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axl_oswaldo 's review for:
The Duel
by Anton Chekhov
The Duel has been my first experience reading a Chekhov novella, and I must say that I truly enjoyed it.
The author actually knew how to develop his characters, and those characters—who really have their own voice and a different personality—are the most important element in the book. Don't get me wrong, the story itself is also important, but I found characters' thoughts and dialogues absolutely deep and thought-provoking, being the most remarkable aspect of the novel.
As you can imagine, there is a duel in the novel, however, there is no only a real duel, but a symbolic one. Our protagonist, Laevksy, has his own ideology and beliefs about life, which contrast to Von Koren's beliefs, a zoologist, who is not friends with Laevksy at all and tends to be against him frequently.
Some discussions about meaningful topics such as evolution, religion, society, death, etc. (that are constantly taking place in the novel) are so necessary to understand every character's opinion, and to see how each of them is 'playing their role' in the story. I said to a friend of mine that I pictured the characters as the cast of a play, at which everyone has their own role, where they are doing their part properly, and finally, the curtain goes down and the finale turns out to be the beginning of something new, just like in real life. I was completely satisfied with that ending; in my view, the best part of the whole book.
In short, I would highly recommend such a beautiful work. It is very well written, has unforgettable characters, and besides, the author depicts accurately a true portrait of the society. There is even one character who somehow reminded me of Raskolnikov—protagonist of Crime and Punishment—due to they share a very similar ideology (needless to say that this fact made me go back to one of my favorite novels of my life).
I can't wait to read my next Chekhov very soon.
Love cannot last long. You have lived two years in love, and now evidently your married life has reached the period when, in order to preserve equilibrium, so to speak, you ought to exercise all your patience.
The author actually knew how to develop his characters, and those characters—who really have their own voice and a different personality—are the most important element in the book. Don't get me wrong, the story itself is also important, but I found characters' thoughts and dialogues absolutely deep and thought-provoking, being the most remarkable aspect of the novel.
As you can imagine, there is a duel in the novel, however, there is no only a real duel, but a symbolic one. Our protagonist, Laevksy, has his own ideology and beliefs about life, which contrast to Von Koren's beliefs, a zoologist, who is not friends with Laevksy at all and tends to be against him frequently.
Some discussions about meaningful topics such as evolution, religion, society, death, etc. (that are constantly taking place in the novel) are so necessary to understand every character's opinion, and to see how each of them is 'playing their role' in the story. I said to a friend of mine that I pictured the characters as the cast of a play, at which everyone has their own role, where they are doing their part properly, and finally, the curtain goes down and the finale turns out to be the beginning of something new, just like in real life. I was completely satisfied with that ending; in my view, the best part of the whole book.
In short, I would highly recommend such a beautiful work. It is very well written, has unforgettable characters, and besides, the author depicts accurately a true portrait of the society. There is even one character who somehow reminded me of Raskolnikov—protagonist of Crime and Punishment—due to they share a very similar ideology (needless to say that this fact made me go back to one of my favorite novels of my life).
I can't wait to read my next Chekhov very soon.
Love cannot last long. You have lived two years in love, and now evidently your married life has reached the period when, in order to preserve equilibrium, so to speak, you ought to exercise all your patience.