The Comic Stories [Paperback]

Anton Chekhov (Author), Harvey Pitcher (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 1999

By 1888, when he was just twenty-eight, Chekhov had published a staggering 528 stories, about half of them comic. Unpretentious, lively, and inventive, these comic stories have long been affectionately regarded in Russia, but publishers in the West, overawed by the prevailing image of Chekhov as a melancholy genius, have resisted the down-to-earth humorist. This collection is the first substantial volume in English devoted solely to the comic stories. The forty stories here reveal the full range of Chekhov’s comic mastery: simple sketches, almost like verbal cartoons; outrageous parodies and stories with a comic twist; satirical and subversive pieces that foreshadow the anti-authoritarian attitudes of his later work; and excursions into the absurd that hint of his later stage dialogue. In these early comic stories Chekhov found himself as an artist. Readers unfamiliar with them may miss the countless touches of humor in the later and more famous plays and stories. Tolstoy, who disliked Chekhov’s plays, was reduced to helpless fits of laughter by his comic stories. They have a sense of fun and infectious good humor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anton Chekhov began writing comic sketches for newspapers when he was in school, continuing this practice for years to help support his family. Many of those short comic works were humorous variations on what became his most memorable, serious themes. Pitcher has dipped into the hundreds of Chekhov's short pieces to select the 40 stories included here, most of them written in the 1880s (and some translated into English for the first time). They run the gamut from the unexpectedly jaunty to prototypes of the darker "comic-absurd" elements often considered characteristic of Chekhov. "He Quarreled with His Wife," written in 1884, features a man who mistakes his dog's affectionate embrace for his wife's touch. Some of the sketches have a similarly jokey feel, but most are more potent. Many take their satiric cues from Gogol, as in "The Exclamation Mark," which concerns a civil servant who is accused of not understanding punctuation and develops a paranoid fantasy in which everyday objects transform into malevolent exclamation marks; or "The Death of a Civil Servant," which reworks a theme from "The Overcoat." More generally attuned to Gogol's example is Chekhov's usual choice of subject: the "little man" compromised by his immersion in the social ranking system; the classic juxtaposition of the ignoble with the socially elevated. But Chekhov's originality and fresh comic timing emerges clearly as well. Pitcher closes the collection with two of Chekhov's better-known, later stories, "The Darling" and "Encased," connecting these tragicomic tales with Chekhov's humorous forms. It is in part this volume's comprehensive and intelligent structure that allows the reader to better explore this exuberant side of the Russian master.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Penetrating and captivating. (Philip Gambone New York Times )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (February 23, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566632420
• ISBN-13: 978-1566632423
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,096,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful tidbits from the Master, July 27, 2000

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"pierce_inverarity" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Comic Stories (Paperback)

Chekhov wrote all of these stories under a pseudonym, some of them while he was still in medical school. Until his death, he denied being their author; perhaps he did not want to spoil his image with these bits of humor, or perhaps he did not want to spoil these stories' frivolity by attaching a name like Chekhov to them. Unlike the dark, brooding impression of Chekhov one may get from some of his plays, these stories are lively, lighthearted and often hilarious. All are short -- some as short as just a page or two -- but all will have clever endings, even for readers not familiar with Chekhov or with his specific Russian brand of humor. Many of the stories are not meant to be laugh-out-loud funny, but are comic in the more classical sense, bringing forth clever observations and juxtapositions in a seemingly familiar world. These are highly recommended either as a supplement to Chekhov's better known works, or as an easy introduction to his writings.