{"id":114605,"date":"2017-08-28T13:37:31","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T17:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=114605"},"modified":"2017-08-28T13:43:40","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T17:43:40","slug":"a-case-of-mania-grandiosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/28\/a-case-of-mania-grandiosa\/","title":{"rendered":"A Case of Mania Grandiosa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A textile design by Varvara Stepanova, 1924.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

That civilization, in addition to its benefits, has also brought humanity terrible harm, no one now doubts. Doctors especially insist on it, not unreasonably locating in progress <\/em>the source of those nervous disorders which have been observed with such frequency throughout the past decades. In America and Europe, one encounters everywhere all sorts of nervous illness, starting with common neuralgia and ending in serious psychosis. I myself have observed cases of serious psychosis, the causes of which should be sought only in civilization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I know one retired captain, a former police commissioner, who has been driven mad by the idea that \u201cassemblies are prohibited.\u201d So, just because assemblies are prohibited, he had his forest property razed, won\u2019t dine with his family, doesn\u2019t let the peasants\u2019 cattle onto his land, et cetera. When he was once invited to vote, he exclaimed:\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t you know that assemblies are prohibited?\u201d<\/p>\n

One retired sergeant, sent into exile, it seems, for honesty or for bribery (I don\u2019t remember which), has lost his mind on the subject of incarceration: \u201cYou\u2019re booked, brother!\u201d He traps cats, dogs, and chickens in a trunk and holds them captive for set periods. He\u2019s got roaches, bedbugs, and spiders serving sentences in bottles. When he has money, he walks around the village and hires anyone willing to be arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet booked, ducky,\u201d he pleads. \u201cWhat have you got to lose? I\u2019ll let you out, give me some credit!\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding a volunteer, he locks him up, guards him day and night, and lets him loose no earlier than the end of his term.<\/p>\n

My uncle, the quartermaster, eats rotten bread crusts and wears cardboard soles. He generously rewards those of his servants who emulate him.<\/p>\n

My brother-in-law, the tax collector, is mad regarding the notion that: \u201cReforms\u2014rubbish!\u201d Some time ago he was reprimanded in the newspapers for extortion, and this\u00a0became the pretext for his insanity. He subscribes to nearly all the Moscow papers, but not to read them. In each edition, he searches for the \u201cdisgraceful;\u201d discovering such, he arms himself with a colored pencil and marks it up. Having marked up the entire newspaper, he gives it to the coachmen for cigarette papers, and feels quite well until the next edition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Translated from the Russian by Elina\u00a0Alter.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Alter is a writer and translator in New York. Look for her translations of Chekhov sketches each day this week on the<\/i>\u00a0Daily.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  That civilization, in addition to its benefits, has also brought humanity terrible harm, no one now doubts. Doctors especially insist on it, not unreasonably locating in progress the source of those nervous disorders which have been observed with such frequency throughout the past decades. In America and Europe, one encounters everywhere all sorts of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[4738,30317,26692,20454,15291,5797,30316,8902,12889,30315,24936,8802,530],"class_list":["post-114605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-anton-chekhov","tag-bribery","tag-civilization","tag-imprisonment","tag-insanity","tag-moscow","tag-nervous-disorders","tag-prison","tag-progress","tag-psychosis","tag-reform","tag-russian","tag-translation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChekhov On: A Case of Mania Grandiosa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chekhov blames \u201cmodern\u201d civilization for our psychoses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/28\/a-case-of-mania-grandiosa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Case of Mania Grandiosa by Anton Chekhov\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 28, 2017 \u2013   That civilization, in addition to its benefits, has also brought humanity terrible harm, no one now doubts. 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