The Man Without a Spleen

Reading notes

• A Contract for the Year 1884, Concluded with Mankind §5 the Man Without a Spleen

  One of the young Chekhov's recurring comic bylines ("Человек без селезенки"), here cast as the notary who authenticates the contract -- a running persona rather than a real person.

• Krasnaya Gorka §69 Человек без селезенки

  'The Man Without a Spleen' -- one of the young Chekhov's own recurring comic bylines (a play on the Russian idiom for an imperturbable person), here signing off the mock 'Report' as its fictional witness/notary.

• To G. P. Kravtsov, 29 January 1883. Moscow. §15 The Man Without a Spleen

  A recurring comic byline of Chekhov's own devising -- a Russian idiom for an unflappably even-tempered person -- under which he was by this date publishing regularly in Oskolki and elsewhere.

• Letter to a Reporter §11 The Man Without a Spleen

  One of the young Chekhov's own recurring comic bylines, here signing off the squib as its purported informant -- an authorial persona, not a real correspondent.

• Instruction (from Provincial Life) §16 A Man Without a Spleen

  One of the young Chekhov's own recurring comic bylines, here cast as the humble copyist who certifies the mock document "a true copy" -- a wink from the author embedded inside his own satire.

• The Bill §12 The Man Without a Spleen

  One of the young Chekhov's own recurring comic bylines, here signing off the mock document as its notarizing witness -- a wink to readers who knew the pseudonym, not a real person.

• The Eclipse of the Moon §46 A Man Without a Spleen

  One of the young Chekhov's own comic bylines, used here to sign off the entire exchange of invented circulars -- confirming the whole piece as one more piece of paperwork, this time authored by the joke itself.

• The Bad Boy §34 Man Without a Spleen

  One of the young Chekhov's own recurring comic bylines, here signing off the mock dictionary as if it were the work of some anonymous eccentric grandee.