A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Category: Story publication date

  • No. 69 – In a Strange Land

    A bullying landowner delights in insulting his servant.

  • No. 30 – Peasants

    From a modern perspective, “Peasants” is problematic, and it’s worth digging into why that is before looking at the novella itself. First of all, the title. Using a title like “Peasants” is like calling a story set in the Hasidic community “Jews,” or one set in Kentucky “Rednecks.” Obviously you can’t apply modern sensibilities to…

  • No. 32 – Choristers

    Choirmaster Alexey Alexeitch works for weeks to prepare his singers for a visiting dignitary, only to have his hopes dashed at the last moment. This story is another example of Chekhov’s general admiration for people doing their jobs. Alexey Alexeitch is not necessarily a very good musician, and he certainly doesn’t have a gentle touch…

  • No. 34 – A Peculiar Man

    What kind of man would bargain with a midwife while his wife is in labor? “A Peculiar Man,” per the title of this story. “A Peculiar Man” is chilling and grim. The man of the title, Kiryakov, a mid- to senior level government bureaucrat, barges into a midwife’s home demanding haste, as his wife is…

  • 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…

  • No. 35 – The Cossack

    Driving home from Easter services with his wife, a young farmer chances upon a man in a field–a Cossack–who has fallen ill. The farmer’s minor attempt to help the man is blocked by his wife, and they return home, leaving the Cossack alone in the field. This small failure of charity is an omen of…

  • No. 65 – Who Was to Blame?

    A stern latin teacher fails to deal with a mouse problem.

  • No. 108 – A Story Without a Title

    A monk’s warnings about the goings-on in a big city have the opposite effect he intended.

  • No. 39 – A Trivial Incident

    This is a modest but nevertheless memorable tale of a prince, a once wealthy landowner who has fallen on hard times. The story begins in a forest where the prince, Sergey Ivanich, is out hunting, accompanied by the unnamed narrator. They are approached by the bailiff–the manager of the land–who explains that hunting is forbidden,…

  • No. 40 – Not Wanted

    A brief story about a gloomy bureaucrat, Zaikin, whose wife is fun-loving and gay and possibly having affairs. The setting is a summer resort. Zaikin can only visit a couple nights a week–he doesn’t have enough money to commute to his summer home every day–but his wife has settled in for the season. This tale…