The Black Monk

"The Black Monk" is a short story by Anton Chekhov, written in 1893. It was first published in 'The Artist', one of the leading Russian magazines on theater and music in the last quarter of the 19th century. The story tells of the last two tragic years in the life of a fictitious scholar, Andrey Vasilyevich Kovrin. Kovrin returns to his childhood home to visit his former guardian Yetor. But while there, he encounters a strange Black Monk, who convinces Kovrin that he is chosen by God for a special purpose – that he has the power to save mankind from millennia of suffering using his genius.