"The Man in the Case" (Russian: Человек в футляре, romanized: Chelovek v futlyare) is an 1898 short story by Anton Chekhov, the first part of what has been later referred as The Little Trilogy, along with "Gooseberries" and "About Love".

Suffering from paranoia (he wears a pair of galoshes and a heavy coat even in the warmest weather) Belikov clings to official regulations and insists that others do so as well, being suspicious and wary of everything, because "one can never tell what harm might come from it".

Disgusted and frightened with how low teachers can fall in giving bad examples to pupils, he goes to visit Kovalenko to warn him of dire consequences of such behaviour.

Belikov returns home, removes the portrait of his beloved from the table, goes to bed, falls ill and in a month's time, dies.

The right-wing press in general reacted negatively, one particularly hostile review (titled "Some Things on Chekhov and his Cases") coming from K. Medvedsky, in Moskovskiye Vedomosti.

Nikolai Minsky in Birzhevaya Gazeta interpreted the story as a mild, 'decadent' quasi-social etude, making much of Chekhov's perceived 'indifference' to his characters.

Highly positive was the review in Syn Otechestva[5] by Alexander Skabichevsky who credited Chekhov with being not only a fine artist but also shrewd social commentator.