The Man in a Case is one of Anton Chekhov’s most famous short stories. Dealing with the idea that there are “people in the world, solitary by temperament, who try to retreat into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail,” it uses a tale within a tale to relate the story of Byelikov who progresses from an emotional “shell” to a real wooden one. This great short story is part of a trilogy marked by the appearance of the two characters Burkin and Ivan Ivanovich. The other two stories in the trilogy are Gooseberries, and About Love.
AT the furthest end of the village of Mironositskoe some belated sportsmen lodged for the night in the elder Prokofy’s barn. There were two of them, the veterinary surgeon Ivan Ivanovitch and the schoolmaster Burkin. Ivan Ivanovitch had a rather strange double-barrelled surname — Tchimsha-Himalaisky — which did not suit him at all, and he was called simply Ivan Ivanovitch all over the province. He lived at a stud-farm near the town, and had come out shooting now to get a breath of fresh air. Burkin, the high-school teacher, stayed every summer at Count P
