Chekhov “The Lady with the Dog”, chapter 1 – summary
Wealthy Muscovite Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, while relaxing in Yalta, noticed a young lady who was going out for a walk with her dog, a white Spitz.
She, too, was not from here, and apparently arrived alone. Gurov married an unloved, mannered woman early on, who read a lot, called herself a “thinker,” but was not very smart, ungraceful, and looked old. Gurov began to cheat on her long ago. He already had many novels. The ease of victories over the ladies inspired him with a disdainful opinion of them. In conversations, he often called them a “lower race,” but he could not live even two days without this “race.”
He liked the lady with the dog. Sitting down at the table next to her during lunch, Gurov found an excuse to talk. He found out that the lady’s name was Anna Sergeevna, that she was the wife of an official and came from the city of S. After lunch, the two of them walked back, looking at the moonlit sea and talking. The lady with the dog was still very young. Her angular, timid, shy manners, thin, weak neck and beautiful gray eyes made a charming and compassionate impression on Dmitry Dmitrich.
Summary
Chapter first
Gurov was on vacation in Yalta and noticed that a new girl had appeared among the resort guests. She was a young woman who was accompanied on every walk by a white Spitz. Those around her nicknamed the stranger “the lady with the dog.”
Gurov himself has long been fed up with women. He got married while still a student. Now his wife, in his opinion, has become old and ugly. Her company was a burden to him, and he did not like to come home, preferring to have fun on the side. He treated women with disrespect, classified them as a lower race, but at the same time he could not do without representatives of the fair sex for two days.
Gurov spoke to the woman and struck up an acquaintance with her. He told about himself: he works in a bank, although he received a philological education and came from Moscow. A new friend lived in another city, where she moved from St. Petersburg after marriage. She arrived in Yalta alone and was waiting for her husband, who should soon join her. The lady could not remember who her husband worked as. From her story, the man realized that she was not very happy in her marriage, and felt something like pity.
Over time, Gurov liked Anna Sergeevna. He was so drawn to her modest manners, her beautiful face and the way she carried herself.
Chapter two
The walks continued for a week. One evening, Gurov unexpectedly attracted Anna to him and kissed her. He suggested privacy in the room. From that day their whirlwind romance began. Anna Sergeevna did not refuse meetings. They enjoyed relaxation, the sea and new relationships.
Gurov noticed that his new acquaintance was not like the previous women. She succumbed to new feelings, but suffered from remorse. She admitted to Dmitry that she did not love her husband and married him out of pure curiosity. The thirst for new sensations brought her to the resort. But now that she has found them, she is ashamed of her betrayal of her husband, who did not deserve it. Anna did not want to sin, she dreamed of pure and sublime love, which she did not have. The woman was afraid that Gurov would despise her. Dmitry Dmitrievich consoled her for the sake of appearance, although he was not touched by his companion’s experiences.
Soon, Gurov’s new love was forced to go home, as she received news of her husband’s illness. Gurov saw her off and cynically thought to himself that his next hobby had come to an end, which he would soon forget about.
Chapter Three
Dmitry Dmitrievich's vacation also ended, and he returned to Moscow. At first, he did not remember Anna, led a normal life, went to various events. But then, for some unknown reason, her image began to appear in front of Gurov again and again. This has never happened to him. Love suddenly awoke in Gurov. He did not understand what was happening to him, slept poorly, could not concentrate on work, and completely ruined his relationship with his family. What made it even more difficult was the fact that you couldn’t share your condition with anyone.
On the winter holidays, unable to bear the obsession, Gurov went to the city where Anna lived. He lied to his wife that he was going to St. Petersburg on business. Arriving at the place, Dmitry Dmitrievich found the house where the von Diederits lived. The house was surrounded by a high fence. Gurov walked around, but did not dare to go in, assuming that Anna’s husband could be at home.
Wanting to see his beloved, Gurov headed to the theater and was not mistaken. Anna and her husband came to the performance. Gurov approached her during intermission, taking advantage of her husband’s absence. The pale Anna at first wanted to leave, but then admitted that she had also been thinking about him all this time. Gurov took the woman into his arms and released her only after promising to come to him.
Chapter Four
Anna began to regularly visit her loved one. For her husband, she came up with a story about a doctor whom she allegedly went to for examinations. The husband did not object to the trips, but did not believe his wife’s explanations.
In Moscow, Anna occupied a hotel room in which secret meetings took place. Both of them were burdened by their double life. But breaking family ties and starting openly new relationships was not so easy. No matter how Anna lamented that the secret relationship humiliated them, she could not stop it.
On one of these dates, Gurov accidentally saw himself in the mirror. He was amazed at how he had changed. Dmitry Dmitrievich realized that love came to him only now, along with gray hair and wrinkles. Before this meeting, they lived with people they didn’t love.
Both understood that life had brought them together for a reason, that this was true love and that the hardest part was yet to come.
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Chekhov “The Lady with the Dog”, chapter 2 – summary
After they met, Gurov and the lady with the dog began to often walk together. A week later, during a walk, Dmitry Dmitrich suddenly hugged her, kissed her and quietly offered to go to her room.
What was supposed to happen happened in the room. But after this, Anna Sergeevna behaved differently from most of the women Gurov had known so far. Sitting in a sad position, with her hair hanging sadly, she said that what had happened was bad and that he himself would be the first to not respect her.
Seduction was not new to Gurov, but for the first time he saw such a touching, naive, decent woman in front of him. Anna Sergeevna excitedly explained that she did not love her husband, who remained in the city of S., for his lackey character. She married him too young and inexperienced and did not find happiness in marriage. She wanted a different life, different experiences. She admitted that she went to Yalta to get them, but now she feels like a vulgar, trashy woman whom anyone can despise.
Dmitry Dmitrich somehow managed to calm her down. All the next days they met, walked, went out of town together. But one day the lady with the dog received a letter where her sick husband asked her to come back. Anna Sergeevna told Gurov that it was fate itself that wanted to interrupt their protracted sinful passion. At the train station they said goodbye sadly, thinking that they would never see each other again. Soon Dmitry Dmitrich returned to his place in Moscow.
Chapter two
Several days have passed since we met.
Gurov and Anna Sergeevna went for a walk to the pier to watch the ship dock. The entire elegant crowd of those greeting them dispersed, and they all stood and watched, as if waiting to see if anyone else would get off the ship. Gurov seized the moment and, unexpectedly for Anna, kissed her, offering to go to her in a whisper. It was clear from Anna that she was experiencing her fall. It was as if she had become even smaller and pitiful. I cried all the time and reproached myself for showing weakness. How will she now look into her husband’s eyes after everything that happened? There was no love between the spouses. Anna married him very young and more out of curiosity, but this did not justify her.
Dmitry calmed her down as best he could. Their meetings did not end there. They spent all their time together until Anna received a letter from her husband, in which he asked her to come because of his illness. Gurov thought that this was the end of the affair, but fate decreed otherwise.
Chekhov “The Lady with the Dog”, chapter 3 – summary
He thought that he would soon forget the lady with the dog, but more than a month passed, and the memories of her flared up more and more. It seemed to Gurov that in the evenings Anna Sergeevna looked at him from the bookcase, from the fireplace, he heard her breathing, the gentle rustle of her clothes. He was tormented by a burning desire to share his memories with someone, but Dmitry Dmitrich’s acquaintances almost always conducted superficial, vulgar conversations. For the first time, Gurov began to think that for most people, unnecessary things to do and talk about one thing all take away their best forces, and what remains is some kind of short, wingless life.
Near the New Year, he told his wife that he was leaving for St. Petersburg to take care of a young man - and left for S. Knowing Anna Sergeevna’s last name, Gurov found her house and saw a familiar dog running out of the door. But how to arrange a meeting with Anna Sergeevna? Gurov suggested that Anna Sergeevna might go to the theater, and bought a ticket there.
His heart began to beat when he saw Anna Sergeevna entering the hall. With her was a young man, probably her husband, who in his manners really looked like a footman. During the first intermission, the husband went to smoke, and Dmitry Dmitrich came up to Anna Sergeevna’s chair and said hello with a trembling voice.
Seeing Gurov, she turned pale, but then got up and quickly went into the lobby - and he followed her. Both stopped on a narrow, gloomy staircase. Breathing heavily, Anna Sergeevna asked why he had come. Gurov began to kiss her. She pushed him away, but admitted that all this time she could not forget about him. Anna Sergeevna begged Gurov to leave, saying that she would soon come to him in Moscow.
Chapter Three
Moscow life quickly drew in Dmitry.
It seemed to him that in a month he would not remember the Yalta adventure, but no. Anna came to mind more and more often. He became bored and irritable. Children, work, unnecessary conversations and activities. At the end of the year, during the holidays, Dmitry decided to go in search of Anna. The doorman made the task easier by providing the necessary information, giving his address and last name. Dmitry stood and looked at her house, surrounded by a gray, long fence with nails. He did not dare to come in. Gurov decided to while away the evening at the theater at the premiere of “Geisha.” During intermission I saw her. Anna was not alone. Most likely with your spouse. When her companion left, Dmitry came up to say hello. The woman turned pale. They had a few minutes to explain themselves. Anna said that she had been thinking about him all this time, suffering and wanted to forget everything. She asks to leave the city immediately, promising that she will find him herself.
Chekhov “The Lady with the Dog”, chapter 4 – summary
Once every two or three months she began to come to Moscow, telling her husband that she was going to the professor to be treated for a woman’s disease. Anna Sergeevna stayed at the Slavic Bazaar, and Dmitry Dmitrich came to see her there.
Nobody knew about his dates. Gurov was heavily tormented by the thought of his two lives: one obvious, full of conventional truth and conventional deception - and the other, which contained everything that was important and necessary for him.
Usually he passionately kissed the “lady with the dog,” and she cried from the sorrowful awareness that their life had turned out so sadly; they see each other only secretly, hiding from people like thieves!
This consciousness also depressed Gurov.
In the mirror, he noticed that his head was already very gray - and at this age he truly fell in love, for the first time in his life! It was unclear to both him and her why he was married and she was married. They often talked about how to rid themselves of the need to hide, deceive, live in different cities, and not see each other for a long time. It was clear to both: the most difficult and difficult thing for them was just beginning. Brief summary of other stories by Chekhov Full text of Chekhov's stories
Chapter Four
Anna began visiting Moscow on short visits.
Leaving my husband a couple of times a month under various pretexts. No one knew about their secret romance. Gurov's double life gave him the opportunity to feel truly happy. At home there are boring, disgusting relationships. Passion and love are on the side. Anna was very worried that they had to hide from everyone, hiding the truth. He saw how much she loved him and did not understand why. During this time, they became so close to each other that they seemed more like spouses who had lived together for many years than lovers. It seemed to them that the time would soon come when they would stop deceiving everyone and would be able to fully enjoy the happiness given from above, but they did not realize how far their dreams were still.
