At Home

“At Home” is a short story by Anton Chekhov, published in 1897. Chekhov was a prolific Russian writer, composing seven plays, one novel, and hundreds of short stories. “At Home” conveys many of the themes common to Chekhov’s body of work, including the search for happiness, the boredom of provincial life, the divide between landowners and the peasantry, and a pessimism about the possibility of change. Vera Ivanovna Kardin, the main character of the story, returns home after boarding school and struggles to find purpose in her life. She has wealth, status, and education but feels that something is missing. Throughout the story, she reflects on the nature of human relationships and the emptiness that can come from a life focused solely on superficial concerns.

Disambiguation: Chekhov wrote a story in 1887 titled "At Home,” or sometimes “Home” (“Doma”), about a little boy whose father catches him smoking. The present story, the title of which is also translated as “At Home,” is sometimes more literally translated as “In My Native Corner” (“V rodnom uglu”).

This guide refers to the public domain version of the story translated by Constance Garnett, located at The Project Gutenberg eBook Compilation of the Stories of Chekhov.