A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Category: Story Length

No. 60 – The Runaway

This is, essentially, a bit of reportage about the workings of a rural hospital. It was published in 1887, when Chekhov had been out in the world working as a doctor for several years. The tale is told through the eyes of a boy, Pashka, seven years old, unable to read or write, presumably a…

October 17, 2022
No. 86 – Neighbours

A weak-willed man ineffectually seeks to avenge the stain on his honor after his sister takes up with a married man.

October 17, 2022
No. 61 – The Privy Councillor

“The Privy Councillor” is a funny but also deadly serious story about a small-town family being upended by a visit from a relative who has risen far above his modest beginnings. The visitor is the privy councillor, a foppish, citified, quivering dandy. We never learn his name; the narrator, his 14-year-old nephew, only refers to…

October 17, 2022
No. 62 – Sorrow

A mingy man waits too long to get his wife to the doctor’s.

October 17, 2022
No. 63 – From the Diary of a Violent-Tempered Man

A comically inept academic resists marriage, but resistance is futile.

October 17, 2022
No. 88 – Talent

A lazy artist summering in the countryside seduces a young woman who wants to escape to the big city.

October 17, 2022
No. 64 – An Upheaval

A governess is appalled to be accused of stealing jewelry from her employers.

October 17, 2022
No. 85 – A Trifle from Life

A man living with another man’s wife betrays a secret confided in him by her son.

October 17, 2022
No. 87 – Darkness

A poor man begs a government doctor to help free his brother from jail.

October 17, 2022
No. 90 – Nerves

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

October 17, 2022