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“Chekhov wrote ‘Gusev’ when he was himself travelling home by sea from Siberia in 1890. He had just completed an epic overland journey to study the notorious penal colony on the island of Sakhalin, in the days before there was a train. ‘Gusev’ was the only piece of fiction which came out of this voyage…Gusev is the name of the story’s central character. He is a peasant conscript returning from a brutal period of service in the Far East, and is already dying of tuberculosis when put on board the ship…I’m not surprised that this is the story which Shostakovich wanted his wife to read to him on the night that he died. He said it was the most musical prose in all of Russian literature, and I’m inclined to agree.” Read more...
The Best Russian Short Stories
Rosamund Bartlett, Translator
