A Chekhov Circus

A guide to the short stories of Anton Chekhov

Tag: Servants

  • 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. 52 – Vanka

    This is a frightful tale of suffering. Vanka, a child of nine, has been left alone on Christmas Eve by the shoemaker to whom he is apprenticed. For once left alone, Vanka gets some paper and ink and composes a letter to his only living relative, his grandfather, begging him to rescue him. Vanka describes…

  • 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. 47 – A Daughter of Albion

    Now and again, Chekhov mystifies me, and I am left uncertain as to what I have just read. Is it satire? Is it melodrama?  What in the world is going on here? “A Daughter of Albion” is one of those stories. It was published in 1883, during Chekhov’s fertile “entertainments” period, when many of his…

  • No. 58 – The Head of the Family

    This is a brief, searing portrait of an ill-tempered father and his cowering family. Doubtless it was inspired by Chekhov’s own ill-tempered father, Pavel. Chekhov did not write from life, exactly, and the circumstances of the Zhilin family in this story are different from that of the Chekhovs, but the character of the father in…

  • No. 49 – A Transgression

    This is a minor tale, but it’s well done. In fact, it’s among the best twist endings Chekhov ever delivered. The story is extremely short and the whole point is the twist at the end, so if you don’t want a spoiler, just skip the next two paragraphs. “A Transgression” is the story of a…

  • 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. 64 – An Upheaval

    A governess is appalled to be accused of stealing jewelry from her employers.

  • No. 90 – Nerves

    A man gets the heebie-jeebies after going to a seance.

  • 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…