The Duel
The Duel is a novella by Anton Chekhov originally published in 1891.
The novel begins with Ivan Andreitch Laevsky, a Russian aristocrat who ran away with a married woman - Nadezhda Fyodorovna. The problem is that she has affairs with other men and he thinks of leaving her.
He receives a letter informing him that her husband has died but he does not tell her, since he thinks it would be an invitation to marry him.
Laevsky is friends with a doctor named Alexander Daviditch Samoylenko, who urges Laevsky to marry Nadezhda. Laevsky says he can't get married because he's not in love but he can't leave her either since she has no family or money and depends on him to survive. Samoylenko tells him to give him enough money to live on. Laevsky, however, says that he has a debt of 2000 rubles and that he cannot afford to do it...
To create this digital edition of the book we have used Constance Garnett's translation.
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Public domain (US)·No sign-up·DRM-free·Real text, not scans
Copyright note. The Duel by Anton Chekhov is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading The Duel in PDF or EPUB.
- Pages
- 119
- Reading time
- 3 hours 24 minutes
- Pace
- Intermediate
- First published
- 1891
- Language
- Russian
- Downloads
- 2,111
135 years later, still timely
Why Read The Duel in 2026?
Chekhov compresses jealousy, pride, and ethics into a taut argument that refuses melodrama. Every character is smart enough to be dangerous, and the setting amplifies moral weather. It is a clinic in how people rationalize harm.
Today's connection
Conflict escalates quickly online and off. This novella models de-escalation, accountability, and the courage to puncture rituals of honor.
Honor examined
Tradition weighed against sense.
Empathy muscles
Understand before condemning.
Self-deception
Catch the lies we tell ourselves.
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About the author
Anton Chekhov
Short forms of human truth; restraint, detail, and sudden light.
If this one stays with you…
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Jacob's RoomVirginia Woolf
The Brothers KaramazovFyodor Dostoevsky
UlyssesJames Joyce
From The Duel
Everyone has the same God; only people differ.
I am for her an indispensable, integral part of her boudoir.
I am a zoologist or a sociologist, which is the same thing.
The humane studies of which you speak will only satisfy human thought when, as they advance, they meet the exact sciences and progress side by side with them. Whether they will meet under a new microscope, or in the new monologues of a new Hamlet, or in a new religion, I do not know, but I expect the Earth will be covered in a crust of ice before it comes to pass.
And the man who seeks salvation in change of place like a migrating bird would find nothing anywhere, for all the world is alike to him.