A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Category: Published in Volume 6 of the Garnett translations

  • No. 17 – Dreams

    This is a sad, beautiful snapshot of a poor man who, though broken, impoverished and in ill health, still clings to dreams of a simple life in nature. The dreams of the story title are those of a nameless tramp who is being escorted to a town center by two “peasant constables.” The tramp, like…

  • No. 16 – Agafya

    “Agafya” is a portrait of rural life pressured by Russia’s changing economy. It is set in a village where justice is served via a peasant court that metes out punishment in the medieval fashion, with floggings and who knows what other cruelties. But in this seemingly medieval society, many of the men ride trains to…

  • No. 15 – The New Villa

    This is one of the occasional Chekhov stories that is explicitly about social tensions in Russia. It’s a compelling tale and an interesting peephole into the ways that the rich and poor lived–and their sometimes fraught relationships. The story: A bridge is being built outside a small village. We’re never told why the bridge is…

  • No. 12 – Peasant Wives

    Of the hundreds of Chekhov stories I have read, this is the one I have thought back on most often, so astounding are the characterizations, so complete the world created by the writer, and so cruel the lives he describes. The story is complicated, considering how brief it is. The opening pages are presented almost…

  • No. 51 – Gusev

    Dipping into his medical bag of tricks, and possibly drawing on his own experience of tuberculosis, Chekhov sketches a brief tale of a dying soldier shipping home on board a steamer. The soldier, Gusev, shares an uncomfortable space with several other men, all deathly ill; one, Pavel, blithely tells Gusev that he (Gusev) will die…

  • No. 93 – A Malefactor

    A poor man stands trial for removing hardware from the railroad tracks, an act he can’t see as a crime.

  • No. 97 – In the Ravine

    A family saga of a thieving, conniving clan of merchants in a factory town.

  • No. 162 – Happiness

    Two shepherds and a bailiff trade stories about supposed treasures buried in the woods.

  • No. 28 – The Student

    This is a lovely, unironic portrait of religious belief. A clerical student, walking home through the woods, comes upon a mother and daughter having dinner. As he warms himself at their fire, he is reminded of the way the apostle Peter similarly warmed himself on the evening of the last supper.  The student recalls the…

  • No. 30 – Peasants

    From a modern perspective, “Peasants” is problematic, and it’s worth digging into why that is before looking at the novella itself. First of all, the title. Using a title like “Peasants” is like calling a story set in the Hasidic community “Jews,” or one set in Kentucky “Rednecks.” Obviously you can’t apply modern sensibilities to…