A Mystery (Chekhov)
Short summary
Russia, late 19th century. On Easter Sunday, Civil Councillor Navagin noticed a mysterious signature in his visitors' book. For thirteen years, someone named Fedyukov had been signing the book on Christmas and Easter, yet neither Navagin, his wife, nor his porter knew who this person was.
Perplexed by this mystery, Navagin questioned his porter, who insisted no stranger had entered the house. Navagin's wife, a spiritualist, suggested that Fedyukov might be a ghost. Initially skeptical, Navagin eventually became so obsessed that he asked his wife to conduct a séance to contact Fedyukov.
The séance led Navagin to embrace spiritualism completely. He spent months writing a monograph on the subject. When preparing to send it to a spiritualist journal, he summoned a sacristan to obtain a baptism certificate for his son. To Navagin's shock, the sacristan introduced himself as Fedyukov.
"You… you are Fedyukov?" asked Navagin, looking at him with wide-open eyes. "Just so, Fedyukov." "You… you signed your name in my hall?" "Yes…" the sacristan admitted, and was overcome with confusion.
The sacristan explained that he simply enjoyed signing his name whenever he visited with priests carrying the Cross. Stunned by this mundane explanation to his supernatural obsession, Navagin became hysterical, shouting for everyone to leave him alone as his elaborate spiritual beliefs collapsed.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The mysterious recurring signature
On Easter Sunday evening, Civil Councillor Navagin returned home from paying calls and examined the visitor list in his hall. As he scanned the signatures, he was startled to discover a name that had appeared mysteriously for years: Fedyukov. This signature had been appearing regularly every Christmas and Easter for thirteen years, yet Navagin had no idea who this person was.
What was so strange was that this incognito Fedyukov, had signed his name regularly every Christmas and Easter for the last thirteen years. Neither Navagin, his wife, nor his house porter knew who he was.
The bold, florid signature in an old-fashioned style with flourishes was completely different from the other signatures on the list. It appeared directly below the signature of Shtutchkin, the provincial secretary, a timid man who would never dare play such a prank.
Perplexed by this recurring mystery, Navagin summoned his porter Grigory to inquire about the visitor. Grigory insisted that no Fedyukov had visited the house. When pressed, he maintained that only the regular visitors had come: clerks, the baroness, and priests with the Cross. No strangers had entered the house.
"It's extraordinary!" Navagin thought in perplexity, as he paced about the study. "It's strange and incomprehensible! It's like sorcery! ... It's devilish queer! But I will find out who he is!"
Navagin shared his bewilderment with his wife, who was a spiritualist. She suggested that Fedyukov might be a spirit with a sympathy for him and recommended calling up the spirit to ask what it wanted. Navagin dismissed her supernatural explanation as nonsense.
Turn to spiritualism and supernatural explanations
Despite his skepticism, Navagin could not stop thinking about the mysterious Fedyukov. That night, he dreamed of a gaunt old clerk in a shabby uniform with a yellow face, brush-like hair, and pewtery eyes. The spectral clerk spoke in a sepulchral voice and shook a bony finger at him. The nightmare nearly gave Navagin an attack of brain inflammation.
After two weeks of gloomy contemplation, Navagin overcame his skepticism and asked his wife to conduct a séance to contact Fedyukov. The spirit responded promptly, claiming to be a sinner. Navagin then called up other spirits including Napoleon, Hannibal, and his aunt Klavdya Zaharovna, all of whom gave brief but meaningful answers.
Navagin became completely absorbed in spiritualism, spending whole days reading books on the subject or conducting séances with the saucer. At his urging, all his clerks also took up spiritualism with such enthusiasm that the old managing clerk Vassily Krinolinsky went mad and sent a bizarre telegram claiming he was turning into an evil spirit.
Hypnotism, mediumism, bishopism, spiritualism, the fourth dimension, and other misty notions took complete possession of him, so that for whole days at a time... he read books on spiritualism or devoted himself to the saucer.
The accidental revelation
After reading hundreds of spiritualist treatises, Navagin wrote a monograph titled "My Opinion." On the day he planned to send it to a spiritualist journal, he had his secretary make a fair copy. The parish sacristan also visited on business that day, as Navagin needed a baptism certificate for his youngest son.
When Navagin asked if the certificate could be ready by the next day, the sacristan assured him it would be. He instructed Navagin to send someone to the church before evening service and ask for Fedyukov. Shocked, Navagin realized that the sacristan himself was the mysterious Fedyukov who had been signing his visitor book for thirteen years.
The sacristan explained that whenever he came to grand houses with the Cross, he liked to sign his name in the visitor books. He apologized for his habit, saying he felt an impulse to do so whenever he saw the list of names in the hall.
"When we come with the Cross, your Excellency, to grand gentlemen's houses I always sign my name... I like doing it... when I see the list of names in the hall I feel an impulse to sign mine..."
Navagin was stunned by this mundane explanation for what he had believed was a supernatural phenomenon. In a state of shock, he paced around his study, making meaningless gestures. When his secretary asked about sending the spiritualist article, Navagin erupted in anger, shouting for everyone to leave him in peace. The secretary and sacristan left while Navagin continued stamping and shouting in distress, utterly disillusioned by the collapse of his supernatural beliefs.
"Leave me in peace! Lea-eave me in peace, I tell you! What you want of me I don't understand." ... he was still stamping and shouting: "Leave me in peace! What you want of me I don't understand. Lea-eave me in peace!"