Here we have yet another story about a boy named Grisha, but this is a different Grisha from the others. Indeed, other than the “About Love” trilogy, Chekhov never reused a character. Working my way through the stories, I often wondered, “Wait, is this the same Semyon/Pelegaya/Moisey/etc.?” But it never was.
Chekhov repeatedly returned to familiar themes and setups – the doctor called to a strange new place; travelers trapped together in trains and stations; meetings of strangers in graveyards; dead bodies left to be examined. But he never used the same character in more than one story. So the Grisha in this tale has nothing to do with the Grisha we met in “The Cook’s Wedding” or the card-player in “Children.”
Like those two other stories, this one is yet another tale told through a child’s eyes, although honestly there’s not much there. Little Grisha is attended to by the servants, who are a bit careless with him. It’s easier to give him too much to eat than to turn down his requests; they even heedlessly give him a bit of wine when he asks to have it. And in the evening he is dosed with castor oil to treat his stomach ache.
Haha?
READ THIS? READ THAT!
Constance Garnett translated more than 200 of Chekhov’s stories, but that didn’t make up Chekhov’s full output. She skipped a lot of very, very short pieces, mostly stabs at humor. And she bypassed at least two longish works from early in his career, “Late-Blooming Flowers” and “The Unnecessary Victory.” But there were also dozens of stories that were a rough fit with the others that she translated. Did she make editorial judgments about them, assessing them as unfit for inclusion? Or were they simply hard to find?
I don’t know the answers to those questions but I would say that “Grisha,” like many of Chekhov’s stories about children (and animals) was not necessarily worthy of inclusion. I could definitely live without it, just as I could live without the story “Children.”
As you will see, I have pointed to “Grisha” from “Children,” and to “Children” from “Grisha.” It was my intention never to “round-trip” like this, but for these two veeeeery modest stories, I figure it can’t hurt.
A Chekhov Circus 