Customer Reviews

A Night in the Cemetery: And Other Stories of Crime and Suspense

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While not the multi-layered literary masterpieces he is known for, this collection shows a lighter side of Chekhov and gives insight into his formative years as a writer. Additionally, there is no shortage of Chekhov's trademark dark humor, which is one of my favorite things about his work.

Now available in paperback, A Night in the Cemetery and Other Stories of Crime and Suspense collects the classic crime and suspense stories of literary genius Anton Chekhov. Originally published in periodicals and literary journals from 1880-1890, and now expertly translated into English by Peter Sekirin, A Night in the Cemetery and Other Stories of Crime and Suspense is seasoned with Chekhov's characteristic dark humor, twists of cause and effect, and shocking moments of revelation. Many of the stories are brief, but all warrant a close reading - A Night in the Cemetery and Other Stories is an absolute "must-have" for mystery and suspense fans of all walks of life, and a superb addition to public library collections.

I bought this collection because I love five of Chekhov's full length plays: Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. The title of these short stories seemed intriguing and promising to me. However, the writing, at least in this translation, is subpar, and were Chekhov not already established, these stories would not have put him on any meaningful map. Interesting from an historical perspective, but not great writing.

In the forty-two stories included in A Night in the Cemetery and Other Stories of Crime and Suspense, Anton Chekhov expresses both his ironic humor and his dark assessment of humanity. Though he is better known for his playwriting skills, Chekhov was a prodigious writer of stories from 1880, when he was a twenty-year-old medical student, until 1890, and it was these stories that kept his family fed and clothed for most of that decade. By 1884, Chekhov, still writing stories, was a practicing physician traveling the countryside and not charging the poor for his services, and much of the social breadth we see in his stories came about as a direct result of this close contact with all levels of society. The conflicts in his stories, sharply realized, show the chasm between rich and poor, and educated and uneducated, and Chekhov, almost without exception, depicts the poor and uneducated as having greater integrity.

The stories in this collection, published in 2008, are, for the most part, stories by a very young man in his twenties, someone who is sometimes angry, even a bit cynical, about the inherent willingness of mankind to yield to temptation without a qualm. There are no saints in these stories, only sinners to a greater or lesser degree. Though these stories often lack the subtlety and narrative brilliance of his later writing, the youthful Chekhov keeps his stories lively and fresh through his humorous take on life's ironies, often turning conflicts into tours de force in the conclusions.

In the opening story, "A Night in the Cemetery," a man is telling a story about New Year's Eve, in which he recommends that people "fight, be miserable, cry, and attempt suicide. One must remember that each new year leads you closer to death." The story sets the tone for the collection, with its strong emphasis on death, its irony, its "surprise" ending (which is one that only beginning writers would resort to), its narrative speed, and its literary naivete.

Later stories explore other themes: guilt and innocence and the confusions of the judicial system, the impulse to steal by everyone who is faced with temptation, lying in order to gain advantage, payoffs which change a person's moral convictions, the plight of women who may have resources someone else needs, the fickleness of women who seek their own advantage in men other than their husbands, the innocent peasant who does something illegal as a way to survive, the sycophancy of mid-level people toward "superiors," official graft and corruption, and the inherent dishonesty of all people.

Basing his stories on life as he has seen and known it, Chekhov takes a broad, ethical view, recognizing the same values of right and wrong as the reader, while also acknowledging the way things are in the society in which he lives and works. It is the reader's recognition that Chekhov believes what s/he believes that makes Chekhov's work so memorable and significant--and which makes his irony work as he lays bare the values with which he approaches life. Mary Whipple

It is an interesting read. Chekov's dark humor shines in many of the stories. However, I was disappointed by the translation, which I found too contemporary and colloquial. In my opinion, the writing is not as good as some of his later work, so I will assume that he was young when he published these.

Unfortunately, there is no information about the dates that they were published or how old he was when he wrote these stories.

I can recommend reading it but I'm not sure that I would recommend purchasing this collection.

Dr. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) is a brilliant dramatist and short story author who stands at the pinnacle of Russian literature along with Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol and Pushkin. Everytime I get the chance to pick up a new Chekhov work the shekels in my pocket do a dance until the Chekhov work has been purchased.
A Night in the Cemetery (the name of one of the stories in the collection in which a drunken citizen wakes up in a monument showroom thinking he is in a cemetery!)is a collection of over 40 short tales. Many of these stories are only a page or so while others run to as long as 14-15 pages. The works are from Chekhov's early career in which he wrote for a number of Moscow periodicals and literary journals. Many of the tales have not been translated into English until this translation by Peter Sekirin.
Among my favorite stories in this excellent work:
Ivan the Cabman: On a cold Moscow night a lowly cabman tells his hard luck life story to a wealthy passenger. Who is the passenger and why is he important to Ivan's life?
The Wallet: A story of greed and murder.
Fire in the Steppe: An Evil Night-What emotions are produced in the minds and hearts of a group of peasants as they watch a nearby village burned to the ground.
The Man Who Wanted Revenge: A humorous tale of a man who visits a gun shop in pursuit of a weapon to murder his wife.
The Drama of the Hunt-A story of a beautiful young woman who is murdered in the woods.
75 Grand-A winning lottery ticket. Who will cash it in?
Chekhov was a wonderful human being who knew all segments of Tsarist Russian society from convicts to noblemen.
If you want to spend a few hours with a master of the short story you can do no better than to read these marvelous stories!

For fans of Anton Chekhov, this sounds like a great deal. But the stories are not really scary and unless you are familiar with his style, it is not the easiest to read. Let me just say, they are mildly interesting.

In 1886, celebrated Russian author Dmitry Grigorovich wrote a letter to the 26 year-old Anton Chekov, complimenting the young author on his talent and advising him to slow down and concentrate on the quality of his writing.

Chekov - a physician and part-time writer who was then making more money by writing than by practicing medicine -- was thunderstruck by the weight of the compliment and admitted that he had previously written his stories in a mechanical fashion, like that of a dispassionate journalist rather than an emotionally involved writer. The young doctor/writer took Grigorovich's advice seriously and the following year he won the coveted Russian Pushkin Prize for his collection of short stories, "At Dusk." He went on to become one of Imperial Russia's most celebrated writers.

The journalistic tone of Chekhov's pre-fame stories -- many of them murder mysteries -- is completely understandable when one considers that for a time, Chekhov worked for the police as a medic in criminal investigations. However, the tone of many of these early stories featured in "A Night in the Cemetery," collected and translated by Russian scholar, Peter Sekirin, is anything but serious.

For instance, one tale takes readers on an elaborate and lengthy search for clues in a murder case only to discover the victim alive and well at the end of the tale. Another portrays a prosecuting attorney who "was like many of his kind: he spoke nasally, could not pronounce the letter "k" and blew his nose constantly." He was no match for the skilled defense attorney in the story whose "kind . . . plays a key role in those cheap novels that end in a guilty verdict for the protagonist and the applause of the public." The skilled defense attorney so powerfully plays at the emotions of an entire courtroom regarding the "humanity" of the accused man that the accused finally jumps up and confesses his guilt.

Many of the stories are obviously just writing exercises or sketches, yet even these are often well-crafted and hilarious in a wry, Chekovian sort of way. The initial paragraph of "What You Usually Find in Novels," a sketch which barely fills two pages, reads: "A duke, a duchess who used to be a beautiful woman, a rich man who lives next door, a left-wing novelist, and impoverished nobleman, a foreign musician, various servants: butlers, nurses, and tutors, a German estate manager, a gentleman, and an heir from America."

The last paragraph is significantly shorter than the first but just as humorous: "Seven moral sins at the beginning, a crime in the middle, and a wedding at the end."

The stories collected in "A Night in the Cemetery" aren't necessarily the work of a master craftsmen but it's obvious that their author was well on his way to becoming just that. This collection is a fascinating read to anyone interested in the evolution of a literary master and also provides a close-up (if extremely wry) glimpse of Imperial Russia.