“Maxim Kuzmich Salyutov is tall, broad-shouldered and
well-built. His physique, you can confidently say, is athletic, his strength
phenomenal. He can bend coins, pull up young trees by the roots and lift
weights with his teeth, and he swears that no man would dare wrestle with him.
He is brave and courageous. No one has ever seen him scared of anything. Other
people, though, are scared enough of him and turn pale if he is angry. Men and
women squeal and blush when he shakes their hands: ouch! His fine baritone is
so powerful it deafens you. A rock of a man! I’ve never met anyone like him.
“But when Maxim Kuzmich, this prodigy of nature, this
ox-like force, was declaring his love for Yelena Gavrilovna, he resembled
nothing so much as a squashed rat! He turned pale, blushed, trembled and was in
no fit state to lift up a chair when he had to squeeze the words 'I love you!'
from his large mouth. All his strength disappeared, and his large body turned
into one big hollow shell.”—Russian playwright and short-story writer Anton
Chekhov (1860-1904), “A Woman Without Prejudices,” originally published in
1883, reprinted in The Comic Stories, translated by Harvey
Pitcher (1999)
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