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Stories of Anton Chekhov

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Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have established themselves as the preeminent living translators of Russian into English. Their translations of Dostoyevsky and Gogol are simply unparalleled, and now they have finally gotten around to Chekhov.

It's not so bad that they've taken their time with Chekhov, for he has had numerous distinguished translators. Indeed, Constance Garnett is much-maligned (perhaps unfairly) for her many translations at the beginning of the 20th century of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, but even her detractors tend to agree that she did good work with Chekhov. (Indeed, until now the best all-around collection of Chekhov stories was The Chekhov Omnibus, edited by Donald Rayfield, who used the Garnett translations, though he did revise them.)

But now we have the best. It's not perfect, but if you can have only one collection of Chekhov stories, this is the one to have. The selection covers Chekhov's entire career, and includes such masterpieces as "Ward No. 6", "The Lady with the Little Dog", "Gusev", "The House with the Mezzanine", "In the Ravine", and many others (30 stories total).

It is a delight to read Chekhov in these translations, because the translators have stuck close to many of the idiosyncracies of Chekhov's style which most other translators ignore or smooth over. Chekhov's world -- a land of moping aristocrats and disenchanted peasants, of former serfs seeking dignity and everyday workers searching for the meaning of life, of lovers and painters and doctors and thieves -- is unique and haunting, and all of its dry absurdities and bleak terrains are rendered here with care and skill and sensitivity. Reading Chekhov is not easy, for he always wanted his readers to work as hard as he did, but it is endlessly, endlessly rewarding.

Of course, Chekhov wrote hundreds and hundreds of stories, so this book provides only a tiny sampling, and any Chekhovian will find favorites missing here (the biggest omission from my point of view is "Dreams" or "Daydreams", which is most readily available in The Portable Chekhov), but the only truly odd omission is of the story "About Love", which is part of a trilogy of stories with "The Man in the Case" and "Gooseberries", both of which are included here.

The novellas (over 50 pages) are also omitted, so there is no "Steppe", no "My Life", no "Three Years" or "The Duel". In a note, the translators suggest that they may do a second book of these.

The stories are arranged chronologically, and a useful introduction and endnotes are also provided. No better introduction to Chekhov's stories is available. (If you're looking for good translations of the plays, check out those of Carol Rocamora and Paul Schmidt.)

In his notebook, Chekhov wrote, "I hope that in the next world I shall be able to look back upon this life and say, 'Those were beautiful dreams.'" Thankfully, we all have the beautiful dreams of his stories.

These thirty stories provide not only a superb sampling of Chekhov's talent, but also - I'm assured - the finest translations available. I'm no expert, but I found the proof was in the reading: though they contain many of the same stories, this collection is vastly more enjoyable than "The Essential Tales of Chekhov" (translated by Constance Garnett and edited by Richard Ford). The translations by Pevear and Volokhonsky are somehow much fresher, lighter, subtler, but without losing any of the dark reality they depict. I ploughed through Ford's collection with difficulty, but the Pevear/Volokhonsky edition was a delight. Helpfully supplemented by end notes, dates of composition and a learned introduction, this edition clearly tracks the development and deviations of Chekhov's talent: short, satirical character studies and tragi-comic romances sit comfortably alongside stories which more seriously and sympathetically explore the nineteenth-century Russian way of life. The longer stories such as 'Ward No.6' and 'A Boring Story' are particularly impressive but, for me, it's in the later stories such as 'The Lady With the Little Dog', 'A Medical Case' and 'The Fiancée' that Chekhov really hits the mark. Like most of the grim offerings of Russian literature, Chekhov's stories aren't for everyone. They render a sobering portrait of pre-Revolutionary Russia: a world of oppressive poverty, cruel winters, loveless marriages, and a remarkable number of consumptive relatives lying on stoves. And those looking for gripping plots or surprise endings should look elsewhere. But those who appreciate delicate observations, 'slice-of-life' narratives, and the occasional epiphany, will find plenty to enjoy here.

A number of readers on Amazon have written that this is the finest of all Chekhov collections in English. Perhaps that is so, but my thought about the various Chekhov collections is that each one of them contains real treasures and each one gives a sense of the essence of Chekhov.
So what I will do here is simply write a few of my thoughts on my recent reading of Chekhov in the hope that they may be of interest to a reader or two.
The Chekhov stories are among the best I have ever read. One element in this is I sense a certain love and respect the author has for his characters even when he may be mocking them. Another element is Chekhov's ability to teach us how to see the character from inside. Chekhov writes with sympathy and insight of the inner lives of others. His work is filled with dreams and longings and disappointments and many great loves. He seems to delight in portraying idiosyncratic characters with great affection. His stories are famous for not ` telling stories' but that is not I think the case. Often his stories do contain within them the narrative of what the person has lived.
As I do not know Russian I cannot fully appreciate the stories, or appreciate his special idiom.But they have a feeling of Russian lavishness, drunkenness, of Russian generosity. They also present the Russian world and Russian nature and have a kind of wild poetry in them .Chekhov sees people and things from inside and sympathetically and he gives the reader a sense of his affection for them. With Chekhov there is a sense of the controlling voice of the writer behind the story as a good person.
Chekhov also is very strong on the theme of reality encountering dream, and knocking it on the head. While he does write of the inner lives of people with sympathy he seems to do it with a kind of scientific objectivity. There is something very convincing about the way his pictures are painted. His characters perhaps because they are Russians know how to go on and on . And often at the heart of the story is a brilliant monologue in which a soul and life are revealed.
Chekhov too has a very strong sense of human foible and folly. There is much comedy and contradiction in his work. And there is a strong sense of his ` realism' in these depictions.
What Chekhov says about life ultimately is difficult to say. Disappointment is the lot of many of his heroes, and illusion is their stock in trade. Dreaming drives so many of them. And many live by fixed ideas which even when they realize seem to mock at them. There is romantic love in Chekhov, great passion and there is too human tenderness and affection. But most of his heroes live crying out inside,while the world outside goes about its business.

I chose this selection of stories as a text for a Senior College course because it is frankly the best translation, true to the original, and with helpful endnotes. The collection is comprehensive and representative of the author's stages of writing from the brief and witty to the sensitive and profound. Besides it is a great bargain!

There are no better short stories than those of Anton Chekov. He wrote characterizations that resonate across the years and across cultures. Chekov takes you deep into these people's lives and struggles so that the reader feels a very definite strong connection with these characters that populate pre-revolutionary Russia. Short on plot and yet each story is satisfying and memorable. Some , Ward 6 is an example ,are masterpieces of the short story form.

Excellent translation and stories that you can read and enjoy again and again for years. You can't go wrong here.

Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov...Whoo! Goodness.

I read this when it was first published, but I can tell you so many of the small things, the details the accretion of which create breathtaking stories stick with me. Easter Night remains remarkable. The solitary traveler, stepping onto the ferry to cross the river, across which a church is bursting with Easter celebrants...Ward No. 6 could have, in some respects, been a precursor to stories such as One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Girl, Interrupted (the movie in the latter case; the book, of course, is completely different). The widely anthologized Gooseberries is remarkable, while Chekhovs odd sense of humor can be seen in Death of a Clerk (a man dying just like that...because of an imagined bad impression on a fellow theater goer?); as well as Anna on the Neck (portrait of all marriages, high ranking or low?) and Rothchild's Fiddle. I loved it. I've yet to read his plays...

I think the translators did a great job, here. Pevear and Volokhonsky impressed me so much with their translations of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, that I was very interested to see how they worked with (in my opinion) the third greatest 19th century Russian writer. That alone, should give you an indication of my value (and understanding/lack of understanding) for this kind of literature; that is, Chekhov's stories are not for every reader. My mom read this book and was concerned with why I would read such "bleak, pessimistic" fiction. I see it totally diferent, though. There is an energy and life to Chekhov's prose that offsets the serious themes a good number of these stories realize. It's like Chekhov really wanted to bring joy to the lives of his characters, to his own life, to his fiction, and the style conveys that -- however, there is no doubt Chekhov realized and sympathized with the harsh reality of the Russian people and the lives they lived. I realize most folks that would even be reading this review probably ain't our ordinary beach-readers, you know, so most of this you probably already know. What I can say is: the selection of stories here span Chekhov's whole career, from his humorist early days, to his so-called "Tolstoy" period, to his latter period when he achieved a certain mastery of form. It's cool to see that range of development: from say, an early story like "The Huntsman" to "A Boring Story" to something like "The Lady with the Little Dog." It's like a time-line of his development through his life, and that alone may be what affected me the most regarding this selection. Each story is followed by the month and year it was completed; for example: April 1894 for "The Student," which according to Pevear's introduction was Chekhov's personal favorite. You can see how his core values as a human stayed similar, but his pallete became ever-richer and more complex. And if it interests you, you'll see how he changed as a human through his life and writing. Again, the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation is superb, thoughtful, and realized. Well worth the price.

The commonplace has it that short-story is the hardest of all literary genres. It may be true. Reading these works by Chekhov, though, it looks easy. That is precisely thanks to his skills. Chekhov's stories have many different subjects, standpoints and even styles. They range from the satirical, to the socially conscious, to the very intimate, to the sad and tender. One of the less obscure Russian authors, nevertheless Chekhov has that Russian touch of melancholy and nostalgia.

He once said that medicine was his legal wife, and literature his mistress. Well, he loved his mistress much. The combination is fortunate, though, because he uses his clinical eye, his experience with suffering, death and the moving situations that come up in that environment, to sharpen his perception of the human soul. No epic overtones here. His stories talk about common people, of different origins and sorts. They don't talk about fantastic or exceptional situations, but about the strange, wonderful or terrible things that happen in everyday life. Some of my favorites: "The kiss", an enigmatic tale about a stolen smack on the lips of a young girl; "The house with the mezaninne", "Enemies", "The lady with the little dog". Summing up, "delicious" is the appropriate word to describe these great stories.

This is the first series of works that I have read by Chekhov. I wanted to read some of his shorter works before beginning reading his novels. Now that I realize how much I enjoy his stlye, which I think other people will like as well, I am looking forward to reading his larger works. I very much liked the insight into the Russian culture.

I think the translators did a great job, here. Pevear and Volokhonsky impressed me so much with their translations of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, that I was very interested to see how they worked with (in my opinion) the third greatest 19th century Russian writer. That alone, should give you an indication of my value (and understanding/lack of understanding) for this kind of literature; that is, Chekhov's stories are not for every reader. My mom read this book and was concerned with why I would read such "bleak, pessimistic" fiction. I see it totally diferent, though. There is an energy and life to Chekhov's prose that offsets the serious themes a good number of these stories realize. It's like Chekhov really wanted to bring joy to the lives of his characters, to his own life, to his fiction, and the style conveys that -- however, there is no doubt Chekhov realized and sympathized with the harsh reality of the Russian people and the lives they lived. I realize most folks that would even be reading this review probably ain't our ordinary beach-readers, you know, so most of this you probably already know. What I can say is: the selection of stories here span Chekhov's whole career, from his humorist early days, to his so-called "Tolstoy" period, to his latter period when he achieved a certain mastery of form. It's cool to see that range of development: from say, an early story like "The Huntsman" to "A Boring Story" to something like "The Lady with the Little Dog." It's like a time-line of his development through his life, and that alone may be what affected me the most regarding this selection. Each story is followed by the month and year it was completed; for example: April 1894 for "The Student," which according to Pevear's introduction was Chekhov's personal favorite. You can see how his core values as a human stayed similar, but his pallete became ever-richer and more complex. And if it interests you, you'll see how he changed as a human through his life and writing. Again, the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation is superb, thoughtful, and realized. Well worth the price.

Stacey Cochran
Author of CLAWS available for 80 cents