A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

“In the Cart” is an 1897 story by Anton Chekhov. Marya, a middle-aged provincial schoolteacher, goes on a trip to collect her salary on a sunny but muddy spring day. She is being drive in the cart of the story’s title by a peasant named Semyon.

Marya is proud, lonely, and bored by her job. She does not regard teaching children with any idealism, but only sees it as drudgery. She has fallen low in the world, having grown up in Moscow in a privileged family; her parents are gone, her mother having died when she was young. She has fallen out of touch with her brother—her only remaining family—and her memories of the past are vague.

In the middle of her journey, Marya crosses paths with Hanov, in his own cart. Hanov is a distant acquaintance of hers, a wealthy middle-aged bachelor. Although handsome, he is also hapless and weak. He drinks too much, and is little involved in local affairs. Though she knows all this about him, Marya still speculates about him as a romantic partner. She imagines moving into his house and instilling peace and order into his life, but her thoughts keep returning to the mundane concerns of her job.