Chekhov’s «Пари» (“The Bet”), A Weak Story in Amidst Some Gems

Chekhov’s «Пари» (“The Bet”), first published in the newspaper New Times (Jan. 1, 1889), under the title «Сказка» (“A Fairy Tale”).

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While studying to be a doctor in Moscow, Anton Chekhov had the additional burden of supporting his whole impoverished family—father, mother, and many siblings. He managed to do this by publishing little anecdotal pieces in the popular press. These slice-of-life fictions have no pretentions to being of literary value. They were written for unsophisticated readers, to make money. But they did give him the writing practice that enabled him to later develop into a great writer.

Around 1883 or 1884 it began dawning on Chekhov that he was capable of writing genuine literary fiction, and from that point on some of the real gems of short stories began appearing. But the transition was not immediate, and he still went on writing some of the earlier-style anecdotal pieces. The story titled “The Bet” is one of these.

Aesthetically speaking, the story is not very good. It has the feel of something just dashed off, not long considered, not well written. For example, the original bet is supposed to involve whether the young man can tolerate fifteen years of imprisonment, but by the time the rules are laid down on the next page the idea of solitary confinement is added. I doubt Chekhov was aware of this in 1888, but modern psychology has determined that solitary confinement is one of the absolute worst punishments inflicted on an inmate. Anyone who is put through even a few years of total isolation from the world will go insane.

I’m surprised that Chekhov saw fit to include this flawed story in his collected works. At the time he was editing it for the collected works he decided to cut the whole third (last) chapter. The story in its final form now ends with the voluntary prisoner’s losing the bet on purpose and thereby rejecting the money he could have won.

Whether read with the third chapter included or not, the story is still weak. The third (cut) chapter describes another gathering of the banker’s friends, and once again they are mulling over philosophical issues. They argue about the value of total asceticism, and then one rich man (they all are rich this time) argues that he has never met a man who would turn down a large sum of money. The banker (main character) disagrees and they make a bet, three million this time, that such a man can, or cannot be found.

Of course the banker already knows there is such a man; he still has the note left by the prisoner—declaring his renunciation of the money he had earned through fifteen years of solitary confinement—so he figures on showing the others this note and winning the bet. But then comes a kind of deus ex machina: the original prisoner shows up, asking for money! It seems he has reevaluated his former ideas and now wishes he had won the bet and taken the money. In a word, a whole lot more silliness, but, then again, the whole story is silly.

But during the same time period that Chekhov wrote “The Bet” (1888-1889), he was also publishing some of his best long stories: “The Name-Day Party,” “A Dreary Story,” “The Duel,” and one of the shortest but absolutely unparalleled: “Gusev.”