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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. 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. 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…
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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…
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No. 15 – The New Villa
This is one of the occasional Chekhov stories that is explicitly about social tensions in Russia. It’s a compelling tale and an interesting peephole into the ways that the rich and poor lived–and their sometimes fraught relationships. The story: A bridge is being built outside a small village. We’re never told why the bridge is…
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No. 12 – Peasant Wives
Of the hundreds of Chekhov stories I have read, this is the one I have thought back on most often, so astounding are the characterizations, so complete the world created by the writer, and so cruel the lives he describes. The story is complicated, considering how brief it is. The opening pages are presented almost…
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No. 59 – An Artist’s Story
An indolent artist courts a rich young woman against the wishes of her older sister.
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No. 87 – Darkness
A poor man begs a government doctor to help free his brother from jail.
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No. 93 – A Malefactor
A poor man stands trial for removing hardware from the railroad tracks, an act he can’t see as a crime.
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No. 45 – The Dependents
This is one of the more painful Chekhov stories, I must say, and that’s surprising given that the beings that suffer most greatly in it are animals. I can hardly bring myself to offer a thumbnail sketch of the plot, but here goes: Zotov, a grouchy old man, alone and lonely, can no longer afford…
A Chekhov Circus
A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov
A Chekhov Circus 