A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Tag: Inequality

  • 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…

  • 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. 42 – The Cook’s Wedding

    If you don’t happen to be a Chekhov completist and you aren’t reading every single volume of Constance Garnett’s 13-volume translation of Chekhov’s stories, let me explain that the story “The Cook’s Wedding” is the first story of volume 12, in which every story is about children or animals. If reading roughly two dozen stories…

  • No. 53 – Sleepy

    In 1883, Chekhov published 35 stories. In 1884, the number slipped to 19, a decline presumably related to the fact that he graduated from medical school this year and began practicing as a doctor. In 1885 the pace picked up, with 37 stories published. And in 1886 the floodgates opened, with 63 stories hitting the…

  • No. 59 – An Artist’s Story

    An indolent artist courts a rich young woman against the wishes of her older sister.

  • No. 95 – Zinotchka

    A man recalls his efforts to blackmail his childhood tutor, who had falled in love with his older brother.

  • No. 96 – The Chorus Girl

    An angry wife confronts her husband’s mistress, demanding that she give up the jewelry he bought for her.

  • No. 24 – Anna on the Neck

    This is a sort of fable, although one without a simple moral. Anna, the daughter of a impoverished drunkard, is married off to a wealthy, much older man, an insufferable, repulsive fellow who, despite his wealth, is stingy with his beautiful young wife. The peculiar title of the story refers to an honor conferred on…

  • No. 37 – (tie) Polinka/Anyuta

    These two brief sketches focus on wretched love affairs. In the Constance Garnett translations of Chekhov, they appear side-by-side, and as a reader you can’t help but see them as a single piece of fiction, even though they stand completely separate, and were written months apart. Of the two, “Anyuta” is the harsher, more painful…

  • No. 138 – A Nightmare

    A wealthy man fails to understand the effects of poverty on the local priest, who has been tasked with opening a schoo.