On the Road (Chekhov)
Short summary
Russia, late 19th century. During a violent snowstorm, a man and his young daughter took shelter in a tavern's Travellers' Room. Later, a young woman named Marya Mihailovna Ilovaisky arrived, forced to stop due to the weather while traveling to her family farm.
Over tea, the man introduced himself as Grigory Petrovitch Liharev, a former landowner who had lost everything. He spoke passionately about his life of enthusiasms – how he had devoted himself completely to various beliefs and causes throughout his life, from atheism to Slavophilism.
Liharev explained how his endless enthusiasms had cost him his fortune, his wife's life, and brought misery to his family. His latest passion was for women and their capacity for devotion and sacrifice. He spoke with fervor about their spiritual strength:
That greathearted fortitude, faithfulness unto death, poetry of the heart... The meaning of life lies in just that unrepining martyrdom, in the tears which would soften a stone, in the boundless, all-forgiving love...
Marya was deeply moved by his words. The next morning, she learned he was going to work at coal mines owned by her uncle. Recognizing this as a terrible fate, she considered offering him money but hesitated. When they parted, she looked back at him with an expression that suggested she might have followed him had he asked. Liharev stood watching her tracks disappear in the snow.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
A weary traveler in the Travellers Room during a storm
In the Travellers' Room of a tavern kept by Semyon Tchistopluy, a tall, broad-shouldered man of forty slept at a large unpainted table, his head resting on his fist. A tallow candle illuminated his light brown beard, thick nose, sunburnt cheeks, and heavy black eyebrows. Though each of his features appeared coarse individually, together they created a harmonious, even beautiful face. He wore a shabby gentleman's jacket with new braid, a plush waistcoat, and black trousers tucked into high boots.
On one of the benches along the wall, a girl of eight in a brown dress and long black stockings slept on a fox-lined coat. Her face was pale, her hair flaxen, her shoulders narrow, and her body thin and frail, though her nose was as thick and ugly as the man's. She slept soundly, unaware that her semicircular comb had fallen and was cutting her cheek.
The room had a festive appearance with freshly scrubbed floors and a lamp burning in the corner, casting red light on religious icons and oleographs. Outside, a violent storm raged against the tavern.
Outside a storm was raging. Something frantic and wrathful, but profoundly unhappy, seemed to be flinging itself about the tavern with the ferocity of a wild beast and trying to break in.
The arrival of Mlle. Ilovaisky during the storm
The church clock struck midnight, its chimes scattered by the wind. Sasha awoke briefly, stared at the window, and called to her father, who did not respond. Soon after, the tavern door opened, and voices were heard. A coachman entered the Travellers' Room carrying a large trunk, followed by a small feminine figure completely wrapped up and covered with snow.
The newcomer complained that they could have continued their journey, but the coachman insisted the horses could go no further. After he departed, she removed her many layers of wrappings, revealing herself as a thin brunette of about twenty. She had a long white face with curly hair, a sharp nose and chin, long eyelashes, and pointed mouth corners. Her black dress with lace at the neck and sleeves, along with her sharp features, gave her the appearance of a medieval English lady.
Liharevs confession about his lifelong tendency for enthusiasms
Suddenly, Sasha turned over and complained bitterly about being unhappy, saying her shoulder ached. Liharev approached her apologetically, explaining that the journey had caused her pain and promising they would arrive at their destination the next day. When Sasha continued crying, Mlle. Ilovaisky intervened, helping to undress and comfort the child.
After Sasha was settled, Liharev initiated conversation with Mlle. Ilovaisky. He introduced himself as the brother of a local Marshal of Nobility, formerly a landowner who had "run through everything in his time." She revealed she was traveling from her estate to her family farm, where her father and brother lived. She explained that she managed the estate because her male relatives were irresponsible.
Over tea, Liharev began discussing faith, claiming that Russians possess an extraordinary capacity for belief. He confessed that he himself had an exceptional faculty for belief, which had manifested since childhood.
Nature has implanted in my breast an extraordinary faculty for belief. Whisper it not to the night, but half my life I was in the ranks of the Atheists and Nihilists, but there was not one hour in my life in which I ceased to believe.
Liharev described how throughout his life he had moved from one passionate conviction to another. As a child, he believed in house spirits and tried to poison them. In school, he became obsessed with scientific truths. At university, he devoted himself entirely to science, only to become disillusioned when he realized that sciences have beginnings but no ends. He then embraced Nihilism, worked in factories, and wandered across Russia. Later, he became a Slavophile, a Ukrainophile, an archaeologist, and a collector of peasant art. His most recent creed had been nonresistance to evil.
He explained that these enthusiasms had cost him dearly. Once wealthy, he had squandered his fortune and his wife's money. At forty-two, he was homeless and had never known peace. His mother had worn mourning for him for fifteen years, and his proud brothers had come to hate him.
All my life I have not known what peace meant, my soul has been in continual agitation, distressed even by its hopes... I have been wearied out with heavy irregular work, have endured privation, have five times been in prison...
Liharevs passionate speech about womens devotion and sacrifices
Liharev continued his confession, lamenting that his conscience was not clear. His wife had died before his eyes, worn out by his reckless activities. This led him to speak passionately about women and their treatment in society.
I tell you they have two ways of treating women nowadays. Some measure women's skulls to prove woman is inferior to man... Others do their utmost to raise women to their level, that is, force them to learn by heart the 35,000 species...
With growing intensity, Liharev declared that woman has been and always will be the slave of man, a soft wax that men mold to their liking. He described how women would sacrifice everything for male enthusiasms, even cutting off their hair, abandoning their families, or dying among strangers. His wife had never left him during his wanderings and changed her beliefs to match his evolving enthusiasms.
Yet rather than condemning this slavery, Liharev exalted it as "noble" and "sublime." With tears in his eyes, he praised women's extraordinary resignation to fate, mercifulness, and forgiveness. He spoke of their great-hearted fortitude, faithfulness unto death, and poetry of the heart, declaring that the meaning of life lies in this unrepining martyrdom and all-forgiving love.
Mlle. Ilovaisky was deeply moved by his passionate speech. For the first time in her life, she witnessed a man genuinely carried away by his beliefs. Despite his frantic appearance, she found beauty in his eyes, words, and movements, and stood transfixed before him.
Morning arrives after a night of conversation
Liharev offered Mlle. Ilovaisky his coat to sleep on, arranging it carefully on a bench. After she lay down, he extinguished the candle and sat by the stove, continuing to speak softly about the Russian character.
Nature has put into the Russian an extraordinary faculty for belief, a searching intelligence, and the gift of speculation, but all that is reduced to ashes by irresponsibility, laziness, and dreamy frivolity...
Mlle. Ilovaiskys departure and moment of connection
Mlle. Ilovaisky fell asleep, lulled by the darkness, the church bells, and the storm. She dreamt of weeping and heard a child begging her father to return to their uncle's home where a Christmas tree awaited. She was vaguely aware of someone carefully covering her with a shawl that had fallen to the floor.
She awoke at dawn to find the room filled with boys holding a large red star on a stick, singing Christmas carols. Liharev stood by the counter, watching the singers and tapping his feet in time. When he noticed she was awake, he wished her a happy Christmas.
As she prepared to leave, Mlle. Ilovaisky learned that Liharev was heading to coal mines owned by her uncle, General Shashkovsky, to work as a superintendent. She was shocked, describing the mines as a desolate place where he would never receive his salary. Liharev merely replied that he was thankful even for coal mines.
Agitated by his decision, she paced the room, feeling that behind her stood an infinitely unhappy man. She took out a money note from her purse, crumpled it in her hand, then put it back in her pocket. With a stern face, she silently prepared to depart.
Outside, the snowstorm continued. Liharev accompanied her to her sledge, asking her not to remember him unkindly. As the sledge started to move, she looked back at him with an expression that seemed to contain unspoken words.
Whether his finely intuitive soul were really able to read that look, or whether his imagination deceived him, it suddenly began to seem to him that with another touch or two that girl would have forgiven him his failures...