A Chekhov story with a title like “Rothschild’s Fiddle” seemed bound to be a big ugly mess of antisemitism, but actually it’s not, if only because the Rothschild of the title is actually a secondary figure in the story.
While “Rothschild’s Fiddle” is not antisemitic, neither is it a very good story. It has elements of a good story, but taken as a whole it doesn’t come off.
In a nutshell: The undertaker of a small town, Yakov, has pinched and scraped to make a living all his long life, bitterly regretting each expenditure and lost earnings opportunity: For instance, he hates that there are Sundays, when he is not allowed to work, and therefore misses the chance to make money. (It’s worth noting, given my rant about potential antisemitism, that Yakov is not Jewish. In fact he’s a bit of an antisemite himself.)
When Yakov’s wife, Marfa, falls ill, Yakov takes her to the doctor. She is too old and far-gone to be treated, the doctor says. As his wife approaches death, Yakov rues his miserliness and ill treatment of her. And Marfa recalls a child – her child – that Yakov cannot remember (either because he has blocked the memory of it or because she has invented it on her death bed, it’s unclear.)
After a year or so, Yakov himself becomes ill and dies, not before picking up his fiddle and playing it tearfully.
And the reason this story is called “Rothschild’s Fiddle,” rather than “Yakov’s Fiddle?” Well, that’s a bit of a shaggy dog story involving a local Jewish orchestra and a flute player named Rothschild. Anyway, in the end, Yakov leaves his fiddle to Rothschild. So, if you were wondering, that’s how come Rothschild has such a nice fiddle.
And if the combination of these two storylines leaves you confused, you understand why this tale is not a successful one.
Something about this tale–the Jewish orchestra (presumably a klezmer band), the fiddle, the somewhat hallucinatory nature of Marfa’s death, and especially the folk-tale cadence of the telling–brings to mind the stories of Sholem Aleichem. I don’t know if Chekhov had read Aleichem (he seems to have read so little!) but I do know that they were aware of each other, and that they corresponded… albeit very late in Chekhov’s life. Anyway, maybe this tale is an homage to Aleichem.
READ THIS? READ THAT!
Nine years before he wrote “Rothschild’s Fiddle,” Chekhov composed a shorter, sharper story, “Sorrow,” about a sour man coming to rue–too late–the way he has led his life and the way he treated his wife.
A Chekhov Circus 