The Anniversary
Paperback (April 1992) |
Anton Chekhov -
Collected Works in 5 Volumes, 1880-1885 Vol 1
Hardcover Vol 001 (March 1989) |
Anton Chekhov Four
Plays
Paperback (June 1979) |
Anton
Chekhov: Early Short Stories 1883-1888
The Modern Library presents the incomparable short stories of
Anton Chekhov, selected and introduced by renowned author Shelby Foote. This first volume
of 70 earlier stories includes The Steppe, The Cossack, The Cook's
Wedding, and Joy, among others.
Hardcover - 612 pages (February 1999) |
Anton
Chekhov: Later Short Stories 1888-1903
Continuing The Modern Library's presentation of the short stories
of Anton Chekhov, selected and introduced by Shelby Foote, Later Short Stories
includes 42 stories written up to the last year of Chekhov's life. These stories include A
Dreary Story, The Horse-Stealers, A Doctor's Visit, The Lady with the
Dog, and The Bishop, among others.
Among the most outstanding are A
Dreary Story, a dispassionate tale that reflects Chekhov's doubts about his role as
an artist. Thomas Mann deemed it "a truly extraordinary, fascinating story ... unlike
anything else in world literature." The Darling, a delightful work highly
admired by Tolstoy, offers comic proof that life has no meaning without love. And in The
Lady with the Dog, which Vladimir Nabokov called "one of the greatest stories
ever written," a chance affair takes possession of a bored young woman and a cynical
roue, changing their lives forever.
Hardcover - 612 pages (February 1999) |
Anton
Chekhov: Literary and Theatrical Reminiscences
Hardcover (May 1965) |
Anton
Chekhov: Selected Stories
Paperback Reissue edition (May 1990) |
Anton Chekhov's Letters on the Short Story, the Drama,
& Other Literary Topics
Hardcover (June 1965) |
Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought: Selected Letters and
Commentary
First published in 1973, this collection of Chekhov's
correspondence is widely regarded as the best introduction to this great Russian writer.
Weighted heavily toward the correspondence dealing with literary and intellectual matters,
this extremely informative collection provides fascinating insight into Chekhov's
development as a writer. Michael Henry Heim's excellent translation and Simon Karlinsky's
masterly headnotes make this volume an essential text for anyone interested in
Chekhov.
Paperback Reprint edition (January 1997) |
Anton Chekhov's Plays (A Norton Critical Edition)
Paperback - 412 pages (November 1977) |
Anton Chekhov's Short Stories
Paperback - 369 pages (August 1979) |
The Bear: A Joke in One
Act
Paperback (July
1990)
Paperback (June
1967)
Paperback
(December 1967) |
Best Known Works of Anton Chekhov
Hardcover (June 1936) |
The Bishop and Other
Stories (The Tales of Chekhov) Vol. 7
Paperback (October 1985) |
Black Monk and Other Stories
Paperback Reprint edition (June 1989) |
The Brute and Other Farces
Paperback (January
1985)
Hardcover - 99
pages Reprint edition (December 1991) |
Chekhov:
Four Plays (Great Translations for Actors Series)
Paperback (December 1996) |
Chekhov:
The Major Plays
Paperback Reissue
edition (May 1995)shown
Paperback - 320
pages (December 1994) |
Chekhov -
The Vaudevilles and Other Short Works (Great Translations for Actors Series)
Paperback - 224 pages (February 1998) |
Chekhov for the Stage:
The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard (4 Plays in 1 Volume)
Paperback - 240
pages (January 1993)
Hardcover
Hardcover - 225 pages (December 1992) |
The Chekhov Omnibus:
Selected Stories
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov may be best known for his plays, the
staples of modern theatre; yet he was also a master of the short story, of which he wrote
more than four hundred. Gorky termed these masterpieces of compression and precision
"exquisite as cut glass;" a melange of naturalism and symbolism draft his bleak
landscapes where an upper class stifles in despair.
Paperback |
Chekhov's Major Plays: Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya,
The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard
Paperback (December 1996) |
The Cherry Orchard
Drama in four acts written by Anton Chekhov as Vishnyovy
sad. Chekhov's final play, it was first performed and published in 1904. Though Chekhov
insisted that the play was "a comedy, in places even a farce," playgoers and
readers often find a touch of tragedy in the decline of the charming Ranevskaya family.
Madame Ranevskaya, who has spent five years in Paris to escape grief over her young son's
death, returns to her home in Russia ridden with debt. She is obliged to decide how to
dispose of her family's estate, with its beautiful and famous cherry orchard. The coarse
but wealthy merchant Ermolai Lopakhin suggests that Madame Ranevskaya develop the land on
which the orchard sits. Eventually Lopakhin purchases the estate and proceeds with his
plans for a housing development. As the unhappy Ranevskayas leave the estate, the sound of
saws can be heard in the orchard. (The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature , April
1, 1995)
Paperback - 96
pages (Apr 1999)
Hardcover
(Dec 1998)
Paperback - 128
pages (Jul 1997)shown above right
Paperback
(Jan 1997)
Hardcover Plays
for Performance Hardcover - 85 pages (Sep 1995)
Paperback Plays
for Performance Paperback - 85 pages (Sep 1995)
Paperback - 49
pages Dover Thrift edition (Feb 1991) shown above left
ACTOR'S BONE BEST BUY!
Paperback
Paperback (March 1990) shown above middle
Paperback
Paperback - 91 pages (Nov 1987)
Paperback
Paperback (Jun 1963) |
The Chorus Girl and Other Stories (The Tales of Chekhov,
Vol 8) Vol 8
Paperback - 301 pages Vol 008 (September 1985) |
The Comic Stories
Paperback - 224
pages (April 1999)
Hardcover- 224
pages (April 1999) |
The Crooked Mirror and Other Stories
A collection of short works culled from the early writings of
Anton Chekhov and includes selections that are appearing in English for the first time.
Also includes an account of Chekov's 1890 travels to Siberia.
Paperback Reissue edition (August 1995) |
The Darling and Other
Stories: The Tales of Chekhov Vol 1
Paperback Reprint edition (April 1984) |
Dear
Writer, Dear Actress: The Love Letters of Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper
He was Russia's greatest playwright. She was the leading actress
in the Moscow Art Theater, but they were more than artistic collaborators. From 1899 until
his death in 1904, Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper were friends, lovers and, finally,
husband and wife. But her work and his health caused them long separations. Revealed
through their letters, this was one of the most extraordinary love stories in the history
of theater.
"The letters collected in Dear Writer, Dear Actress
are remarkable not only for their sublime, often poetic expressions of yearning, but also
for a breadth of topic that ranges from the domestic banalities of dental appointments to
the artistic immensities of mounting a new play." (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times
Book Review)
A moving and intimate epistolary record of the complex
relationship between the great Russian playwright and the actress who eventually became
his wife. Chekhov already had an advanced case of tuberculosis when he met Knipper
(1868-1959) in the fall of 1898. She was rehearsing the role of Arkadina in his revised
version of The Seagull for the newly formed Moscow Art Theatre; the production's
success, and her personal triumph in it, meant that she spent the theater season in Moscow
while he, under doctor's orders, spent the long Russian winter in the warmer climate of
Yalta. These separations, which continued after their marriage in 1901, made letters their
primary form of communication for months at a time. The couple's very different
personalities stand in sharp relief. Knipper's lively epistles, which feature evocative
descriptions of the Russian landscape and some astute analysis of her lover's personality,
reveal an affectionate, frank, impulsive woman who wrote what she thought and frequently
expressed frustration with Chekhov's elusiveness. The playwright's missives are witty,
charming, and infuriatingly oblique about his feelings, although his post-wedding
correspondence is noticeably warmer. Benedetti has edited the letters to focus on the
pair's personal relationship. Frequent ellipses suggest that a good deal of information
about Moscow Art Theatre rehearsals and internal politics has been omitted, possibly to
avoid overlap with The Moscow Art Theatre Letters, which he also edited. Interesting
though the couple's emotional ups and downs are, more material on their shared
professional life would have made this even better. He wrote Masha in Three Sisters
and Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard for her. Nonetheless, this correspondence
gives us wonderfully vivid self-portraits of two important Russian artists and a poignant
chronicle of love struggling against the handicap of distance and the ravages of terminal
illness. (Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.)
Hardcover - 320 pages (October 1997) |
The Duel and Other
Stories
Paperback - 245 pages Reprint edition (June 1984) |
Early Stories
Paperback - 205 pages (April 1994) |
Eleven Stories
Paperback (June 1975) |
The Essential Tales of Chekhov
Anton Chekhov is best known as a playwright, the author of such
classics as Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, and Three Sisters, but
he was also an accomplished short-story writer. The Essential Tales of Chekhov does
not pretend to be a comprehensive collection of all his fiction, but it does lay claim to
be the best. Reading these stories, one immediately notices how modern they feel. As
Richard Ford writes in his introduction, "His meticulous anatomies of complicated
human impulse and response, his view of what's funny and poignant, his clear-eyed
observance of life as lived--all somehow matches our experience." Chekhov is a master
of the telling detail, the acute psychological insight. In After the Theatre he
captures perfectly the morbid, romantic imagination of a 16-year-old girl: "To be
unloved and unhappy--how interesting that was." In An Anonymous Story he
quickly limns the sum of one of his characters in a single image: "He was a man with
the manners of a lizard. He did not walk, but, as it were, crept along with tiny steps,
squirming and sniggering, and when he laughed he showed his teeth." We will see much
more of this character, but we've already learned everything essential about him. No two
Chekhov stories are alike, but they do share some common traits: though often somber, they
are seldom despairing and even his most serious work is leavened by his trademark wit.
Only 20 of the more than 220 tales that he wrote are included in this collection, but they
provide an excellent introduction to those who have not yet had the pleasure of reading
him. And for those who know and love Chekhov, The Essential Tales of Chekhov is a
loving reminder of why. (Alix Wilber)
Short-story writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford selects
and introduces an essential volume of Chekhov tales. Although most people know and define
Chekhov by his plays, some believe his short stories surpass his plays in artistry. One
thing is clear: Anton Chekhov is one of the greatest short story writers of all time. In The
Essential Tales of Chekhov, Richard Ford, a master short story writer in his own
right, introduces and selects the definitive tales of Anton Chekhov. Ford includes the
Chekhov masterpieces, such as The Lady with the Dog, The Kiss, and The
Darling as well as a number of brilliant lesser-known stories. This collection is a
must-have for Chekhov enthusiasts and those less familiar with his extraordinary short
stories. The translation is by Constance Garnett, who
brought Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Turgenev to the English-speaking world.
Richard Ford is a novelist and short
story writer. He is the author of the national bestseller Independence Day, which
won the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1996. He has received
numerous awards and prizes, including the Rea Award for the Short Story (1993) and the
Award of Merit in the Novel (1996), awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Constance Garnett (translator) was a premier translator from the Russian who brought the
English-speaking world the works of Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky.
Hardcover - 337 pages (November 1998) |
The Fiancee and Other
Stories
Paperback - 231 pages (August 1986) |
Five Great
Short Stories
Paperback - 94 pages Dover Thrift edition (Jan
1991) ACTOR'S
BONE BEST BUY! |
Five
Plays:Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard
Taken from the authoritative Oxford Chekhov, this collection
features Chekhov's five greatest plays.
Paperback (July 1998) |
Forty Stories
"I long to embrace, to include in my own short life, all
that is accessible to man. I long to speak, to read, to wield a hammer in a great factory,
to keep watch at sea, to plow. I want to be walking along the Nevsky Prospect, or in the
open fields, or on the ocean -- wherever my imagination ranges." (Anton Chekhov)
If any one writer can be said to have invented the modem short
story, it is Anton Chekhov. It is not just that Chekhov democratized this art form; more
than that, he changed the thrust of short fiction from relating to revealing. And what
marvelous and unbearable things are revealed in Forty Stories. The abashed
happiness of a woman in the presence of the husband who abandoned her years before. The
obsequious terror of the official who accidentally sneezes on a general. The poignant
astonishment of an aging Don Juan overtaken by love. Spanning the entirety of Chekhov's
career and including such masterpieces as Surgery, The Huntsman, Anyuta, Sleepy-head,
The Lady with Lapdog and The Bishop, this collection manages to be amusing,
dazzling, and supremely moving, often within a single page.
Paperback - 344 pages Reprint edition (March 1991) |
The Grasshopper and Other Stories
Hardcover facsimi edition (June 1972) |
The Horse-Stealers and Other Stories (Vol. 10)
Paperback - 312 pages Reprint edition Vol 010 (April
1986) |
The Island
Hardcover Reprint edition (March 1977) |
Kashtanka
After the little dog Kashtanka is separated from her master, who
spends the day wandering from customer to tavern to relative, she is taken in by a man who
feeds her better than her master ever did and begins to train her. He's a clown whose act
already includes a boar, a cat, and a goose. When the goose suddenly dies, Kashtanka is
pressed into service and is recognized and reclaimed by her original master and his son,
who happen to be in the audience. The rather long, quiet story has been "translated
for young readers" (Does this mean adapted? We couldn't find the original, but the
style seems less rich and colorful than in Chekhov's other stories). It is illustrated
with Moser's usual gallery of skillfully wrought paintings, including several incisive
portraits (the half-madeup clown could be Olivier), appealing glimpses of the dog, and
some memorable compositions. Not essential, but good bookmaking. (Copyright ©1991,
Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.)
A lost dog is taken in by a circus clown and learns the
tricks of the trade in a competently written adaptation of a Chekhov story. Spirin's
finely detailed artwork, the highlight of the book, authentically conveys the
nineteenth-century Russian milieu. (Copyright © 1996 The Horn Book, Inc. All rights
reserved.)
One snowy evening, Kashtanka, a young chestnut-colored dog, loses
sight of her master, the cabinetmaker Luka Alexandrych. How Kashtanka ends up in the
circus, learning all sorts of tricks and how she is finally reunited with Luka, is the
heart of this enchanting story by one of Russia's greatest storytellers and dramatists.
School & Library Binding (September 1995) |
The Kiss and Other
Stories
Paperback - 216 pages (September 1982) |
Lady With Lapdog and Other Stories
Paperback Reissue edition (April 1986) |
Life and Letters of Anton Chekhov
Hardcover (June 1925) |
Longer Stories from the
Last Decade:Anton Chekhov
Translated by
Constance Garnett.
Hardcover (November 1993) |
Love and Other Stories
(The Tales of Chekhov, Vol. 13)
Paperback Vol 013 (April 1987) |
The Marriage Proposal:
A Joke in One Act
Paperback (June 1990) |
Monologues from Chekhov
Monologues for men and women from the major plays The Cherry
Orchard, The Sea Gull, The Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya of Anton Chekhov.
These translations represent to first collection of monologues from the works of the
Russian master. The acting experience is incomplete without a working knowledge of the
plays of Anton Chekhov who in collaboration with Stanislavski, irrevocably revolutionized
the art of dramatic presentation. A must for every serious actor.
Paperback - 64 pages (December 1990) |
Motley
Tales and a Play
This anthology provides an unusual selection of stories and a
play from among the author's own favorites, including The Student, Ward Six, Anyuta,
Easter Eve and The Three Sisters. Drawing from such rare artifacts as the
Moscow Art Theatre's album from its production of The Three Sisters (with
Chekhov's wife in the role of Masha) and Vladimir Nabokov's handwritten lecture notes on
Chekhov's oeuvre, this collector's edition of most-loved works offers readers the chance
to become acquainted with Chekhov's tender humor through the author's own choices from
among his poignant and whimsical tales.
Known by readers around the world for his keen psychological
insight and gentle vision of humanity's strengths and weaknesses, Anton Chekhov ranks
among the most important of modern authors. Drawn from among Chekhov's personal favorites,
this anthology provides a selection of stories, plus the play, The Three Sisters.
All royalty earnings will be used to preserve and support the collections of The New York
Public Library.
Hardcover - 400 pages 1st New yo edition (March 1998) |
My Life and Other Stories
Among the great nineteenth-century Russian writers, Chekhov was
the one least interested in the political issues of his time, but it is fair to claim,
nonetheless, that of them all he was, in his own extraordinary way, the most radical. His
miraculous stories not only changed the face of the short story form, but have provided
for the innumerable readers who have cherished his work an access to the quiet dramas of
the soul, and a degree of human fellow-feeling never before offered by literature.
Hardcover (December 1992) |
Nine Humorous Tales
Hardcover (June 1918) |
Notebook of Anton
Chekhov
Paperback - 146 pages (October 1987) |
The Oxford Chekhov
(Vol. 1)
Hardcover (June 1965) |
The Oxford Chekhov (Vol. 8)
Hardcover Vol 008 (June 1965) |
The Party and Other Stories
Paperback - 233 pages (January 1986) |
Peasants and Other Stories
Paperback - 480 pages (May 1999) |
The Plays of Anton
Chekhov
Hardcover (June 1986) |
Plays: Plays
Paperback - 377 pages (January 1991) |
Plays:
Ivanov, The
Seagull, Uncle Vania, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, The Bear, The Proposal, A Jubilee
Realistic and highly sensitive, Chekhov's plays revolve around a
society which is on the brink of a tremendous upheaval
Paperback (October 1959) |
The Plays of Anton Chekhov
Paul Schmidt's new translations of The
Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and other plays bring
Chekhov up to date. Schmidt restores the vitality and humor that are lost in most academic
translations and makes the plays accessible to a modern American sensibility. He also
retains their social context, unlike translations by those who have no experience of
Russian language or culture.
The publisher notes state, "These critically hailed
translations of The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters and the other Chekhov
plays are the only ones in English by a Russian-language scholar who is also a veteran
Chekhovian actor. Without compromising the spirit of the text, Paul Schmidt accurately
translates Chekhov's entire theatrical canon, rescuing the humor "lost" in most
academic translations while respecting the historical context and original social climate.
Schmidt's translations of Chekhov have been successfully staged all over the U.S. by such
theatrical directors as Lee Strasberg, Elizabeth Swados, Peter Sellars and Robert Wilson.
Critics have hailed these translations as making Chekhov fully accessible to American
audiences. They are also accurate. Schmidt has been described as "the gold standard
in Russian-English translation" by Michael Holquist of the Russian department at Yale
University.
Paperback - 400
pages (April 1998)
Hardcover - 320
pages (April 1997) |
The Portable Chekhov
Paperback - 634 pages (September 1987) $12.76 |
The Princess and Other Stories
Paperback - 246 pages (June 1990) |
Rothschild's Fiddle and
Other Stories
Hardcover (January 1976) |
Russian Silhouettes:
More Stories of Russian Life
Hardcover (June 1915) |
The Russian Master and Other Stories
A schoolteacher in a provincial town falls in love with and
marries a young local woman. He thinks he's found a bliss only described in novels. But
before long, his sharp points of bliss become blurred. The loss of ideals and poverty of
actual experience are the themes of these stories. Chekhov's Russians, at the close of the
19th century are trapped in a prison of frustration, which he depicts with laconic power.
Paperback Reprint edition (September 1984) |
The Schoolmaster and
Other Stories: Tales of Chekhov (Vol. 11)
Paperback Vol 011 (September 1986) |
The Schoolmistress and
Other Stories: Tales of Chekhov (Vol. 9)
Paperback - 305 pages Vol 009 (April 1986) |
The Sea
Gull
Paperback - 64
pages (April 1999) ACTOR'S
BONE BEST BUY!
Paperback - 96
pages (September 1997)
Paperback
(August 1996)
Paperback (March
1995)
Hardcover - 88
pages (May 1992)
Paperback - 88
pages (May 1992)
Paperback
(August 1993)
Paperback (June
1980) shown |
The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov
Paperback - 331 pages Reissue edition (March 1994) |
Selected Stories
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov may be best known for his plays, the
staples of modern theatre; yet he was also a master of the short story, of which he wrote
more than four hundred. Gorky termed these masterpieces of compression and precision
"exquisite as cut glass;" a melange of naturalism and symbolism draft his bleak
landscapes where an upper class stifles in despair.
Paperback Reprint edition (August 1997) |
Seven Short Novels
Paperback (January 1971) |
Short Stories
Paperback unabridged edition (June 1996) |
The Sinner from Toledo
and Other Stories
Hardcover (June 1972) |
The Steppe and Other Stories
Introduction by Richard Freeborn; Translation by Constance
Garnett. The first of Chekhov's works to be published in a serious Russian literary
journal, The Steppe marks his achievement of maturity as a writer of short
stories. Presenting the world as seen through the eyes of its young hero, Yegorushka, it
is a masterly account of a journey across the Russian prairies, interrupted by one of
literature's most spectacular thunderstorms.
Paperback - 253
pages (June 1991) shown
Paperback - 272
pages (December 1998) |
Stories of Men
Paperback - 372 pages (April 1997) |
Stories of
Women
Paperback - 308
pages (July 1994)
Hardcover - 308
pages (July 1994) |
Tatyana
Repina: Two Translated Texts (The 1888 Four-Act Tatyana Repina by Alexei Suvorin and Anton
Chekhov's 1889 One-Act Continuation)
Library Binding (February 1999) |
The Three Sisters
Russian drama in four acts by Anton Chekhov, first performed in
Moscow in 1901 and published as Tri sestry in the same year. The Prozorov sisters
(Olga, Masha, and Irina) yearn for the excitement of Moscow; their dreary provincial life
is enlivened only by the arrival of the Imperial Army. The sisters' dreams of a new life
are crushed when their brother marries a woman they consider ill-bred and mortgages the
house; the army is withdrawn, and Irina's fiance is killed in a duel. The characters of Three
Sisters are outstanding examples of Chekhovian boredom, longing, and listlessness.
The playwright portrays the sisters' social aspirations with sensitivity and irony, using
them as emblems of Russian middle-class pretensions and despair. (The Merriam-Webster
Encyclopedia of Literature, April 1, 1995)
Paperback
(September 1996)
Paperback
Reprint edition (June 1994)
Paperback - 59
pages Dover Thrift edition (May 1993) shown ACTOR'S
BONE BEST BUY!
Hardcover
(November 1992)
Paperback
(September 1992)
Paperback - 112
pages (October 1991) |
Treasury of Classic
Russian Love Short Stories (In Russian and English)
Hardcover - 128 pages (December 1997) |
Twelve Plays
Paperback - 372 pages (April 1992) |
| Unchanging Love
$5.25 |
Uncle Vanya
Paperback (June
1998)
Paperback Dover
Thrift edition (May 1998) shown ACTOR'S
BONE BEST BUY!
Paperback
(September 1996)
Paperback
reprint edition (June 1991)
Paperback - 82
pages (May 1989) |
Uncle Vanya and Other
Plays
A collection of Chekov's work includes four masterful plays, The
Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard plus three
delightfully humorous entertainments, The Bear, The Proposal and The
Anniversary.
Chekhov's lyrical plays and uproarious farces continue to
entertain theatergoers nearly a century after he wrote them. From his early work
The
Seagull, a depiction of estranged love and thwarted passion that became a great
success , to his last, The Cherry Orchard, the poignant portrayal of a land-owning
family unable to adapt to a changing society, all his plays masterfully combine both
levity and pathos. But his comedic genius comes to fruition most fully in his short
entertainments, such as the hilarious courtship between a hypochondriac and a shrew
depicted in The Proposal. Putting a "slice of life" on stage, Chekhov's
dramatic art evokes the painful loneliness of the human condition, yet unfailingly
highlights the pretensions and absurdities that make us laugh at ourselves.
Paperback - 408 pages (November 1994) |
The
Undiscovered Chekhov: Thirty-Eight New Stories
Here's a treat for any Chekhov lover: a collection of 38
previously untranslated stories by the Russian master. Even better, these stories date
back to the 1880s, when the author was still in his 20s and at his most prolific. That he
wrote at all is something of a miracle. Unlike other great Russian authors of his time
(Dostoevski, Pushkin, Tolstoy, to name a few), Anton Chekhov was not a member of the
nobility. The son of a bankrupt grocer, he entered medical school and became, at the same
time, the breadwinner for his impoverished family by cranking out stories for magazines.
His revolutionary approach to literature was apparent from the get-go. In Sarah
Bernhardt Comes to Town, for example, Chekhov uses a string of telegrams instead of a
conventional narrative to tell his story. ("Telegram: Have been drinking to Sarah's
health all week! Enchanting! She actually dies standing up! Our actors can't touch the
Parisians!") Even more unusual for 19th-century literature is the apparent lack of a
plot. The telegrams are simply a collection of reactions to a single performance, from an
usher ("Let in four. Fourteen rubles. Let in five. Fifteen rubles. Let in three and
one madame. Fifteen rubles") to a doctor ("Last night I saw S.B. Her chest
paralytic and flat. Skeletal and muscular structure unsatisfactory") to various
members of the audience ("Darling! When it comes to Sarah Bernhardt, as the saying
goes: you can dip a frog in honey but it doesn't mean I'll eat it").
"All the qualities the more mature Chekhov is known for in
his later works are apparent in these early stories: unconventional narratives, tremendous
wit, psychological perspicacity, and above all that peculiarly modern interest in why
human beings behave the way they do. Translator Peter Constantine's introduction gives
readers both a good overview of Chekhov's life and a literary context for appreciating the
stories collected here, but it is Chekhov himself whose remarkable brilliance will keep
readers coming back for more. (Alix Wilber)
"Readers concerned to see
Chekhov whole will want to read these stories. But so will almost anyone else." (Donald
Fanger, The New York Times Book Review)
"The thirty-eight pieces in this collection are very
early work, published in the 1880s, when the young author was studying medicine and
supporting feckless relatives. They are not the equal of the great later work, but their
popularity at the time is entirely understandable. They were, and still are, frequently
amusing, novel in construction (Chekhov had approached invention of the O. Henry trick
ending), irreverent in subject matter, provocative by implication, and full of vitality.
Chekhov made his satirical points by ricochet, but they were sharp. Mr. Constantine
deserves much gratitude for retrieving this neglected material." (Phoebe Lou
Adams, The Atlantic Monthly)
"Master translator Peter Constantine resurrects 38 of
Chekhov's early, innovative short stories and makes them available to English-language
readers for the first time. Constantine was amazed to find Chekhov's byline in so many of
the Russian magazines from the 1880s housed and all but forgotten in the Slavic and Baltic
Division of the New York Public Library, a discovery that proves that Chekhov's
prolificacy was even more astonishing than was previously believed. Constantine has
selected some of the liveliest and most creative of the cache, and Chekhov fans as well as
all devotees of the short story will find much here to enjoy and marvel at. Chekhov was
witty, inventive, and daring, rapidly sketching awkward situations and troubled characters
in scenes electric with suppressed emotions and all manner of absurdities, and his tales
are as fresh now as the day they were written." (Donna Seaman, Copyright© 1998,
American Library Association. All rights reserved.)
Hardcover - 256 pages 1 edition (November 1998) |
The Unknown Chekhov:
Stories and Other Writings
Paperback - 316 pages (April 1987) |
Ward Number Six and
Other Stories
Paperback (May
1988) $4.47
Paperback - 272
pages (March 1999)
Hardcover large
print edition (May 1999) |
The Wedding - A Scene in One Act
Paperback (August 1996) |
A Woman's Kingdom and
Other Stories
Paperback - 283 pages (May 1989) |
The Wood Demon - A
Comedy in Four Acts
Paperback (October 1993) |
