Gooseberries (1898)

The story's hero works in an office, but dreams of living outside the city and buying an estate, where there's sure to be a gooseberry bush. He economizes on everything and saves every penny. He even marries for money, but his stinginess causes his wife to wither and die. Years later, his dream comes true – the hero becomes a gentleman with an estate, greedily eating his gooseberries…

As in many of the writer's stories, the title is a metaphor. The gooseberry bush here speaks of the idleness of life, the stupidity and the spiritual death of the hero.

Translated by Constance Garnett, Publisher Chatto & Windus, 1921