Anna on the Neck

Characters

• Anna (Anyuta) — a young official’s wife: A poor young woman who quickly learns the power of her beauty.
• Modest Alexeitch — an official and Anna’s husband: A self-satisfied older husband hungry for rank.
• Pyotr Leontyitch — Anna’s father, a schoolmaster: A teacher of penmanship and drawing who took to drink after his wife died; Anna married for his sake and the boys’.
• Artynov — a rich landowner: A pop-eyed Don Juan who pays hundreds at the charity bazaar and afterwards drives Anna out hunting.
• His Excellency — a high dignitary: Modest Alexeitch’s chief, whose joke about the three Annas gives the story its title.
• Petya — Anna’s brother, a schoolboy: A thin, pale boy who takes the decanter away from his father.
• Andrusha — Anna’s brother, a schoolboy: The other brother, who holds his father by the arm in the street: “Don’t, father, don’t.”
• the huge officer — an officer in epaulettes: Anna’s unwilling partner in the mazurka, who ends by surrendering to her charm.
• the elderly lady — His Excellency’s wife: A lady with an oddly heavy jaw who hands the charity booth over to Anna.