title: Ivanov
author:  Anton Chekhov 
description: "A master playwright whose plays return repeatedly to the past as part of his ceaseless search for meaning in a bewildering universe while demonstrating farcical cleverness alongside profound humanity."
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  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # The Grasshopper
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Anton Chekhov
  
  
  ##### Translated by Constance Garnett
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  I
  
  
  II
  
  
  III
  
  
  IV
  
  
  V
  
  
  VI
  
  
  VII
  
  
  VIII
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### I
  
  
  
  
  
    
  ALL Olga Ivanovna's friends and acquaintances were at her
  
  
  wedding.
  
  
    
  "Look at him; isn't it true that there is something in him?" she
  
  
  said to her friends, with a nod towards her husband, as though she
  
  
  wanted to explain why she was marrying a simple, very ordinary, and in
  
  
  no way remarkable man.
  
  
    
  Her husband, Osip Stepanitch Dymov, was a doctor, and only of
  
  
  the rank of a titular councillor. He was on the staff of two hospitals:
  
  
  in one a ward-surgeon and in the other a dissecting demonstrator.
  
  
  Every day from nine to twelve he saw patients and was busy in his
  
  
  ward, and after twelve o'clock he went by tram to the other hospital,
  
  
  where he dissected. His private practice was a small one, not worth
  
  
  mor