Customer Reviews

Anton Chekhov's Short Stories (Norton Critical Editions)

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In over 35 years of reading adult literature, these are my all-time favorite works. Chekhov has an uncanny and incomparable ability: virtually nothing happens in many of his stories, yet as you close the book you are aware that something deep and wonderful about human character has been revealed. Chekhov has often been described as being unsurpassed in describing the RUSSIAN character, but I find his descriptions of people, their insecurities and their relationships, to be universal.

If you read books for the action, the color, or the conflict, you will find little of it here. All you will find is quiet and penetrating insight into what it means to be a human being living with other human beings.

This collection will expose you to not only some of the best short stories by Anton Chekhov, but some of the best stories ever written in any language. Chekhov's sense of mood and characters overrides his need to provide a predictable plot. He is the forerunner for America's beloved Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and may others in between. People may criticize some of Chekhov's Romantic devices and tendencies, but no one can deny the exactitude of his writing. His work is simple and does not rely heavily on existential characters and events, creating a timeless air.

For writers (and interested readers), there is an appendage of letters that Chekhov wrote to friends about writing. His advice is so right and simple that you'll wonder why your favorite author, or even you, didn't think of them first. Chekhov turns out to be a rather arrogant guy, claiming he never spent more than a day on a story and that his only job was "to be talented," but that is part of his charm. He is the link to modern fiction that is often forgotten. Buy or check out this book. It is a must.

Norton had done it again! This colllection of Chekov short stories is not only broad and complete but gives excellent supplemental criticial, historical, and biographical background to the artistic life of Chekov, by some of the most renown scholars of Russian literature. The text also pays close attention to translation, giving the reader understanding and explanation of possible translation ambiguities with footnotes.

An excellent introduction to the short fiction of Chekov. Highly recommended!

This is by far the best single volume of Chekhov's stories in English translation, as far as I know (and I've read dozens--though I haven't seen the brand new Modern Library editions which are supposed to be 600 pages each). What a great selection, sampling the full range of Chekhov's story writing from his early sketches to the crystalline works of his last few years. Who can forget these wonderful stories, like The Student, The Bishop, Rothschild's Fiddle. I can think of several fine pieces from the earlier years, and a few longer stories, that somehow missed the cut, but so what. The translations themselves are quite good, too. Hingley's editions of Chekhov stories are also excellent, but this Norton compilation is tops for lugging around with you for many years.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Constance Garnett ruins Chekhov for me.

Her work is reprinted for financial reasons, not artistic ones. Want to read "good" Chekhov? Read Robert Payne or Ann Dunnigan's translations. Yarmolinsky is good too.

Rosa La Luna

I'm a big fan of Chekhov's earlier, shorter stories, which are more plot and less "atmosphere", like the earlier selections in this book. It's clear to see how the early 1880's Chekhov was influenced by Guy de Maupassant's stories , an influence he acknowledged. Chekhov is equally adept at dealing with both serious and comical themes in his fiction. And although he's best known for his plays, his finest stories too stand the test of time, both in re-creating a historically accurate portrait of Russia and its people in the late 19th century, but also in giving us memorable characters and their stories to enjoy. Although his stories are often sad or tragic, Chekhov writes about these Russians with a real sympathy and understanding that is endearing to the reader. This collection of over 30 of his stories covers the span of his whole literary career, from the early 1880's to 1903, the year before his death.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

I have always loved reading the work of a writer along with critical essays that provide richer insights into the work. Such an anthology brings both great stories and serious analysis of the work together. This edition also contains some of Chekhov's memorable correspondance.
After reading many Chekhov stories I think it is possible to venture a few generalizations about the essence of his art. First of all he is a great creator of human character, of idiosyncratic individuals. He too is a master of depicting the clash between the inner dream and longing of the individual and the cruel reality that he faces. The child Vanka who desperately writes letters to his grandfather in the hope of escaping a life of virtual slavery is a prominent example in this work. Chekhov is a writer with a great heart and great feeling for the inner emotions of his characters. And he creates in the reader a sympathy for those characters. Consider the story ' The Darling ' in which a woman's loving and caring and positive nature, a nature which totally supports and takes upon herself the husband or in the end the imagined step- child she cares for , persists through the various individuals who are part of her life. Chekhov is the writer who makes us feel the twilight poignance of life , the great heartbreak of human souls in longing and disappointment. So many of his characters are dreamers, longing for a reality which the crude tough world before them either ignores or violently contradicts. I think that in an age in which people talk about ' post- character literature' it is important to see how much of a great writer's greatness is in the creation of characters, vibrant human beings that the reader can identify with. Chekhov is also the great portrayer of human folly, and does this with irony and humor. Consider how in the story ' The Chameleon' the judge changes his verdict back and forth as he thinks first that the dog which has bitten the complaintant belongs to a highly important official, or does not. This judge changing his opinion to suit what will be good for himself is the perfect embodiment of human injustice and hypocrisy. The foibles and weaknesses of Chekhov's character are everywhere apparent, and yet so many of his characters are , excuse the word, ' lovable'. One feels that Chekhov is a great and generous and loving soul as a writer, and that his spirit pervades his literature.
What a pleasure to be in the world of such a soul.

Anton Chekov's Short Stories (Norton Critical Edition) would be your best introductory volume to have in first experiencing his works. Not only does Norton have better translations of the stories but also there is an appendix in the back of the volume offering some critical expositions of Chekov's works.

Please keep in mind also that Chekov had a social conscience as well. He did not write merely for capitalistic reasons but wrote about Imperial Russia as an observer and expositor of its decline and eventual fall. Through his various humanitarian activities amongst the Russian peasants class he was able to see first hand the poverty and degradation that was endemic in late 19th Century Czarist Russia.

Chekov's stories are brief windows or vistas into the depths of human character. Unlike Poe or O Henry, there are no "punch lines" at the end of the story...but you do come away with a deeper understanding of the spirit in man.
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Chekhov was a genius of concision and character revelation, no doubt about it, and this solid Norton compendium contains many (but not all) of his best short stories. The accompanying essays have their moments but tend to illustrate Chekhov's own feelings about critics: they consider their criticism more vital than the text they're discussing. That could never be true about Chekhov, in any case.

AC got right inside peoples' heads more cleanly than almost any writer I've encountered, though Shakespeare and George Eliot are hard to top. That Chekhov's people are Russians just before the Revolution gives these tales much historical resonance as well. But people is people, and one can see oneself in his work again and again, for better and for worse.

Above all other considerations, it's Chekohov's deep understanding of emotion and the human heart that lifts him into the pantheon of fiction writers (and playwrights, of course). While these might not be the definitive translations (Chekhov scholars and fans have issues with each and every translator to touch his work, 'twould seem), they convey his intelligence and caring quite clearly, and that's quite enough.

What a surprisingly, insightful collection of literature by the one and only Anton Chekhov. It is absolutely mind-boggling how Chekhov was able to put so much emotion and so much psychology into such short pieces of literature. It seems so unrealistic that so much emotion can be packaged up into a neat little section of a couple of pages but the feeling that is left with the human reading it speaks volumes. Hell, some of his inspired critique is so much longer, drabber and drier than his intimate stories. The intense recollection at the fact that no two human beings can ever feel the same thing is positively saddening or enlightening. Oftentimes, even both! Also, Chekhov's ambiguity sets up for the readers individual interpretations of each of his works. Chances are, you'll feel some sort of camaraderie with one or more of his fluctuating, fantastic, invigorating, and clearly ambiguous characters.