The Lady with the Dog (1899)

Anton Chekhov

Having first heard of this story from the movie The Reader, I was even more interested to read this story when I discovered it to be a short story.

Apparently, Anna Sergeyevna is on holiday in Yalta, bored and dull. Until she meets with Dmitri Gurov, a married man on holiday as well and open to extramarital affairs. What starts as flirtation becomes a love which deepens with each passing year. Yet how can two married individuals continue to pursue a deepening love?

I found this story to be reflective of The Reader, as far as forbidden love and it's intricacies. This theme was similarly repeated in Judgment at Nuremburg during the Feldenstein case in which an elderly Jew was convicted under the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor for having sex with Irene Hoffman, a much younger Aryan woman.

A little on the dull side, but happy I read it.