A Fairy Tale

1 "A Fairy Tale" (1886) is a tiny satirical fable, barely more than a page long, cast in the ironic mock-dedication-plus-parable form Chekhov favored in his early comic journalism. A housefly buzzes through the rooms of a house boasting that she is a "contributor to the newspapers" – an "authoress," a "publicist" who lends "color, tone, and even direction" to the press. The household insects, duly impressed, shower her with invitations and loans, while only the spider, wary of publicity, keeps his distance. Asked what department she writes, the fly at last reveals her answer: the countless specks she has left scattered across a discarded newspaper page.

2 The piece belongs to a cluster of very short 1886 sketches in which Chekhov, then writing prolifically and pseudonymously for the popular press, turned his satire on journalism itself – on self-important scribblers who mistake mere visibility, or literal soiling of the page, for genuine authorship. The dedication "to the blockhead who boasts of his contributions to the newspapers" makes the target explicit before the fable even begins. No ethnic slurs, offensive language, or other sensitivities appear in the source; none apply to this translation.