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The Horse Stealers
WRITTEN BY:
Anton Chekhov
NARRATED BY:
Michael Scott
The Horse Stealer weaves a dark comedy tale about a drunken hospital assistant named Yergunov. On his return from getting supplies for the hospital he worked at, he gets caught in a wintery storm and loses his way, and ends up in a local tavern. The inhabitants of the tavern are Kalashnikov and Merik, well-known horse stealers, and a young woman name Lyubka. During the festivities, the story pivots around the conversations of the group, Yergunov’s exclusion from the inner circle, and the ultimate loss of his horse and hospital supplies. Chekhov weaves humor and tragedy to highlight the social divisions at the time, providing a provocative sense of who deserves societal privilege and value.
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ThoughtAudio Transcript: TA0124_TheHorseStealers_AntonChekhov.pdf
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Anton Chekhov (29 January 1860–15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced well-known classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov is referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov was a physician by profession. “Medicine is my lawful wife”, he once said, “and literature is my mistress.”