The Bet
Encyclopedia
The Bet is an 1889
short story by Anton Chekhov
about a banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other about whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. The story has a twist ending.
“The Bet” is the story of a bet that stakes a banker's two million rubles against fifteen years of a young lawyer's life. As the story opens, the banker is recalling the occasion of the bet fifteen years before. Guests at a party that he was hosting that day fell into a discussion of capital punishment; the banker argued that capital punishment is more humane than life imprisonment, while the young lawyer disagreed, insisting that he would choose life in prison rather than death the bet was on and the lawyer cast himself into isolation for fifteen years.
The list of things the Lawyer did while imprisoned each year:
Year 1: Read entertaining books, played the piano
Years 2–4: Read the classics; no piano
Year 5: Read no books, drank wine, ate, listened to music, cried, and often wrote but tore everything up by morning.
Years 6–9: Read 600 volumes, studied language, philosophy, history
Years 10–13: Read the Gospel, theology, histories of religion
Years 14–15: Reads a variety of things: Shakespeare, Byron, books on chemistry, medicine, natural sciences, philosophy, theology; also, a novel
1889 in literature
The year 1889 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*Theodore Roosevelt publishes the first of four volumes of The Winning of the West, with three more by 1896.-New books:*Gabriele D'Annunzio - Il piacere...
short story by Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
about a banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other about whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. The story has a twist ending.
“The Bet” is the story of a bet that stakes a banker's two million rubles against fifteen years of a young lawyer's life. As the story opens, the banker is recalling the occasion of the bet fifteen years before. Guests at a party that he was hosting that day fell into a discussion of capital punishment; the banker argued that capital punishment is more humane than life imprisonment, while the young lawyer disagreed, insisting that he would choose life in prison rather than death the bet was on and the lawyer cast himself into isolation for fifteen years.
The list of things the Lawyer did while imprisoned each year:
Year 1: Read entertaining books, played the piano
Years 2–4: Read the classics; no piano
Year 5: Read no books, drank wine, ate, listened to music, cried, and often wrote but tore everything up by morning.
Years 6–9: Read 600 volumes, studied language, philosophy, history
Years 10–13: Read the Gospel, theology, histories of religion
Years 14–15: Reads a variety of things: Shakespeare, Byron, books on chemistry, medicine, natural sciences, philosophy, theology; also, a novel