one of the most deepest needs human have is to be beloved by another human being and ironically most people wouldn’t admit to have that need, and as a social beings we define ourselves by the relationships we have with another human beings ,but in all human feelings Love is the most beautiful feeling to have and also the most scariest feeling also as it can make you lose you wit and do the most stupidest thing to retain it.
I think that no one has ever truly described love – and how could anyone describe that tender, joyful, agonizing feeling! Anyone who has but once experienced it would never even think of putting it into words! But what’s the point of preambles and descriptions? Why this superfluous eloquence?
WHY
in my short life experiences i am always amazed and also baffled on how love happens to me it’s not something i can rationalize to another human being why it happened to me or why it did happen now and not before, why sometimes love is reciprocated and sometimes not, why is sometimes love is not felt equally by the two people, why sometimes i fell out of love suddenly and inexplicably, why love between same-sex people is still taboo in my part of the world
IF
I sometimes wonder how my life would changed if i fell in love with that, what would happen and what would have changed? what if i did reciprocated back the love some women had for me would things have changed and how so? .
although this is short book which consists of five stories which give a glimpse to beautiful prose Anton Chekhov have and what i loved about these stories is that they show humans in their complexity and not in fairy tale where every love ends happily for both people who is i believe what great book should show
in the fourth story Ionych it tells the story of local medical officer who fell in love with a local girl and how being in love and leaving it somehow changed him for the worse.
what struck me in this story is although two people may fall in love but if their goals nd ambitions in life didn’t align with each other that kind of love would ruin the lives of both people and even make it more complex and hard to leave each other or stay with each other
and here is some witty quotes from the book
after you being rejected
And he regretted having felt as he did, he regretted having loved – so much so that he came close to sobbing out loud
mediocre authors
‘A mediocrity is not someone who’s no good at writing stories,’ he thought. ‘It’s someone who writes them but can’t keep quiet about it.’
love in Affairs
and wondered how they could free themselves from the need to hide, to deceive, to live in different towns, to see each other only after long intervals. How could they break free from these intolerable chains?
Mystery of love
It’s a mystery, and you can interpret it which way you like. Only one indisputable truth has been said about love up to now, that it’s a “tremendous mystery”, and everything else that’s been written or said about it has never provided an answer
A Russian affair
by Anton Chekhov
Very thoughtful review, Ina!!
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Thanks a lot Ren
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“Love” your review, Ina 🙂 Well put together.
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Thanks a lot am really glad you enjoyed it
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I love your review too. I must read Chejov. I have, but soooo long ago that it’s needed to do it again, and like new.
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Thanks a lot Silvia he really is genius writer and highly enjoyed his stories.
I hope you read his works again am sure you will like him more
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Lovely quotes Ina! Chekhov is such a wonderful writer and he can get so much into short works. He was a real genius.
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Thanks to you and your blog am really discovering and reading more Russian novels.
What I loved about his stories although nothing much happens in it but it feels more realistic than many authors are and he is so good at capturing human complexity within his stories
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I’m glad to be a bad influence when it comes to Russian books! And yes – Chekhov has such insight!
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Well what I love about you and your blog is your uncanny ability to find obscure Russian authors and your reviews makes me to discover more of them
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😀
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I bet Chekov would be delighted to see the way his writing has triggered your thoughtful response to it:)
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Thanks a lot Lisa I really enjoyed his stories and writing.
Somehow it seemed more realistic to me so it provoked something deep within me
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