On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco

Chekhov, Anton

Primary Category: Literature / Plays

Genre: Play

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: May-18-1997

Summary

This short dramatic monologue is in the form of a public lecture by Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin, the "husband of a wife who keeps a music school and a boarding school for girls." Nyukhin begins by indicating that his wife has insisted that he lecture today on the harmful effects of tobacco, though he himself smokes. He invites those who are not prepared for a dry, scientific lecture to leave, but then keeps postponing the topic while he talks about how forceful and dominant his wife is.

He longs "to take off this vile old frock that I wore to my wedding thirty years ago" and assert himself. Yet, he can't; his wife is waiting in the wings. At the end of the monologue, Nyukhin begs the audience not to "tell" on him: "tell her that the lecture was... that the booby, that is me, behaved with dignity."

Commentary

The original version of this monologue (1886) was one of Chekhov's very popular early farces; it was published in English for the first time in The Unknown Chekhov. The currently more well-known version (1902) illustrates the artistic development in Chekhov's later writing. This version (described here) allows the audience to glimpse the reality of Nyukhin's sad life beneath the thick layer of farce. Of course, the piece has nothing to do with the harmful effects of tobacco. Its topic is the pathos of the human comedy.

Miscellaneous

Tranlated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky.

Primary Source

The Unknown Chekhov

Publisher

Ecco

Place Published

New York

Edition

1954

Page Count

6