Customer Reviews

Selected Stories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In my opinion this is the best selection of Chekhov's stories. There are some inevitable ommissions of personal favourites such as 'New Villa', 'A Doctor's Visit', 'Gusev' and 'The Butterfly' but this is a minor complaint beside the fact that this edition includes both novellas and stories. For one thing it includes the beautiful 'Steppe' which is almost worth the price alone as it is very difficult to find. All the acknowledged major works are here from 'Ward No. 6' to 'The Lady with the Dog' and all - another bonus - in Constance Garnett's rarely surpassed translation.

A great collection of Chekhov's representative stories. Provides even more depth than the Russian Classics book for those who want to go deeper into Chekhov's intellect. Notes about each story provide helpful background information and a history of the story's origin.

Recently I've gotten into reading Chekhov's short stories. Usually when you do something like this, your enthusiasm is somewhat deflated by finding so many duds among the good ones, but I haven't had this experience with Chekhov. Most of the stories are good and there are only a few duds among them.

One thing I did not understand when I started this was that Chekhov wrote volumes and volumes of short stories. It's not like Hemingway, where you could read them all if you somehow got hold of a thick volume. No, the complete stories of Chekhov would span several volumes.

So there's nothing sacred about this Signet paperback. Actually, there's no many stories here on account of the last three or four really being novellas. As far as picking out what I would say are the most mind-blowing stories of Chekhov, this book is nothing special. But it is a handsome edition.

Ordered three weeks before Christmas, expecting to give as a gift, however I never received this item. Was very disappointed.