Preference

Reading notes

• Trouble §12 played preference

  Preferans, a popular 19th-century Russian trick-taking card game usually played for small stakes -- an unremarkable evening pastime that Chekhov uses to underline how, on the surface, Avdeyev's night still looks perfectly ordinary right up to the moment he comes home to the aftermath of the search.

• Two Letters §10 preference

  A popular 19th-century Russian trick-taking card game, often played for small stakes among acquaintances, as here between the uncle and Murdashevich.

• Over Some Apples §1 preference

  A popular 19th-century Russian trick-taking card game, often played for money; a byword for idle gentry gambling.