Ariadne (Chekhov)
Short summary
On a steamer from Odessa to Sevastopol, a gentleman named Ivan Ilyitch Shamohin approached the narrator and began discussing how Russians always talk about women. He then shared his own love story.
Shamohin fell in love with his neighbor's sister, Ariadne Kotlovitch. He idealized her beauty and character, while she dreamed of wealth and status. Though she pretended to love him, she was cold and calculating.
Their relationship changed when Lubkov, a charming married man, entered their lives. Ariadne and Lubkov began spending time together, planning a trip to Italy. When Shamohin discovered Lubkov's love letter to Ariadne,
I felt as though a sharp stone had been turned round in my chest. There was no uncertainty now; it was all clear to me. I turned cold all over, and at once made a resolution to give up seeing them, to run away from them...
Despite his resolution, Shamohin later received a letter from Ariadne in Italy claiming she was unhappy. He joined them, discovered she and Lubkov were lovers, but still became her lover after Lubkov left. They traveled through Europe, with Ariadne manipulating and deceiving everyone. Eventually, they returned to Russia, where Shamohin resigned himself to marrying her out of honor, though his love had died.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Meeting on the steamer deck and introduction to Shamohin
On the deck of a steamer sailing from Odessa to Sevastopol, a good-looking gentleman with a little round beard approached the narrator to smoke and strike up a conversation. The gentleman remarked that when Russians gather, they invariably discuss women and abstract subjects, unlike Germans or Englishmen who talk about practical matters.
The narrator recognized this man from their shared train journey the previous evening, where he had seen him with a lady companion at customs in Volotchisk. The gentleman introduced himself as Ivan Ilyitch Shamohin, a Moscow landowner, and began to share his story.
Shamohins reflections on Russian character and women
Shamohin explained that Russians tend to discuss abstract subjects and women because they are dissatisfied idealists. He argued that Russians take an exalted view of women, expecting more than reality can provide, which leads to disappointment and suffering.
We take too ideal a view of women, and make demands out of all proportion with what reality can give us; we get something utterly different from what we want, and the result is dissatisfaction, shattered hopes, and inward suffering.
He continued that Russians idealize love and marriage, despising unions without love. However, after two or three years of marriage or intimacy, they become disillusioned, believing women to be lying, trivial, and inferior to men. Shamohin noted that while he praised Russian idealism, he did not disparage foreigners. The narrator sensed that Shamohin wanted to talk about himself rather than women in general, and that he was about to hear a confession.
Shamohins introduction to Ariadne and her family
Shamohin began his love story, set in the northern district of Moscow province. He described his family's beautiful homestead on the bank of a rapid stream, with a garden, beehives, and a dark pine forest nearby. As the only son, he lived modestly with his father on the income from their estate and his father's pension.
After finishing university, Shamohin spent three years in the country managing the estate. During this time, he fell in love with his neighbor's sister, Ariadne Kotlovitch. Her brother was a ruined landowner who grew exotic fruits and had lightning conductors on his estate despite having no money. Kotlovitch practiced homeopathy and was interested in spiritualism.
When Shamohin met Ariadne, she was twenty-two and had spent several years in Moscow with a wealthy aunt who introduced her to society. He was immediately struck by her rare and beautiful name, which suited her perfectly. Ariadne was a brunette, thin, elegant, and graceful, with refined features and shining eyes that reflected her youth and pride.
Falling in love with Ariadne
Shamohin was completely captivated by Ariadne from their first meeting. Everything about her filled him with delight and a hunger for life. He judged her spiritual qualities based on her physical beauty, believing that even her faults carried charming qualities.
I judged of her spiritual being from her lovely face and lovely figure, and every word, every smile of Ariadne's bewitched me, conquered me and forced me to believe in the loftiness of her soul.
Ariadne had extravagant desires that often reduced the household to despair, but she expressed them with such refinement that all was forgiven. Shamohin's love was obvious to everyone - his father, neighbors, and even the peasants, who would toast to her becoming his bride when he gave them vodka.
My love was pathetic and was soon noticed by everyone... When I stood the workmen vodka, they would bow and say: 'May the Kotlovitch young lady be your bride, please God!'
Ariadne knew of Shamohin's feelings and often visited him and his father. She became great friends with the old man, who taught her to bicycle. Shamohin's love and worship touched Ariadne, softening her and creating in her a desire to be captivated and respond with equal love.
However, Shamohin came to realize that Ariadne was incapable of loving as he did. She was cold and somewhat corrupted, constantly hearing a demon whispering that she was enchanting and adorable. With no clear purpose in life, she only imagined herself wealthy and distinguished in the future, surrounded by counts, princes, and ambassadors who adored her.
She had no definite idea for what object she was created, or for what purpose life had been given her, she never pictured herself in the future except as very wealthy and distinguished, she had visions of balls, races, liveries...
Meanwhile, Ariadne's financial situation worsened, and she regretted having refused a proposal from Prince Maktuev while in Moscow. Though she disdained the memory of the prince, she would remark on the fascination of a title. Despite her dreams of ambassadors, she did not want to let Shamohin go and tried to convince him she loved him, though he sensed her coldness.
Lubkovs appearance and his influence on Ariadne
The situation changed when Ariadne's brother received a visit from an old university friend, Mihail Ivanitch Lubkov. He was a charming man of medium height, lean and bald, with a face like a good-natured bourgeois. Lubkov was always in good spirits, finding amusement in everything.
Lubkov had made a foolish marriage at twenty and was now financially ruined. His wife and four children lived in poverty in Moscow, while his conceited mother lived separately with many pets. He needed to support both households but had little money, constantly borrowing from others, which also amused him. He had come to Kotlovitch to find rest from family life.
In Lubkov's company, their activities changed. While Shamohin preferred quiet pleasures like fishing and gathering mushrooms, Lubkov organized picnics three times a week. Ariadne would write lists of luxurious foods and send Shamohin to Moscow to buy them, regardless of whether he had money. At these gatherings, Lubkov would make merry descriptions of his old wife, his mother's fat lapdogs, and his charming creditors.
Lubkov once remarked that he had noticed Ariadne liked Shamohin and couldn't understand why Shamohin didn't pursue her. When Shamohin explained his idealistic view of women, Lubkov dismissed it, saying that poetry was one thing and love another, just as the beauty of nature was separate from the income from forests or fields.
Ariadne and Lubkovs departure and subsequent summons to Italy
One day, Kotlovitch, who had read one of Lubkov's letters to Ariadne, approached Shamohin in distress. The letter revealed that Ariadne planned to go abroad with Lubkov, who had made a declaration of love to her despite being married with children. Shamohin was devastated by this news.
After a sleepless night contemplating suicide, Shamohin took money from his father and left for the Caucasus without saying goodbye. He reflected on love, arguing that in civilized people, physical attraction had evolved into something more spiritual, and that poeticizing love, even if it led to mistakes and miseries, was better than reducing it to mere animal instinct.
Upon returning home in autumn, Shamohin learned that Ariadne had gone abroad. She sent his father literary letters on scented paper, describing in detail her efforts to secure money for the journey and find an elderly relative as a chaperone. Shamohin realized these details were fiction and that she had no chaperone.
Soon Shamohin received letters from Ariadne herself, saying she missed him and signing as "Your forsaken Ariadne" and "Your forgotten Ariadne." Confused and tortured by uncertainty, he eventually went abroad when she summoned him to Abbazzia.
Life with Ariadne in Italy
Arriving in Abbazzia on a bright day after rain, Shamohin found Ariadne and Lubkov were out. He waited in the park, observing the tourists and military band. He was disappointed by Abbazzia, finding it a filthy little town with only one street that stank. The beautiful bay view was spoiled by hotels and buildings in an absurd style of architecture.
When Ariadne appeared, elegantly dressed, she greeted Shamohin joyfully, pressing his hands and laughing. She asked about the village, his father, and whether he had seen her brother. The next day, she introduced him to a Russian family as "the son of a distinguished professor whose estate is next to ours," talking only about estates and crops to appear wealthy.
Later, Ariadne confessed to Shamohin that she had lied about having an aunt with her, as the Russian family must not know she was without a chaperone. She also asked Shamohin to be friends with Lubkov, describing him as unhappy with his awful wife and mother.
Shamohin noted that Ariadne used formal address with Lubkov and said goodnight to him exactly as she did to Shamohin, with their rooms on different floors. This gave him hope that there was no love affair between them, and he even lent Lubkov three hundred roubles when asked.
Their days were spent in leisure - strolling in the park, eating, and drinking. They traveled to Venice, Bologna, and Florence, staying at expensive hotels where they were charged separately for everything. They ate enormous meals and rushed between museums and exhibitions, concerned only with not being late for meals. Overfed and unappreciative, they noticed only the most glaring objects and bought useless trinkets.
In Rome, where it rained and was cold, they visited St. Peter's after a heavy lunch but were unimpressed. When Shamohin went to collect money sent by his father, Lubkov accompanied him and revealed that he and Ariadne were lovers, complaining about the expense of hiding their relationship from servants and friends.
The true nature of Ariadne revealed
Shocked by this revelation, Shamohin gave Lubkov the money he requested and resolved to leave immediately. When he went to say goodbye to Ariadne, he found her room in morning disorder, with tea things on the table and an unmade bed where two had clearly slept. Ariadne, who had just gotten out of bed, was in a flannel dressing gown with her hair down.
When Shamohin asked why she had summoned him to Italy, she took his hand and said, "I want you to be here, you are so pure." Ashamed of his emotion, he left without another word and was on a train within an hour. Throughout the journey, he imagined Ariadne pregnant, which made her seem disgusting to him, as did all women he saw at stations.
Returning home to deep snow and twenty degrees of frost, Shamohin found winter evenings particularly long and quiet without family. Previously uninterested in visitors, he now welcomed them because they might talk about Ariadne. Kotlovitch often came to discuss his sister, sometimes bringing Prince Maktuev, who was as much in love with Ariadne as Shamohin had been.
In spring, when Shamohin was busy with farm work, he received a letter from Italy. Ariadne wrote that she was profoundly unhappy and reproached him for not helping her in her moment of danger. She begged him to come save her. Shamohin went to Rome, where Ariadne sobbed and threw herself on his neck when she saw him.
Ariadne told him that Lubkov was "loathsome and disgusting" to her, claiming she had never loved him but had only been attracted to his insolence. Lubkov had gone to Russia to get money, and she had borrowed about five thousand francs from acquaintances. Shamohin's arrival was her salvation.
Though Shamohin had planned to take Ariadne back to the country, she refused, saying she would die of boredom there. Instead, she begged him to love her, and he became her lover. For about a month, he was rapturous, but gradually realized that Ariadne did not love him. She was merely afraid of solitude and was attracted to his youth and vigor.
Return to Russia and final reflections
As they traveled through Italy and later Paris, they introduced themselves as wealthy landowners and husband and wife. Ariadne had social success everywhere and claimed to be an artist, though she had no talent. She slept late, ate extravagantly, and was constantly deceitful in all her interactions.
The chief, so to say fundamental, characteristic of the woman was an amazing duplicity. She was continually deceitful every minute, apparently apart from any necessity, as it were by instinct, by an impulse such as makes the sparrow chirrup.
Ariadne had an extraordinary opinion of her own charms and wanted to enchant and captivate men daily. Shamohin's subjection was not enough for her, and at night she would read passionate letters from Lubkov, who threatened to rob or murder someone to get money to join her. Though she hated him, his slavish letters excited her.
Their extravagant lifestyle required a great deal of money. Shamohin's father sent his pension and borrowed wherever he could to support them. When Shamohin groaned at the expense of satisfying Ariadne's mad desires, she would sing "Addio bella Napoli" with a light heart.
Eventually, Shamohin grew cold toward Ariadne and ashamed of their relationship. He began reading and visiting museums, eating less, and keeping himself in hand. Ariadne also grew bored and, after corresponding zealously with her brother, announced that she might not be against returning to Russia. However, they were going to Yalta and then the Caucasus, not to the country.
Of course, all attraction is over; there is no trace left of my old love, but, however that may be, I am bound in honour to marry her.
After finishing his story, Shamohin continued discussing women with the narrator. He was a passionate misogynist, arguing that educated women had fallen behind men and were returning to a primitive state. When the narrator objected that women's struggle for education and equality contradicted this view, Shamohin dismissed it, claiming women only pretended to care about emancipation but were actually cunning and only interested in possessing men.
The next morning, as they approached Sevastopol, the narrator saw a beautiful young lady - the same one who had been angry with customs officers at Volotchisk - approach Shamohin and call him "Jean," saying her "birdie" had been seasick. Later in Yalta, the narrator saw this lady riding with officers and sketching on the seafront. When introduced to her, she thanked him effusively for the pleasure his writings had given her, though Shamohin whispered that she had never read them.
Finally, the narrator met Shamohin on the seafront carrying parcels of fruits and delicacies. Shamohin joyfully announced that Prince Maktuev had arrived with Ariadne's brother. He expressed hope that if Ariadne "hit it off" with the prince, he would be free to return to the country with his father. The narrator left Yalta the next day, never learning how Shamohin's story ended.