Doctors and kind relations will succeed in stupefying mankind, in making mediocrity pass for genius and in bringing civilization to ruin. Kovrin is a gifted man, well-educated. Following advice of his doctor, he decides to leave his busy city lifestyle and travels to recover his health in a beautiful family country estate. There he meets this mystical and prophetic Black Monk, a character from an ancient legend, which he thought was nothing more than a hallucination. The Black Monk ignites intellectual stimulation, greatly improves Kovrin’s mental faculties for a while, and engages him in discussions about eternal life, truth, philosophy, and even fame. What the Monk says to him flatters, not his vanity, but his whole soul, his whole being. Kovrin begins to experience moments of greatness with each Black Monk encounter. Then his doctors and kind relations succeed in curing his illness and a terrible accident happens.
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Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), the author of hundreds of short stories and several plays, is regarded by many as both the greatest Russian storyteller and the father of modern drama. He described the Russian life of his time using a deceptively simple technique devoid of obtrusive literary devices, thereby becoming the prominent representative of the late nineteenth-century Russian realist school. His early stream-of-consciousness style strongly influenced the literary world, including writers such as James Joyce.
Max Bollinger was born in Russia, grew up in Ukraine, and moved to England in 1993. He currently resides in London.