The Shoemaker and the Devil (Chekhov)
Short summary
Russia, Christmas Eve. Poor shoemaker Fyodor Nilov worked late to finish boots for a demanding customer while bitterly envying the rich.
While delivering the boots, Fyodor discovered his customer was actually the devil, who offered to make him rich in exchange for his soul.
Fyodor agreed, and instantly became wealthy with servants, fine food, and a fashionable wife. However, his new life proved disappointing. He couldn't sing in the street, play his concertina, or behave as he pleased. His wealth brought anxiety about thieves, and his fancy wife wouldn't let him treat her as he had treated Marya.
When the devil came to claim his soul, Fyodor awoke to find it had all been a dream. He delivered the boots to his customer, who turned out to be a pyrotechnician. Walking to church, Fyodor reflected on his experience.
It seemed to him now that rich and poor were equally badly off. Some were able to drive in a carriage, and others to sing songs at the top of their voice and to play the concertina, but one and the same thing, the same grave, was awaiting all alike.
Detailed summary
Division into sections is editorial.
Working on Christmas Eve: Fyodors frustration with his poverty
On Christmas Eve, while most people were asleep or celebrating, Fyodor Nilov continued working on a pair of boots. A demanding customer from Kolokolny Lane had ordered them a fortnight ago and insisted they be finished before morning service. To stay awake, Fyodor kept drinking from a bottle under his table, growing increasingly bitter about his circumstances.
"It's a convict's life!" Fyodor grumbled as he worked. "Some people have been asleep long ago, others are enjoying themselves, while you sit here like some Cain and sew for the devil knows whom."
Fyodor particularly despised his customer from Kolokolny Lane, a gloomy gentleman with long hair, yellow face, blue spectacles, and a husky voice. When Fyodor had gone to take his measurements two weeks earlier, the man had been pounding something in a mortar that suddenly flared up with a bright red flame, filling the room with pink smoke and a smell of sulphur.
Dreaming of wealth: Fyodors thoughts about the rich
When his bottle was empty, Fyodor set the boots aside and fell into contemplation about his poverty and difficult life. He began to fantasize about the wealthy, imagining their grand houses, expensive carriages, and hundred-rouble notes. He dreamed of a world where the rich would become poor, and he, a humble shoemaker, would rise to prosperity.
How nice it would be if the houses of these rich men—the devil flay them!—were smashed, if their horses died... How splendid it would be if the rich, little by little, changed into beggars... and he, a poor shoemaker, were to become rich.
Suddenly remembering his work, Fyodor realized he had finished the boots long ago and needed to deliver them to the customer. He wrapped them in a red handkerchief and ventured into the cold, snowy night.
Meeting with the devil: Delivering boots and making a deal
As Fyodor walked through the streets, he observed rich men carrying hams and vodka, while wealthy young ladies mocked him from their carriages. Students, officers, and merchants jeered at him, calling him a beggar and a drunkard. When Kuzma Lebyodkin boasted about marrying a rich woman and employing workers, Fyodor chased after him all the way to Kolokolny Lane.
Arriving at his customer's apartment, Fyodor delivered the boots. While helping the man try them on, he was horrified to discover that the customer had not a foot but a hoof like a horse's. Fyodor realized he was face to face with the devil himself.
"They say that there is nothing on earth more evil and impure than the devil, but I am of the opinion, your honor, that the devil is highly educated. He has—excuse my saying it—hoofs and a tail behind, but he has more brains than many a student."
Rather than fleeing, Fyodor decided to take advantage of this rare opportunity. He flattered the devil and asked to be made rich. The devil agreed, but required Fyodor to sign away his soul before the cocks crowed. Fyodor cleverly replied that just as he didn't ask for payment before completing the boots, the devil should fulfill his part of the bargain first.
Experiencing wealth: Fyodors new life as a rich man
Suddenly, a bright flame flared up in the mortar, pink smoke filled the room, and Fyodor found himself transformed. No longer a shoemaker, he was now a wealthy gentleman sitting at a grand table in fine clothes. Footmen served him an elaborate feast of roast mutton, goose, pork with horseradish, and many other delicacies.
After dinner, the devil appeared in blue spectacles and asked if Fyodor was satisfied. Feeling uncomfortably full, Fyodor noticed the boot on his left foot and asked which shoemaker had made it. When told it was Kuzma Lebyodkin, he summoned his former rival. Lebyodkin arrived and stood respectfully at the door, asking for his payment. Fyodor berated him harshly, mimicking how customers had treated him in the past.
The devil brought Fyodor thick pocketbooks full of money, but no matter how much he counted, Fyodor remained dissatisfied and wanted more. In the evening, the devil introduced a full-bosomed lady in a red dress as Fyodor's new wife. They spent the evening kissing and eating gingerbreads.
At night, Fyodor couldn't sleep. Worried about thieves stealing his money, he kept getting up to check on his box. He also felt troubled by his dinner and by thoughts about his ruined soul.
Discovering the emptiness of wealth: Fyodors disillusionment
The next morning, Fyodor went to church for matins. There, he realized that rich and poor were treated equally in church, and that after death, he would be buried in the same earth as the poorest beggar. These thoughts troubled him deeply.
In church the same honor is done to rich and poor alike. When Fyodor was poor he used to pray in church like this: 'God, forgive me, a sinner!' He said the same thing now though he had become rich. What difference was there?
Leaving church in a bad mood, Fyodor tried to sing loudly to cheer himself up, but a policeman stopped him, saying gentlefolk shouldn't sing in the street. When he leaned against a fence, a porter warned him not to spoil his fur coat. He bought a concertina and played it in the street, but everyone laughed at him, and cabmen jeered that he behaved like a cobbler.
Beggars surrounded Fyodor, demanding money—they had ignored him when he was a shoemaker. At home, his new wife scolded him for trying to hit her, insisting that gentlemen must kiss ladies' hands instead.
"This is a blasted existence!" thought Fyodor. "People do lead a life! You mustn't sing, you mustn't play the concertina, you mustn't have a lark with a lady.... Pfoo!"
Returning to reality: Waking up and finding meaning
As Fyodor sat down to tea with his new wife, the devil appeared and demanded that he sign the paper giving up his soul. The devil dragged Fyodor to hell, where other devils shouted insults at him. There was a strong smell of paraffin, and suddenly everything vanished.
Fyodor opened his eyes to find himself back at his table with the boots and tin lamp. The customer in blue spectacles stood before him, angrily berating him for not having finished the boots despite taking the order two weeks ago. When Fyodor asked about his occupation, the man replied that he was a pyrotechnician who made Bengal lights and fireworks.
As the bells rang for matins, Fyodor gave the customer his boots, took payment, and went to church. He observed carriages and sledges in the street, with merchants, ladies, and officers walking alongside common folk. But Fyodor no longer envied them or resented his own situation. He realized that rich and poor faced the same fate in the end, and that nothing in life was worth giving even a tiny piece of one's soul to the devil.
There was nothing in life for which one would give the devil even a tiny scrap of one's soul.