Anton Čechov (especially his lesser known novels) is particularly nice and depressing at morning tea. Recommended when you are tired of watching all those vanilla memes with kittens in your phone.
“In the Native Corner” (“В родном углу”) is a slow story about a young girl who received education in a big city, maybe even Moscow, and came back to her inherited country estate in decay to bury all her ideas and ideals about what the society should look like.
Сколько разговоров про школы, сельские библиотеки, про всеобщее обучение, но ведь если бы все эти знакомые инженеры, заводчики, дамы не лицемерили, а в самом деле верили, что просвещение нужно, то они не платили бы учителям по 15 рублей в месяц, как теперь, и не морили бы их голодом.
There used to be lengthy talks about village libraries, universal education, but if all those engineers, factory owners and ladies she knew were not such hypocrites, but really believed that everyone needs enlightenment, they wouldn’t pay the teachers those scarce 15 roubles a month dooming them for starvation.
Has anything changed in 2019 since 1897 when the novel was published?
English title: Anton Čechov “In the Native Corner”, 1897
Original title (Russian): Антон Чехов “В родном углу”, 1897
Good for pre-intermediate Russian readers, too, without preliminary adaptation. Only a few obsolete words, still found in common dictionaries though.
First published in the Levinarium Telegram Channel (now closed and deleted)