For a reader attempting to dig through the entire 13 volumes of Constance Garnett’s translations of Chekhov’s stories and novellas, “Three Years” is an extraordinarily satisfying conclusion to the first volume. A novella, it is not only the best and richest story in the volume, it also touches on many of the themes and motifs of the other stories: country doctors, young artists, a fabrics business, discussions of Russia’s poverty, even specific details, like going for a ride in a three-horse sledge.
Rich as it is, “Three Years” is very simple in its structure: It is the story of a man, Laptev, and the woman who becomes his wife, Yulia. The three years of the title encompass their meeting, their marriage, their struggles and their dissatisfactions with each other. Temptation and tragedy threaten their young marriage: Will it survive?
I’ll try not to spoil things here, but suffice it to say the tale ends on what I can only call a Chekhovian note.
Really, “Three Years” is not a story or even a novella, but more of a short novel. It encompasses multiple worlds — the provincial town where Laptev meets and incompetently courts Yulia, the daughter of a local doctor; the Laptev family’s dreary fabric wholesale business, where the employees are virtual serfs; and the social world that Laptev and Yulia inhabit when he is not working, which is most of the time.
More than any other tale in Volume One, this one struck me as the author uncovering characters as he wrote, and following them through time as he understood their personalities and the world they lived in. After some 150 pages inhabiting their lives and consciousnesses, he seems to have grown sufficiently fond of them (or at least sympathetic) that he could not deliver a strictly tragic ending; but his deep understanding of their lives precludes a simple happy ending, as well. So what we get is a complex, multifaceted conclusion that, while inconclusive, is highly satisfying.
This is a really gorgeous piece of writing.
Many of the details of this novella are taken from Chekhov’s own life—the family fabric business is clearly modeled on the one that Chekhov’s father, Pavel, worked in during his time in Moscow. Like the one in the story, the actual business was a miserable place, but Pavel stuck with it for years—having failed as a businessman and having had to flee his home in Taganrog to escape his creditors, Pavel was essentially willing to put up with anything that promised steady pay.
Meanwhile, Chekhov clearly modeled Laptev on his own life–like Chekhov, Laptev is a mere generation separated from serfdom, and finds himself leading a cosmopolitan life in Moscow that feels somehow not quite his own.
READ THIS? READ THAT!
In terms of delivering a nuanced conclusion, “Three Years” is interesting to read in parallel with Chekhov’s most famous story, “The Lady with the Dog.” Both of these stories end with a sort of upward flourish–love, somehow, will save the day… maybe?
A Chekhov Circus 