The Undiscovered Chekhov: Forty-Three New Stories [Hardcover]

Anton Chekhov (Author), Peter Constantine (Translator), Spalding Gray (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1999

The Undiscovered Chekhov gives us, in rich abundance, a new Chekhov. Peter Constantine's historic collection presents 38 new stories and with them a fresh interpretation of the Russian master. In contrast to the brooding representative of a dying century we have seen over and over, here is Chekhov's work from the 1880s, when Chekhov was in his twenties and his writing was sharp, witty and innovative.
Many of the stories in The Undiscovered Chekhov reveal Chekhov as a keen modernist. Emphasizing impressions and the juxtaposition of incongruent elements, instead of the straight narrative his readers were used to, these stories upturned many of the assumptions of storytelling of the period.
Here is "Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town," written as a series of telegrams, beginning with "Have been drinking to Sarah's health all week! Enchanting! She actually dies standing up!..." In "Confession...," a thirty-nine year old bachelor recounts some of the fifteen times chance foiled his marriage plans. In "How I Came to be Lawfully Wed," a couple reminisces about the day they vowed to resist their parents' plans that they should marry. And in the more familiarly Chekhovian "Autumn," an alcoholic landowner fallen low and a peasant from his village meet far from home in a sad and haunting reunion in which the action of the story is far less important than the powerful impression it leaves with the reader that each man must live his life and has his reasons.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Here's a treat for any Chekhov lover: a collection of 38 previously untranslated stories by the Russian master. Even better, these stories date back to the 1880s, when the author was still in his 20s and at his most prolific. That he wrote at all is something of a miracle--unlike other great Russian authors of his time (Dostoevski, Pushkin, Tolstoy, to name a few), Anton Chekhov was not a member of the nobility. The son of a bankrupt grocer, he entered medical school and became, at the same time, the breadwinner for his impoverished family by cranking out stories for magazines. His revolutionary approach to literature was apparent from the get-go. In "Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town," for example, Chekhov uses a string of telegrams instead of a conventional narrative to tell his story. ("Telegram: Have been drinking to Sarah's health all week! Enchanting! She actually dies standing up! Our actors can't touch the Parisians!") Even more unusual for 19th-century literature is the apparent lack of a plot. The telegrams are simply a collection of reactions to a single performance, from an usher ("Let in four. Fourteen rubles. Let in five. Fifteen r. Let in three and one madame. Fifteen rubles") to a doctor ("Last night I saw S.B. Her chest--paralytic and flat. Skeletal and muscular structure--unsatisfactory") to various members of the audience ("Darling! When it comes to Sarah Bernhardt, as the saying goes: you can dip a frog in honey but it doesn't mean I'll eat it").

All the qualities the more mature Chekhov is known for in his later works are apparent in these early stories: unconventional narratives, tremendous wit, psychological perspicacity, and above all that peculiarly modern interest in why human beings behave the way they do. Translator Peter Constantine's introduction gives readers both a good overview of Chekhov's life and a literary context for appreciating the stories collected here, but it is Chekhov himself whose remarkable brilliance will keep readers coming back for more. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly

Unearthed by translator Constantine (Six Early Stories, by Thomas Mann) from the archives of the New York Public Library, these humorous tales, sketches and vignettes written by Chekhov in his 20s stand in the same relation to the later stories as his one-act "vaudevilles" do to his major plays. Appearing in Moscow and St. Petersburg magazines under such pen names as "Antosha" and "A man without a spleen," they display the overflowing energy of a young man exploring sundry genresAsatires, sentimental portraits, domestic comedy, impressions of the commonplaceAto amuse and to earn money. While the shorter sketches are near-anonymous hackwork, some of the later, longer stories reveal Chekhovian elements, such as a querulous elderly couple "hissing and growling at each other" while their daughter's engagement is being decided ("A Serious Step"). An ailing tutor trying to get a prescription discovers he hasn't enough money ("At the Pharmacy"), and a physician brooding over his colleagues can't assume an appropriate facial expression ("Intrigues"). Throughout, readers can see Chekhov training his eye for character and sharpening his ear for dialogue, as well as reveling in a surprisingly boisterous sense of fun. Sometimes the youthful humor explodes into a carnival atmosphere, as in a community's reaction to a tour by Sarah Bernhardt ("Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town"). These early stories, some of which have appeared recently in Harper's and the New Yorker, deliver the lightest of literary entertainment, with a glimmer of potential brilliance. (Nov.) FYI: Another Chekhov collection is noted below.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press; 1St Edition edition (May 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888363762
• ISBN-13: 978-1888363760
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,353,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real tressure for Chekhov lovers, May 13, 2000

By 

Sunil Govinnage (PERTH Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Undiscovered Chekhov: Forty-Three New Stories (Hardcover)

`The Undiscovered Chekhov' is a real tressure for Chekhov lovers. This is a collection of 38 stories previously untranslated to English-speaking readers. The original stories published in Russian magazines while Chekhov was studying medicine at Moscow University in the 1880s represent new angles in many ways. They provide great insights into young Chekhov's talents as an innovative and a gifted writer. Secondly, they represent Chekhov's early experimentations with narratives and techniques even before he became well known as a master craftsman of modern short stories. Thirdly, the stories translated by a gifted translator provide an excellent historical account of Chekhov's contemporary Russia.

As Peter Constantine records in his introduction the discovery of the original Russian stories at the New York Public Library is also an interesting story. The introduction provides an excellent background to the Chekhov's life, his techniques as well as background to some of the stories.

This collection is a rare gift for anyone who wants to know how a modern master story-teller had begun his career.