The Bet (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Anton Chekhov
- First Published: 1888
- Type of Plot: Fable
- Time of Work: November 14, 1870-November 14, 1885
- Setting: An unspecified Russian city
- Principal Characters: The banker, The young lawyer
- Genres: Fable, Short fiction
- Subjects: Prisoners, Gambling, Capital punishment, Loneliness, Life and death
- Locales: Russia
The Story
“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. As the argument became more heated, the banker angrily wagered two million rubles...
[The entire page is 1536 words long]
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