Before we address the particulars of this story, can we stop for a second to talk about Chekhov’s abysmal story titles?
I can’t think of another writer whose titles are so damn declarative and frankly uninteresting: “The Wife,” “The Princess,” “A Father,” etc. etc. etc. I imagine Chekhov finishing off a story and thinking to himself, “Hmm, this story is about a father. I guess I’ll call it ‘A Father.’ Who gives a crap what the title is?”
So, here we have a story called, “A Dead Body.”
Hmm. Wonder what that could be about?
“A Dead Body” is basically nothing more than that: A dead body lies in the woods, being watched over by two simple bumpkins. A traveler happens upon them and is freaked out by the presence of the body. He runs off. Then one of the bumpkins, growing tired of watching over the body, also runs away. End of story. We never learn who the body was, what he died for, or anything else.
It’s a dead body.
“I’ll call it ‘A Dead Body.’ That’ll do.”
One biographical note: This story seems to be based in part on Chekhov’s experience as a medical examiner. See the introductory essay on this site, “13 Ways of Looking at Anton Chekhov,” for more details
READ THIS? READ THAT!
This tale brought to mind another not-very-good and not-very-well-titled tale, “Happiness,” which features a conversation among shepherds about possible treasure buried in the woods around them. I have tried, in making recommendations, not to “round-trip” the stories–that is, have Story A point to Story B and then to have Story B point back to Story A. But the fact is that I wouldn’t really recommend “A Dead Body” except as an exercise of some sort, so the hell with it: Read this and “Happiness” as a pair, if you must!
A Chekhov Circus 