ABSTRACT
. . .A great work is known by its power to provoke parallels, even unhappy ones. A gifted colleague has found a resemblance between these three sisters and their brother to the BrontË girls and Branwell. But surely the likeness is superficial? Chekhov's young women cry for Moscow as other people cry for the moon, whereas to the BrontËs there was no horizon beyond Haworth's. In the end Chekhov's Andrey pushes a perambulator; Branwell ended by pushing open once too often the doors of the public-house. No! If a parallel is to be sought in English life or literature it can only be with the family of Mr. Bennet. It astonishes even me who make it, how little far is the cry here! Nobody at this time of day is going to rehearse the plot of ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ though it would be rank intellectual snobbery to pretend that everybody remembers what Chekhov's play is about. Let me say, then, that one at least of the many things lying near its core is the havoc wrought in the sisters’ hearts when the brigade leaves that small provincial Russian town. Alas! that Masha cannot follow her Vershinin as Lydia Bennet followed the ----shire Militia to Brighton! The reader will probably recall Mr. Bennet's reflection that at Brighton his daughter would be of less importance ‘even as a common flirt than she has been here - the officers will find women better worth their notice.’
