150 Chekhov's "The Lady with the Little Dog"

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

Arts, History, Books

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2018

⏱️ 106 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's a deceptively simple story: a man and a woman meet, have an affair, are separated, and reunite. And yet, in writing about Anton Chekhov's story, "The Lady with the Little Dog" (1899), Vladimir Nabokov said, "All the traditional rules have been broken in this wonderful short story.... No problem, no regular climax, no point at the end. And it is one of the greatest stories ever written." What makes this story so good? How does it hold up today? In this episode, Jacke and Mike examine the masterpiece of one of the world's greatest short story writers. NOTE: This is a self-contained episode of the History of Literature - we read the story itself, so no need to read the story on your own (unless you'd like to). Help support the show at patreon.com/literature. Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio. You're not going to be. Hello, we're listening to the song The Amorous Goldfish from the Smash 1896 musical comedy, The Gaysha.
0:38.0	The Gaysha appears during a key moment in our story today, when two Starcrossed lovers reunite in a Russian provincial town
0:47.2	after the charismatic but world weary man correctly guesses that his lover will attend the show's premiere.
0:55.7	The two embarked upon a passionate but complicated affair at the seaside resort of Yalta
1:01.6	and have not seen each other since.
1:03.6	That's right, we're talking about. That's right,
1:13.0	right, we're talking about Anton Chekhov's short story masterpiece, The Lady with the Little
1:18.6	Dog. Today, on the history of literature. Okay, here we go. I'm Jack Wilson. Welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad you're
1:47.6	here to join me today. I'm back from vacation. Paris, Switzerland, and
1:52.2	my beloved Italy, which was, as always, so wonderful to me.
1:57.0	It's good to me. That place, it's good for me.
2:00.0	I'm feeling better, even though the news seems to be getting worse and I have a lot of thoughts about
2:06.1	What it means to be an American always so exposed when you go on a trip
2:11.8	Figuring out who you are your place in the world things have changed
2:16.2	traveling abroad in the last 25 years or so it's different now I'm different and it's different now. I'm different and it's different.
2:25.0	But let's leave those thoughts for another day.
2:27.0	Today let's focus on the story of another traveler or a pair of travelers
2:31.0	who are also on vacation in Chuckov's beautiful and stunning story, The Lady with
2:37.7	the Little Dog.
2:39.5	This will be another one of our self-contained episodes where you don't need to read the story in advance.
2:45.3	All you need to do is sit back and listen.
2:48.7	We'll have Mike Palindrome here in a moment and he and I will set up this 1899 masterpiece.
	...

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