If you don’t happen to be a Chekhov completist and you aren’t reading every single volume of Constance Garnett’s 13-volume translation of Chekhov’s stories, let me explain that the story “The Cook’s Wedding” is the first story of volume 12, in which every story is about children or animals.
If reading roughly two dozen stories about children and animals does not exactly set your heart fluttering with anticipation, well, you and I are in agreement. That said, Volume 12 gets off to a good start with “The Cook’s Wedding.” (BTW, for once, a good title! Good job, Anton!)
The story: Grisha, a seven-year-old boy, eavesdrops and observes the courtship rituals of servants in his household. Danilo, a cabman, is wooing Pelageya, the cook. Young and unworldly, Grisha is confused both by the servants’ behavior and by his own family’s attitudes. What, he wonders, is the point of getting married?
Well, in the final paragraphs, we learn why Danilo, at least, wants to get married. It’s a very nice twist, one that may leave a modern reader gasping. I won’t give it away.
READ THIS? READ THAT!
Because the stories in volume 12 are all about children, with a few animal stories thrown in, most of the comparable tales can be found right there in the same volume. There are a handful of stories presented from a child’s-eye view, a la “The Cook’s Wedding.” “In Passion Week” is one of the better ones, credibly showing the world as a boy might see it, glorious, frightening, and comforting all at once.
A Chekhov Circus 