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Reading Chekhov in the Shadow of Putin
A few days after Russia launched an attack on Ukraine in early 2022, I went to pick up some vodka at the local liquor store. Squatting down to examine the bottles on the bottom shelf, I heard the clerk call out to me, “We don’t stock anything from Russia.” I said I wouldn’t have bought…
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Stories, A to Z
All the stories, in alphabetical order, if that’s your thing.
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About This Site
“A Chekhov Circus” is a companion to the short stories and novellas of Anton Chekhov. The site features a brief essay about each of 201 Chekhov stories, based on the translations by Constance Garnett. The site was written and built by me, Ezra Palmer, in 2022. I’m a journalist and internet executive (ex-Wall Street Journal,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
A Chekhov Circus
A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov
A Chekhov Circus 