''The Steppe: The Story of a Journey'' (russian: Степь. История одной поездки, translit=Step'. Istoriya odnoy poyezdki) is a

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

by Russian writer

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

. In a narrative that drifts with the thought processes of the characters, Chekhov evokes a

chaise A one-horse chaise A three-wheeled "Handchaise", Germany, around 1900, designed to be pushed by a person A chaise, sometimes called chay or shay, is a light two- or four-wheeled traveling or pleasure carriage for one or two people with a folding ...

journey across the steppe through the eyes of a young boy sent to live away from home, along with several companions, including his parish priest and his uncle, a merchant.

Publication

The novella was first published in March 1888 by ''

Severny Vestnik ''Severny Vestnik'' (russian: Се́верный ве́стник, en, The Northern Messenger) was an influential Russian literary magazine founded in Saint Petersburg in 1885 by Anna Yevreinova, who stayed with it until 1889. History In the ea ...

''. With minor changes it was included in the ''Stories'' (Рассказы, 1888) to be reproduced unchanged in all its 13 editions (1889–1899). In a revised version it was included by Chekhov into Volume 4 of his Collected Works published in 1899–1901 by

Adolf Marks Adolf Fyodorovich Marx (russian: Адо́льф Фёдорович Маркс; 2 February 1838 – ), last name also spelled Marcks and recently Marks, known as A. F. Marx, was an influential 19th-century German publisher in Russia best known fo ...

.Muratova, K. D. Commentaries to Степь. The Works by A.P. Chekhov in 12 volumes.

Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Khudozhestvennaya Literatura (russian: Художественная литература) is a publishing house in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The name means "fiction literature" in Russian. It specializes in the publishing of Russian and foreign wor ...

. Moscow, 1960. Vol. 6, pp. 524-525

Background

In 1887, exhausted from overwork and ill health, Chekhov took a trip to

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, which reawakened him to the beauty and vastness of the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

."There is a scent of the steppe and one hears the birds sing. I see my old friends the ravens flying over the steppe." Letter to sister Masha, 2 April 1887
''Letters of Anton Chekhov''.
/ref> On his return, he began the novella-length short story, which he called "something rather odd and much too original", and which was eventually published in ''Severny Vestnik'' (The Northern Herald).

Reception

Michael Finke has called ''The Steppe'' a "dictionary of Chekhov's poetics", suggesting that it represented a significant advance for Chekhov, exhibiting much of the quality of his mature fiction and winning him publication in a literary journal rather than a newspaper."'The Steppe,' as Michael Finke suggests, is 'a sort of dictionary of Chekhov's poetics,' a kind of sample case of the concealed literary weapons Chekhov would deploy in his work to come." Malcolm, 147. The novella was made into a

Mosfilm Mosfilm (russian: Мосфильм, ''Mosfil’m'' ) is a film studio which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's film monopoly, its output incl ...

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

in 1978, directed by

Sergei Bondarchuk Sergei Fyodorovich Bondarchuk (russian: Сергей Фёдорович Бондарчук, ; uk, Сергі́й Федорович Бондарчук, Serhíj Fédorovych Bondarchúk; 25 September 192020 October 1994) was a Soviet and Russian ...

References

External links

Full text of the story
* Novellas by Anton Chekhov 1888 novels {{story-stub