A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Tag: Countryside and Nature

  • 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…

  • No. 13 – Betrothed

    This was Chekhov’s final story, published about a year before he died. Death hovers over the story: One of the characters is in poor health and ultimately dies of tuberculosis, the disease that felled Chekhov himself. The story: Nadya is engaged to be married to a well-off local man, but as the wedding day approaches,…

  • 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. 162 – Happiness

    Two shepherds and a bailiff trade stories about supposed treasures buried in the woods.

  • 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. 80 – The Pipe

    A bailiff and a shepherd worry that the natural world is being despoiled.

  • No. 109 – Whitebrow

    A wolf accidentally kidnaps a puppy during a raid on a farm.

  • No. 125 – A Day in the Country

    Two poor, homeless children survive a frightening storm with the help of a kindly old peasant.

  • No. 177 – A Country Cottage

    A happy young couple find their idyllic day in the country ruined when unexpected family visitors come to call.