A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Category: Published in Volume 13 of the Garnett translations

  • No. 21 – Too Early

    This is a sketch of peasant life; it would sit very comfortably between “Peasants” and “Peasant Wives,” two of Chekhov’s best-known portraits of rural poverty. A quick aside: I don’t love using the word “peasant.”  But it’s almost impossible to talk about Chekhov’s work without it. Characters are often referred to as peasants; there are…

  • No. 44 – A Living Chattel

    This is the earliest story included in the 13 volumes of tales that Constance Garnett translated. It’s the only story out of the hundreds in the collection that was published in 1882, when Chekhov was grinding away at medical school and just beginning to publish his work in a few journals, most of them newish…

  • No. 47 – A Daughter of Albion

    Now and again, Chekhov mystifies me, and I am left uncertain as to what I have just read. Is it satire? Is it melodrama?  What in the world is going on here? “A Daughter of Albion” is one of those stories. It was published in 1883, during Chekhov’s fertile “entertainments” period, when many of his…

  • No. 90 – Nerves

    A man gets the heebie-jeebies after going to a seance.

  • No. 154 – An Inquiry

    A dispiriting visit to a government office, where nothing happens without a bribe.

  • No. 131 – Martyrs

    A woman makes the most of a sick day, exhausting her husband in the process.

  • No. 136 – A Story Without an End

    An actor’s failed suicide spurs his neighbor, a writer, to use him as the subject for a story.

  • No. 137 – Fat and Thin

    A pair of old school friends bump into each other and discover that their careers have followed quite different paths.

  • No. 167 – Mari D’elle

    A self-involved opera singer feuds with her self-important husband.

  • No. 32 – Choristers

    Choirmaster Alexey Alexeitch works for weeks to prepare his singers for a visiting dignitary, only to have his hopes dashed at the last moment. This story is another example of Chekhov’s general admiration for people doing their jobs. Alexey Alexeitch is not necessarily a very good musician, and he certainly doesn’t have a gentle touch…