The Black Monk Sleepy-eye
(Anton Chekhov)
"The legend, the mirage, myself... everything is a product of your excited imagination. I am a ghost." That's how the Black Monk introduced himself. Kovrin recognised him: it was the ghostly figure of the mysterious legend that dominated his thoughts in those last days. Instead of terrified, the Black Monk aroused happiness in him. The outside world, for the first time, was alive. Unheard of for scholar like him, for whom the entire life was found in thoughts, in books. The encounters of Kovrin with the Black Monk occurred at the Pessotskis' house. Iegor, a man dedicated to the arts of gardening and his only daughter Tania (for whom Kovrin nurtured a special affection), friends considered by him as the only family he had ever known in his life. That season breathing pure country air was imposed to Kovrin by doctor's recommendation to treat a nervous breakdown. With the Black Monk, Kovrin recovers his health and goes beyone, knowing complete happiness. Existencial questionings also emerge, like: could a man be completely happy or was it, once again, just his imagination? If the knowledge of happiness came with craziness, why be healed? These and other questionings are themes of debates between the Black Monk and Kovrin, allowing the scholar to project his personal conflicts through the Black Monk's vision. Anton Tchekhov illustrates brilliantly the conflicts within the Russian society of the 19th century, mainly concerning the mystical references and the mysteries of the mind, and also his own existencial conflicts in this simple and, also because of that, refined novel. The Black Monk is a work that doesn't need any finishing touches. Its brief pages reveal all the genius of one of the greatest Russian authors of all times.
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