The duel

A modern-day Hamlet, Laevsky enjoys blaming his issues on the corrupting influence of his time and civilization. Van Koren, on the other hand, believes strongly in the survival of the fittest. When the two of them become tangled in a game of infidelity, debts, and deception, it is not long until a physical duel ensues. A complex tale of transformation, human fragility and forgiveness, it was adapted to screen as a historical drama in 2010. A prolific writer of seven plays, a novel and hundreds of short stories, Anton Chekhov (1860 -1904) is considered to be a master of the short story as a genre. His detailed and often miserable descriptions of everyday Russian life speak to his own experiences, and his characters drift between humour, melancholy, artistic ambition and death, no matter their storyline. In his plays, he tends to dramatize and explore social and existential problems, whilst his short stories focus more on the horror present in everyday life, and the mystery that cloaks monotony. The majority of his popular plays, such as 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Seagull', and 'A Hunting Accident' have been adapted into movies, giving fans of his literature a fresh avenue to explore his perspectives.