Easter Eve
Author: Anton Chekhov
Read “Easter Eve” by Anton Chekhov in Russian and English in Bibliott on your phone and tablet.
Languages: RU, English
Genre: Essay, Historical, Short story
Free to read
On Easter Eve a narrator waits for a ferry and hears the grieving lay-brother Ieronim mourn his dead poet friend.
Characters
- the narrator — a traveller at the ferry: An observer of the Easter-night journey and Ieronim’s listener.
- Ieronim — a lay-brother working the ferry: A gentle monk left unrelieved all Easter night, grieving deeply for his friend Nikolay.
- Nikolay — the monk and deacon who wrote akathists: He died during mass; only Ieronim read his akathists, the rest of the brotherhood ignoring them.
- the peasant in the tall hat — a chance companion on the bank: He waits not for the ferry but for the illumination, and asks that a candle be lit for him.
- the archimandrite — the head of the monastery: A grey-headed man in a golden mitre; the brotherhood breaks the fast at his table.
- a young merchant’s wife — a passenger on the morning ferry: Ieronim does not take his eyes off her face for the whole crossing back.