A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Category: First appeared in print in 1886

  • 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. 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. 52 – Vanka

    This is a frightful tale of suffering. Vanka, a child of nine, has been left alone on Christmas Eve by the shoemaker to whom he is apprenticed. For once left alone, Vanka gets some paper and ink and composes a letter to his only living relative, his grandfather, begging him to rescue him. Vanka describes…

  • No. 57 – A Gentleman Friend

    Sigh. Another day, another story flawed by Chekhov’s antisemitism.  “A Gentleman Friend” concerns a woman – I suppose she would have been called a “fallen woman” back in the day – who approaches a former lover for money.  The man, Finkel, is a grotesque. I was going to type up the description of him but…

  • 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…

  • No. 88 – Talent

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

  • No. 64 – An Upheaval

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

  • No. 85 – A Trifle from Life

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

  • No. 91 – A Tripping Tongue

    A blabbermouth wife reveals a bit too much about her girls-only trip to her husband.