A man decides to become a manservant to a wealthy St Petersburg official. But this man has a secret and an ulterior motive for working in the house of this specific official…
I’ve never read any Anton Chekhov until now and maybe I should’ve started with one of his more famous plays because The Story of a Nobody was… no bueno.
It took me a while to get through this novella and that’s because it’s so easy to put down, either out of boredom or because you’ve nodded off! Our narrator barely does anything for the most part, only acting slightly towards the end and even then what he does doesn’t really enlighten the reader as to what he was trying to do and why. His motives are vague at best, whether intentionally or not, and so it’s hard to really root for him.
Meanwhile, the wafer-thin story focuses on the one-sided romance between the St Petersburg official Orlov and a young woman called Zinaida, who falls for Orlov and leaves her husband to be with him. Orlov is fickle and spurns her - she clings on pointlessly until she doesn’t. Yawn. Not sure why he couldn’t just tell her to get lost and move on. Maybe to underline his lack of character and general scumminess? Eh. How dreary.
I really didn’t know what the story was meant to be about, if anything. The “nobody” in the title could refer to any of the characters but so what? It’s a very dull, unimpressive read - disappointing considering Chekhov’s reputation. Then again, maybe his plays and more famous short stories are the ones to read rather than this one - I definitely wouldn’t recommend anyone interested in checking out Chekhov to pick up The Non-Story of a Nobody.
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