Step-by-step explanation:
Anton Chekhov began his career writing humorous pieces for popular magazines to support himself while he studied to become a doctor. He began to take his art more seriously after the respect he gained encouraged him to begin writing fiction. Between 1888 and his death Chekhov revolutionized two narrative forms, the short story and the drama. His writing offers realistic slices of Russian life that reflect universal truths about the human condition. Literary critic Harold Bloom notes, “Chekhov, with his artist’s wisdom, teaches us implicitly that literature is a form of desire and wonder and not a form of the good.”
“Home” was originally published in 1897.
Anton Chekhov, “Home,” in The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories, trans. Constance Garnett (New York: Macmillan, 1922), 63–78. (Available through the American Libraries Collection, Internet Archive. This version offers a variety of formats for download, including the option of having it read aloud. After you decide on your format, scroll to page 63 within the text for the story.)
Print: Anton Chekhov, Early Short Stories 1883–1888, trans. Constance Garnett (New York: Modern Library, 1999), 352–361.
For the purposes of this exercise, “Home” has been be broken up into five excerpts. The first and last sentence of each excerpt is given below, along with a link to a downloadable PDF containing the whole excerpt in addition to the complete short story.
Within each excerpt section below are also vocabulary words and their definitions, as well as questions relating to that particular section of the text. Be sure to refer back to the excerpted passage/full story to provide evidence for your answers.
You are encouraged to read the entire story before beginning this activity. [Note: British English spellings and editorial variations appear in this translation.]
There are optional summative writing activities at the end of the story to challenge you further.
[Note to the Teacher*]
Excerpt 1.
“Someone came from the Grigoryevs' to fetch a book, but I said you were not at home.” Continues through: “For people who are forced for whole hours, and even days, to think by routine in one direction, such free private thinking affords a kind of comfort, an agreeable solace.”