Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Anton Chekhov (Author), Ronald Wilks (Translator), Paul Debreczney (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 26, 2002 | Series: Penguin Classics

During the last ten years of his life, Anton Chekhov penned his great plays, spent time treating the sick, and wrote a small number of stories that are considered his masterpieces. The eleven stories collected here-"The Lady with the Little Dog," "The House with the Mezzanine," "My Life," "Peasants," "A Visit to Friends," "Ionych," "About Love," "In the Ravine," "The Bishop," "The Bride," and "Disturbing the Balance"-hail from this fertile period. They reveal a writer who, in response to the techniques of Symbolism and Impressionism, moved beyond nineteenth-century realism to become an innovator of the modern short story, influencing such key twentieth-century literary figures as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Lady with the Dog is perhaps Chekhov's best known and certainly one of his best-loved stories. It exemplifies the author's subtle yet powerful style, as Chekhov is economical with language and never says more than he needs. He conveys emotional complexity in just a few words, thus preserving the intensity of his characters' feelings. For example, on first seeing Anna at the theater in her hometown, Chekhov expresses Dmitri's romantic yearning with the passage: "she, this little woman, in no way remarkable, lost in a provincial crowd, with a vulgar lornette in her hand, filled his whole life now, was his sorrow and his joy. He thought and dreamed." The author writes as though he is painting a canvas, producing a work that is grand in scope yet intimate in feel. The author uses colors to convey both the changing spirits and feelings of the characters, as they veer from the grandly impressive to the muted and prosaic. For example, the aging Dmitri's hair is described as graying, and he often wears gray suits, whereas the sea at Yalta is suffused with color as "the water was of a soft warm lilac hue, and there was a golden streak from the moon upon it." Chekhov presents Yalta as a romantic oasis for Anna and Dmitri, a place of color, freedom, and intimacy that they cannot hope to recreate elsewhere. The lovers worry about what they mean to one another--Anna frets that Dmitri thinks of her only as a "common woman," while Dmitri thinks that Anna is beguiled by a false impression of him as a "kind, exceptional, lofty" man--because both recognize that their relationship is founded on past disappointments and future hopes, as well as on present desires. Chekhov thus plays with our implicit belief that characters do not exist beyond their narrative framework: clearly, Anna and Dmitri are people defined by the past and their dreams for the future, as much as they are by the short period of their lives conveyed here. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Anton Checkov (1860-1904) was a Russian physician and writer of short stories and plays, including the masterpieces Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, and The Cherry Orchard.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (November 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140447873
• ISBN-13: 978-0140447873
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb translation, March 31, 2005

By 

B. J. GILBERT "Basil" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

These stories translated in this volume by Ronald Wilks are really superb. When one compares the translation of "The Lady with the Dog" with the earlier translation by Constance Garnett, the differences are apparent. Please compare them. The Wilks translation is high quality beautiful English expression, it captures the mood and the ideas of Chekhov perfectly.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Warning, June 9, 2010

By 

B. Koziak - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

The kindle e-book offered here is NOT the Penguin edition. Too bad! This is very deceptive. I would have liked to see the Wilks translation as the kindle edition.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Translation, March 7, 2011

By 

nikki johnson (new york, usa) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I bought this book solely because of the movie "The Reader". I've gotta say I really like this book. It touches my heart. Good translation too!