The Beggar Audiobook By Anton Chekhov cover art

The Beggar

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

Prime logo Prime members? New to Audible? You receive a 2 month trial instead.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options

The Beggar

By: Anton Chekhov
Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $4.15

Buy for $4.15

This is a story from the In the Ravine and Other Stories collection.

Anton Chekhov, one of the finest masters of what is acknowledged as a difficult genre. There is the richly comic "Oh! The Public" about a hassled ticket inspector, a wry look at morals and manners in "The Chorus Girl", and the melancholic tale of a cab driver in "Misery".

Perhaps the finest of all is the novella "In The Ravine", a minutely observed look at life in a village through the eyes of one family. All the characters come to life with their foibles, their strengths, and their hopes. Kenneth Branagh uses his natural talent for characterisation to bring this village to life.

The other short stories in this collection are: "The Trousseau", "A Story Without a Title", "Children", "Fat and Thin", "The Beggar", "Hush!", "The Orator", and "An Actor's End".

Public Domain (P)2002 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism Russian & Soviet World Literature Short Story Village
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Editorial reviews

Skvortsov, a comfortably middle-class man, is approached by Lushkov, a beggar, who tells him a sad tale in order to gain his sympathy. Recognizing Lushkov as someone who has previously told him a different story, Skvortsov scolds the beggar for his lies and decides to put him on a more respectable path by hiring him to chop wood. Renowned actor Kenneth Branagh captures Skvortsov's simple self-righteousness, contrasting it with Lushkov's voice, which at first brims with pathos, then defensiveness and self-pity, and finally, a sober honesty that punctures Skvortsov's assumptions. Branagh's performance is paced deliberately - his use of pauses and hesitation lends immediacy to the story.

Critic reviews

"If you want an outstanding reading, in which the narrator's voice brilliantly conveys the speaker's class and the intricate relationships between characters during conversations, you can do no better than to listen to Kenneth Branagh. This great actor mesmerizes as he gasps, chuckles, stutters, and declaims. A must listen." ( AudioFile)
All stars
Most relevant
Different voices of 2 main characters are too similar ; difficult to tell which man is speaking

Similar voices

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.