The Steppe

The steppe, for which the novella is named, refers to the Russian portion of the Eurasian steppe. As explained in the introduction, Chekhov was inspired by his own travels through the steppe to write a story that captures the unique essence of this region. In the novella, the steppe is an alternately welcoming and forbidding landscape. Egorushka’s mood is shaped by the nature around him, and vice versa.

Moisei Moiseich’s house

Moisei Moiseich’s house, where he frequently hosts merchants, is a rundown place in the middle of the nowhere. The narrator says, “In the dusk of evening a big house of one storey, with a rusty iron roof and with dark windows, came into sight. This house was called a posting-inn, though it had nothing like a stableyard, and it stood in the middle of the steppe, with no kind of enclosure round it...