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A. P. Chekhov -
Ward No. 6
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II Some twelve or fifteen years ago an official called Gromov, a
highly respectable and prosperous person, was living in his own
house in the principal street of the town. He had two sons,
Sergey and Ivan. When Sergey was a student in his fourth year he
was taken ill with galloping consumption and died, and his death
was, as it were, the first of a whole series of calamities which
suddenly showered on the Gromov family. Within a week of
Sergey's funeral the old father was put on trial for fraud and
misappropriation, and he died of typhoid in the prison hospital
soon afterwards. The house, with all their belongings, was sold
by auction, and Ivan Dmitritch and his mother were left entirely
without means.
Hitherto in his father's lifetime, Ivan Dmitritch, who was
studying in the University of Petersburg, had received an
allowance of sixty or seventy roubles a month, and had had no
conception of poverty; now he had to make an abrupt change in
his life. He had to spend his time from morning to night giving
lessons for next to nothing, to work at copying, and with all
that to go hungry, as all his earnings were sent to keep his
mother. Ivan Dmitritch could not stand such a life; he lost
heart and strength, and, giving up the university, went home.
Here, through interest, he obtained the post of teacher in the
district school, but could not get on with his colleagues, was
not liked by the boys, and soon gave up the post. His mother
died. He was for six months without work, living on nothing but
bread and water; then he became a court usher. He kept this post
until he was dismissed owing to his illness.
He had never even in his young student days given the impression
of being perfectly healthy. He had always been pale, thin, and
given to catching cold; he ate little and slept badly. A single
glass of wine went to his head and made him hysterical. He
always had a craving for society, but, owing to his irritable
temperament and suspiciousness, he never became very intimate
with anyone, and had no friends. He always spoke with contempt
of his fellow-townsmen, saying that their coarse ignorance and
sleepy animal existence seemed to him loathsome and horrible. He
spoke in a loud tenor, with heat, and invariably either with
scorn and indignation, or with wonder and enthusiasm, and always
with perfect sincerity. Whatever one talked to him about he
always brought it round to the same subject: that life was dull
and stifling in the town; that the townspeople had no lofty
interests, but lived a dingy, meaningless life, diversified by
violence, coarse profligacy, and hypocrisy; that scoundrels were
well fed and clothed, while honest men lived from hand to mouth;
that they needed schools, a progressive local paper, a theatre,
public lectures, the co-ordination of the intellectual elements;
that society must see its failings and be horrified. In his
criticisms of people he laid on the colours thick, using only
black and white, and no fine shades; mankind was divided for him
into honest men and scoundrels: there was nothing in between. He
always spoke with passion and enthusiasm of women and of love,
but he had never been in love.
In spite of the severity of his judgments and his nervousness,
he was liked, and behind his back was spoken of affectionately
as Vanya. His innate refinement and readiness to be of service,
his good breeding, his moral purity, and his shabby coat, his
frail appearance and family misfortunes, aroused a kind, warm,
sorrowful feeling. Moreover, he was well educated and well read;
according to the townspeople's notions, he knew everything, and
was in their eyes something like a walking encyclopedia.
He had read a great deal. He would sit at the club, nervously
pulling at his beard and looking through the magazines and
books; and from his face one could see that he was not reading,
but devouring the pages without giving himself time to digest
what he read. It must be supposed that reading was one of his
morbid habits, as he fell upon anything that came into his hands
with equal avidity, even last year's newspapers and calendars.
At home he always read lying down.
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