A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Tag: Schools and Education

  • No. 10 – The Schoolmistress

    This is a beautiful, concise tale of a lonely and loveless woman, a teacher in a rural school. Her work is largely unappreciated, if not completely ignored, by the local government and population. On a regular basis she must travel to town to collect her pay, and on one of these trips she meets a…

  • No. 59 – An Artist’s Story

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

  • No. 153 – A Classical Student

    A young man must bear the wrath of his angry mother when his studies go poorly.

  • No. 7 – The Schoolmaster

    This is an amazing story, certainly among Chekhov’s best.  The plot: An aged principal attends his school’s annual dinner despite his ill health and general weakness. The schoolmaster, Sysoev, is not, it seems, a terribly nice man: Tetchy and volatile, he rejects any suggestion that he may not be strong enough to attend the festivities.…

  • No. 65 – Who Was to Blame?

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

  • No. 149 – The Teacher of Literature

    A teacher wins the hand of a wealthy young woman, but wonders if he has made a mistake in marrying her.

  • No. 146 – Ladies

    On occasion, Chekhov’s stories are almost impossible for a current day American (moi!) to parse. In this brutal and yet weirdly antic story, we meet a schoolmaster and one of his teachers. The teacher–who has been employed by the school for 14 years–has lost his voice, supposedly  from drinking a cold beer while he was…