A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Category: Story Length

  • 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. 6 – Easter Eve

    Chekhov is generally considered to be an atheist, but his letters are studded with religious references, especially around Easter, the most profound Christian holiday and an especially important one in Russia. “Christ is risen!” he exclaimed in letters each spring, year after year. This may be not much different than a non-observant modern American typing…

  • No. 2 – In the Coach-House

    This is a profound story, brief as a flicker of fire. A group of workmen are playing a game of cards in the stable of a manor house. The master of the house has shot himself in the head. The men gossip.  The men are playing a game of “kings,” and periodically one of them…

  • No. 20 – Art

    Like “The Fish,” “Too Early,” and several other Chekhov stories, “Art” is a tale featuring comically oafish workingmen, but in this case, the main character, a peasant named Seryozkha, has a special talent. Seryozkha is a ragged, mangy mutt of a man, with tufts of wool hanging from his shaggy sheepskin. Not only that, he…

  • No. 18 – Ionitch

    This is one of the most accomplished and satisfying of Chekhov’s stories, a portrait of a pinched, gouty man, Ionitch, whose pride prevents him from having anything but a pinched, gouty life. Dmitri Ionitch Startsev, a doctor new in town, is welcomed into the home of the local gentry, the slightly absurd Turkin family. The…

  • No. 19 – Three Years

    For a reader attempting to dig through the entire 13 volumes of Constance Garnett’s translations of Chekhov’s stories and novellas, “Three Years” is an extraordinarily satisfying conclusion to the first volume. A novella, it is not only the best and richest story in the volume, it also touches on many of the themes and motifs…

  • 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. 14 – The Party

    This story is just about perfect. The party of the title is a name-day celebration for Pyotr, a handsome, self-satisfied, possibly philandering, and definitely pompous aristocrat of less-than significant means. His wife, Olya, is pregnant and miserable, not only because of Pyotr’s bloviating and flirting, but also because she is painfully encased in a corset…