sufferings we see today⁠—there are so many of them!⁠—still indicate a certain moral improvement in society. Vershinin Yes, yes, of course. Chebutikin You said just now, Baron, that they may call our life noble; but we are very petty.⁠ ⁠… Stands up. See how little I am. Violin played behind. Masha That’s Andrey playing⁠—our brother. Irina He’s the learned member of the family. I expect he will be a professor some day. Father was a soldier, but his son chose an academic career for himself. Masha That was father’s wish. Olga We ragged him today. We think he’s a little in love. Irina To a local lady. She will probably come here today. Masha You should see the way she dresses! Quite prettily, quite fashionably too, but so badly! Some queer bright yellow skirt with a wretched little fringe and a red bodice. And such a complexion! Andrey isn’t in love. After all he has taste, he’s simply making fun of us. I heard yesterday that she was going to marry Protopopov, the chairman of the Local Council. That would do her nicely.⁠ ⁠… At the side door. Andrey, come here! Just for a minute, dear! Enter Andrey. Olga My brother, Andrey Sergeyevitch. Vershinin My name is Vershinin. Andrey Mine is Prosorov. Wipes his perspiring hands. You’ve come to take charge of the battery? Olga Just think, Alexander Ignateyevitch comes from Moscow. Andrey That’s all right. Now my little sisters won’t give you any rest. Vershinin I’ve already managed to bore your sisters. Irina Just look what a nice little photograph frame Andrey gave me today. Shows it. He made it himself. Vershinin Looks at the frame and does not know what to say. Yes.⁠ ⁠… It’s a thing that⁠ ⁠… Irina And he made that frame there, on the piano as well. Andrey waves his hand and walks away. Olga He’s got a degree, and plays the violin, and cuts all sorts of things out of wood, and is really a domestic Admirable Crichton. Don’t go away, Andrey! He’s got into a habit of always going away. Come here! Masha and Irina take his arms and laughingly lead him back. Masha Come on, come on! Andrey Please leave me alone. Masha You are funny. Alexander Ignateyevitch used to be called the lovelorn Major, but he never minded. Vershinin Not the least. Masha I’d like to call you the lovelorn fiddler! Irina Or the lovelorn professor! Olga He’s in love! little Andrey is in love! Irina Applauds. Bravo, Bravo! Encore! Little Andrey is in love. Chebutikin Goes up behind Andrey and takes him round the waist with both arms. Nature only brought us into the world that we should love! Roars with laughter, then sits down and reads a newspaper which he takes out of his pocket. Andrey That’s enough, quite enough.⁠ ⁠… Wipes his face. I couldn’t sleep all night and now I can’t quite find my feet, so to speak. I read until four o’clock, then tried to sleep, but nothing happened. I thought about one thing and another, and then it dawned and the sun crawled into my bedroom. This summer, while I’m here, I want to translate a book from the English.⁠ ⁠… Vershinin Do you read English? Andrey Yes father, rest his soul, educated us almost violently. It may seem funny and silly, but it’s nevertheless true, that after his death I began to fill out and get rounder, as if my body had had some great pressure taken off it. Thanks to father, my sisters and I know French, German, and English, and Irina knows Italian as well. But we paid dearly for it all! Masha A knowledge of three languages is an unnecessary luxury in this town. It isn’t even a luxury but a sort of useless extra, like a sixth finger. We know a lot too much. Vershinin Well, I say! Laughs. You know a lot too much! I don’t think there can really be a town so dull and stupid as to have no place for a clever, cultured person. Let us suppose even that among the hundred thousand inhabitants of this backward and uneducated town, there are only three persons like yourself. It stands to reason that you won’t be able to conquer that dark mob around you; little by little as you grow older you will be bound to give way and