"Another Man's Wife and a Husband Under the Bed" (, ''Chuzhaya zhena i muzh pod krovatyu'') is an 1848 short story by
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...
.
Background
The story originated from two separate pieces: "Another Man's Wife" and "A Jealous Husband" (published in 1848 in the journal ''Notes of the Fatherland''). In preparing the 1859 two-volume collected works, the writer combined both in one story — "Another Man’s Wife and a Husband Under the Bed". The first part only slightly changed certain lines, while the second part is more significantly altered.
In his story, Dostoevsky utilized some techniques of the
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
genre, in particular the construction of the dialogues, replete with puns. The title of the story, too, resembles popular titles of the vaudeville of 1830-1840s (e.g.,
Fyodor Koni's 1834 ''Husband in the Fire, While His Wife On a Visit''). Dostoevsky continued to use these techniques in future works (for example, in "
Uncle's Dream"). Subsequently, Dostoevsky gave a different, deeply psychological interpretation of the theme of the deceived husband, in the story ''
The Eternal Husband'' (1870).
Adaptations
The story has been repeatedly reworked for the stage, for example:
*1900 - W. Stromilov ("Jealous Husband")
*1912 - S. Antimonov ("Somebody else's wife and a husband under the bed")
The story was made into
a film in 1984, directed by
Vitaly Melnikov.
References
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