"The Bet" against Nihilism: The Intellectual Journey in Chekhov's Short Fiction

abstract:Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" (1889) may be considered a latter-day conte-philosophique, as a symbolic engagement with the philosophical challenges presented by nihilism and anarchism that reverberated through Russia since the 1860s. Occasionally assigned in literature classes and alluded to by political pundits, the story nonetheless has not been recognized by critics as a masterpiece of irony and existential inquiry, influenced by countervailing currents of nineteenth-century philosophy. Considered in this article in the broader context of the Chekhovian intellectual journey, the fascinating yet unsettling quest for wisdom described in "The Bet" reflects a pivotal era of the Russian elite, suspended between bourgeois indifference and philosophical recognition.