A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Category: Published in Volume 9 of the Garnett translations

No. 36 – In Exile

This is a perfectly horrible, extremely well-wrought story. A young Tatar has been banished to the steppe. There he meets old Semyon, who has been eking out a living in exile for years, and whose philosophy of life is that it is better to be miserable, because you’ll get used to it. If you grow…

October 8, 2022
No. 84 – After the Theater

A flighty teenager daydreams about life and religion.

October 8, 2022
No. 130 – Small Fry

A resentful clerk dreams of avenging himself on his superiors, but he can only take out his frustrations on a cockroach.

October 8, 2022
No. 107 – A Tragic Actor

A father is distraught when his daughter runs off with an actor.

October 8, 2022
No. 178 – The Bet

A lawyer bets he can live in solitary confinement for 15 years.

October 8, 2022
No. 188 – The Shoemaker and the Devil

A shoemaker agrees to sell his soul to the devil.

October 8, 2022
No. 113 – A Nervous Breakdown

A naive law student has a nervous breakdown after a dispiriting bar crawl through Moscow’s red light district.

October 8, 2022
No. 176 – Panic Fears

An unnamed narrator relates three separate, unrelated moments of deep unease.

October 8, 2022
No. 164 – The Beauties

An unnamed narrator recalls two strikingly beautiful women.

October 7, 2022
No. 152 – The Cattle Dealers

This is a long story, practically a novella, that is more reportage than fiction. Written in the present tense like a news article, the story concerns the transport of a herd of cattle via rail. The story details the various difficulties of transporting and selling cattle, and in particular the challenges involved in cajoling (and…

October 7, 2022