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The Essential Tales of Chekhov

by Anton Chekhov, Constance Garnett (Translator), Richard Ford (Editor)

4.38 · rating details · 227 ratings · 40 reviews

Of the two hundred stories that Anton Chekhov wrote, the twenty stories that appear in this extraordinary collection were personally chosen by Richard Ford--an accomplished storyteller in his own right. Included are the familiar masterpieces--"The Kiss," "The Darling," and "The Lady with the Dog"--as well as several brilliant lesser-known tal

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Paperback, 368 pages

Published July 1st 2000 by Harper Perennial

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Mar 05, 2008

Teresa rated it

I'm not sure what else there is to say about these stories of Chekhov that hasn't been said already by many others. Richard Ford writes in the introduction that his first encounter with Chekhov came when he was too young, at the age of 20. I can say the same thing, having first read Chekhov in high school. There was no way I could've grasped the subtlety of the details in, for example, "Lady with a Dog," back then.

Chekhov's characters break your heart, including the dog i...more

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Jun 22, 2008

Jamie rated it

Shelves: heavy-lit

I went to the library with the intent of finding something challenging and stimulating for my otherwise underused brain, and ended up choosing this from an armload of other "C's" -- Camus and Calvino. My previous experience with Chekhov was reading a series of three "lost" stories published in Harper's about ten years ago, when I was in my early 20's. Like the editor of this volume, "I remember no one telling me anything more than that Chekhov was great, and that he was ...moreI went to the library with the intent of finding something challenging and stimulating for my otherwise underused brain, and ended up choosing this from an armload of other "C's" -- Camus and Calvino. My previous experience with Chekhov was reading a series of three "lost" stories published in Harper's about ten years ago, when I was in my early 20's. Like the editor of this volume, "I remember no one telling me anything more than that Chekhov was great, and that he was Russian."

The introduction to this collection is fantastic, and I highly recommend reading it. Highly. Read it before you start reading, and reread it once you finish. For anyone not sure if Chekhov is for them (or rather, if they are ready for Chekhov, since I would say his stories are for everyone who thinks and reads), read the introduction and then decide. I cannot describe these stories in any way that would be more clear than Richard Ford's introduction. He writes,"...Chekhov seems to me a writer for adults, his work becoming useful and also beautiful by attracting attention to mature feelings, to complicated human responses, and small issues of moral choice within large, overarching dilemmas, any part of which, were we to encounter them in our complex, headlong life with others, might evade even sophisticated notice."

That I am giving this 4 stars is a comment on my current state of readiness and awareness at age 31, having let my critical thinking brain cells deteriorate into fluff. The first section of the book was easy for me to understand, and I loved the stories. I got distracted and stuck once the longer ones began, and faltered several times after. However, I always sensed that there was something there that I just wasn't comprehending, and that it was not the fault of the author, but my own shortcomings. Richard Ford describes this as feeling "highly respectful of something I can only describe as a profound-feeling gray light emanating from the story's austere interior."

Chekhov seems to me to be an illuminator of those dark corners in human behavior, in our minds, which we are all aware of yet choose not to acknowledge. He shines his light and what appears is so clear, it is something that can no longer be denied. It simply exists, without judgment, without shame -- though of course I quickly apply that judgment and shame to it, and marvel at his skill and his knowing. I laugh, I cry, I think about my life, my secret imaginings and dreams, and I know I will seek out his stories again in a few years, and a few years after that, for the rest of my life.(less)

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Oct 27, 2010

David rated it

I liked A Misfortune most. It makes perfect sense to me now, whereas it left me cold when I read it in my teens and knew nothing of this sort of misfortune.

But all the others are greatly perceptive too and speak on a deeply personal level. The Geisha, for example:

They loved each other like people very close and akin, like husband and wife, like tender friends; it seemed to them that fate itself had meant them for one another, and they could not understand... and it was as...more

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Oct 17, 2010

Jody rated it

"To think that it is the duty of literature to pluck the pearl from the heap of villains is to deny literature itself. Literature is called artistic when it depicts life as it actually is.... A writer should be as objective as a chemist," said Anton Chekhov. His writing is objective and precise. He lingers on his characters and takes the readers carefully through their emotional and mental journeys. Nowhere is this truer than in The Essential Tales of Chekhov, an anthology that covers ...more"To think that it is the duty of literature to pluck the pearl from the heap of villains is to deny literature itself. Literature is called artistic when it depicts life as it actually is.... A writer should be as objective as a chemist," said Anton Chekhov. His writing is objective and precise. He lingers on his characters and takes the readers carefully through their emotional and mental journeys. Nowhere is this truer than in The Essential Tales of Chekhov, an anthology that covers Chekhov’s stories from 1886 to 1899. Richard Ford, no slouch in the short story writing department, picked the twenty stories to help the reader “become more aware of the breadth of experience, humor and temperament he cultivated and was heir to.” For somebody new to Chekhov, this particular selection covers his wide range. The greats – “Ward No. 6” and “The Lady with the Dog” are present, but so are the humorous “A Blunder” and the animal story, “Kashtanka.” Whether Chekhov’s precision came from his training and practice as a doctor or from some great well of writing craft deep within his writer’s soul is debatable, but his careful objectivity exhibited in this anthology makes for great reading.

What may be considered the sister story to “The Lady with the Dog,” “The Grasshopper” is a love triangle between Olga Ivanovna, her husband, Osip Dymov, and her lover, Ryabovsky. Chekhov immediately alerts the reader to Olga’s personality with the first sentence: “All Olga Ivanovna’s friends and acquaintances were at her wedding.” Notice family is missing. Chekhov then has Olga talk to her friends about her “simple, very ordinary” husband. The genius is how Chekhov portrays this woman through lengthy descriptions and revealing dialogue. For example, her husband brings her caviar, cheese, and salmon that he ends up not getting to eat; however, her artist friends get to enjoy the meal. She has dramatic conversations with her lover, Ryabovsky, that inevitably lead to apathy on both their parts. What is a story about a self-indulged, spoiled woman who does not appreciate her kind, loving husband becomes a study of the mendacity of people. Chekhov captures the appeal of an affair as well as its inevitable demise.

Amazingly, he shows the contradictions of human life with a dog in “Kashtanka.” The protagonist is red dog that resemble a fox. The reader finds out that her owners abuse her. Fortunately for Kashtanka, she is rescued by a circus performer and his menagerie of circus performing animals; a gander, a cat named Fyodor Timofeyitch, and Havronya Ivanovna, the pig. While receiving love and affection, Kashtanka still dreams of her former owners. “And as she dropped asleep, she always felt that those figures smelt of glue, shavings, and varnish.” The story progresses with Kashtanka learning circus tricks, dealing with the death of the gander, and readying for a performance in front of an audience. In the final moment where the reader finds out whether Kashtanka will save the circus performer from ruin, her former owners are in the crowd. Without a thought to what she is leaving behind, Kashtanka “was passed from hand to hand, licked hands and faces, kept mounting higher and higher, and at last got to the gallery…” As she walked home, she thought, “all that seemed to her now like a long, tangled, oppressive dream.” Chekhov built this story around the perspective of a dog and dissects human foibles through Kashtanka.

Human shortcomings is a recurrent theme with Chekhov. In “A Trifle from Life,” a jealous lover, Nikolay Belyaev, breaks a promise to a small child, Alyosha. Like the careful construction of his other stories, Chekhov portrays Belyaev as a man changed by the innocence of young Alyosha. However, Alyosha tells Belyaev that his father thinks him a scoundrel. In a defining moment, Belyaev accuses the wife’s ex-husband of wrong doing even though Alyosha begs him not to tell. The fact that the ex-husband is insignificant in the family’s life has no bearing on Belyaev. Ignoring the bond that he created, he lambastes the wife for her ex-husbands libel, and young Alyosha is taught a hard fact of life.

This particular anthology reveals not only Chekhov’s range in understanding of character, but also his range as a writer. The collected stories range in length, content, and style. His dialogue is telling and his landscapes echo the workings in his characters’ inner emotions. It is easy to dissect his stories, to peel apart layers until the reader can see how his words fit with the next. If Chekhov required objectivity in the writing of his short stories, then the reader needs objectivity to read these stories, because, like Chekhov said, literature is artistic when it depicts life as it is, and sometimes, his words can turn into a mirror, reflecting our own faces back at us.
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Feb 07, 2012

Nick Sweeney rated it

This is a collection of Chekov stories edited by Richard Ford (for what that’s worth – I assume they mean chosen by in this instance). It’s hard to pick any duds with Chekov, so RF’s difficulty would probably have been more on the lines of what not to choose. Some of these stories were new to me, or maybe I’d just forgotten them; some are a little on the slight, ho-hum side, so I’ll concentrate here on the ones I liked.

The Kiss seems like a good bet to as one of the more well-known ...moreThis is a collection of Chekov stories edited by Richard Ford (for what that’s worth – I assume they mean chosen by in this instance). It’s hard to pick any duds with Chekov, so RF’s difficulty would probably have been more on the lines of what not to choose. Some of these stories were new to me, or maybe I’d just forgotten them; some are a little on the slight, ho-hum side, so I’ll concentrate here on the ones I liked.

The Kiss seems like a good bet to as one of the more well-known stories in this collection: an artillery officer, idling at a country house, uncomfortable in these surroundings and a little bit left out of the revelries pursued by his fellow-officers, ducks into a darkened room, and an unknown woman comes in and kisses him, then leaves. The story follows his thoughts about this odd incident. It seems like a bit of an anachronism in this day and age, when people are much more intimate, and just move on and forget about it, but I think it has universal appeal for anybody who has had a glimpse of happiness and lost it, and it really doesn’t matter how it happened or how long it lasted.

Kashtanka is the story of a dog: she loses her rather cruel master and his sadistic son, and is taken into a new home, with food and companionship in the form of a cat, a goose and, occasionally, a pig. If this sounds like a children’s tale, it isn’t; it works on an entirely different level. Kashtanka is comfortable, gets to share exotic company, seems to reach an uneasy happiness. But one night, with one of her new companions suffering the pain of injury, she gains a terrible new perspective. It is as the nature of her new master is revealed that she makes an all-too-human choice, which will resonate with anybody who has ever had to face a dilemma.

Ward No 6 centres on patients incarcerated in a mental hospital, and on the indolent town doctor and his scheming cohorts. One of the patients seems to be saner than the rest, and the doctor, somewhat foolishly breaks the mould of his type of man in his time and place, and wants to get at the patient’s story. It went on a bit too long for a short story, I thought, and didn’t feel that it warranted the slog through it, though full of gripping detail.

The same was true of the novella-length An Anonymous Story. Firstly, I didn’t get the title – it just seemed to me that Chekov was unable to think of one, then it became known under this one. It is a fascinating tale of deception and revenge, of the relations between classes, between men and their work and leisure, and between men and women. All the characters in it have something both to like and dislike about them, at first, though most of them can be subsumed to our disdain eventually, the amoral Orlov, and his rather pathetic friends, the plain silly Zinaida Fyodorovna, with whom Orlov pursues an affair that soon bores him, and the ultimately spineless narrator, who abandons his original quest to get at Orlov’s father to sort out the mess Orlov and Zinaida have made of their lives. Chekov’s humour is very marked in this story – very dry and cutting, left to stand on its own.

I think I find these longer tales hard going partly because they break up the rhythm of reading a collection of short stories, not because they don’t work in themselves.

Having dealt with the rising classes in An Anonymous Story, Chekov turns his attention to the lower orders in Peasants. Nikolai Tchikildyeev, a village man who has become too ill to pursue his career as a waiter in Moscow returns to his village, ostensibly to recuperate. He is seen by the peasants as having become a different man in the city – even by his tyrannical mother – and his wife and daughter are disdained for their religious virtue and their inevitable city airs and graces. The peasants go about their (often) drunken business, starve for much of the time, exist in a way that Nikolay had forgotten. Chekov’s eye is as unforgiving as ever on the wretched lives of poor people, and on the causes of that wretchedness.

The Darling is the life story of one Olenka, and her relations with the various men she loves, and their fortunes, and though it’s sad at times, it has a great sense of optimism and humour at its heart, which makes it bounce along only to peter out at its end, mid-incident; it’s forgivable, though, as it has been such an enjoyable tale.

Overall, I loved this collection, and will read some more of Chekov’s short stories soon – maybe this’ll be a ‘Chekov year’, though I must say I’m not very fond of the plays.
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May 18, 2011

Russell George rated it

Thoroughly enjoyed this selection of Chekhov short stories. Never read him before, but I can understand why he is seen as the early master of the short story, and influenced writers like Hemmingway. He’s gifted in being able to introduce the full parameters to a story with a few sentences, and gives greater power to the narrative by refusing to conform to conventional endings. Writing in the latter part of the 19th century, reading Chekhov is also a historical exercise, and it’s fascinating t...more

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Sep 16, 2009

Howard rated it

· review of another edition

I got onto Chekhov via Raymond Carver. Carver takes shards of lives and presents them in isolation (apt name), which gives them a strangeness and sort of heightened reality. What Carver learned from Chekhov, maybe, is that the protagonist can be weak and unexceptional, can fail to learn any lessons during the course of the narrative, and that the incidental stuff is where to look.

This book has some stories that are just brilliant in this way. Where, for one thing, the aspirations ...more

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Oct 13, 2011

Emma rated it

I often find short stories difficult- in the same way some people seem to find poetry difficult so I have been working on this one for a long time. However, that being said I loved these stories by Checkov.

I don't know what I could possibly say that hasn't been said already but I appreciated the way his understated prose complimented his acute observation of human nature. I also enjoyed the way in which he left the stories so open without forcing resolution or moral upon his read...more

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May 10, 2008

Steven rated it

Shelves: short-stories

Worth it just for Richard Ford’s introduction, which gave me a new appreciation for Chekov. In reading these 20 stories I’m struck by the beginnings, how quickly essential information is conveyed and you are located within a context. I can see now where Carver gets his beginnings from, because he does the same thing. I also like the way all of the characters get their just due, no matter how insignificant they are to the story, no matter how brief their appearance, they have presence, are real. ...more

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Mar 12, 2009

Paul rated it

Shelves: 2009

In his introduction, Richard Ford says he read Chekhov when he was young, and didn't really understand or appreciate it. I don't know what he means by young, but I think I may have to wait a decade or so before tackling any Chekhov again. A couple of the stories ("Champagne," "The Lady With the Dog") were excellent, like really, really good. Obviously. It's Chekhov. But the remainder of the stories I found exceedingly subtle and so anti-epiphany that I remained pretty bored t...more

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Aug 26, 2010

Raúl Aníbal rated it

la selección de Ford no es tan buena. Pero en fin. El librito tarde un tiempo en leerlo porque leia un par de cuentos y lo dejaba por ahi, extasiado con la habilidad de Chejov. Hace poco lo cogí del estante por error (pensé que era uno de Salman Rushdie) y comence a leerlo casi desde el principio hasta el fin. Me sirvió mucho releer la dama del perrito, aunque al final casi me dan ganas de chillar, como siempre.

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Feb 20, 2011

Sara rated it

Russian authors rule and Chechov is the master of the short story. Each one is a delight to read and his insights to the human mind keep you thinking all day long.

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Nov 30, 2010

Eric rated it

I started with the last story "The Lady with the Dog". The image that Checkhov paints of Gurov walking his daughter to school is strong. Gurov describes how it can be snowing, yet "it's three degrees above the freezing-point." The quiet walks and talks with a daughter are treasures in this life, but Gurov doesn't recognize that. He can only think of his secret, forbidden life with Anna Segeyevna, who feels guilty. She represses her feelings and it is destroying her. Gurov has...more

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Nov 18, 2011

Tom von Logue Newth rated it

· review of another edition

Endlessly readable, over and over, for such simple, true detail, and simply noticing those things that add up to make the texture of life, inner and outer.

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Nov 18, 2011

Abdulrahman Al Fawaz rated it

Masterpiece

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Aug 02, 2010

Krista H. rated it

I have never been able to get into the great Russian writers, but Chekhov is good. One of the forerunners of the short story, he captures human emotion better than many short story writers I've read in the past, which is something that I find lacking in other stories of the genre, at least emotion that one can easily relate to, especially those emotions we'd rather not admit that we feel or have once felt. I like Chekhov.

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Sep 06, 2011

Deborah rated it

If, as Richard Ford admits in his wonderful introduction, your first encounter with Chekhov via required reading during college years left you a little less than enthused, all the more the reason to pick up this volume and be reminded of what masterful writing is.

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Jun 29, 2009

J. Dunn rated it

Shelves: fiction, short-stories, 19th-century, russian, translations, anthropomorphic-animals, romance, fantasy, early-modern, humanism, humor, owned, favorite, diff-etext

Chekhov is great at getting at the background minutia of living and relating to others. He is very perceptive both of the essential sadness and suffering that are inherent in life, and the small-but-numerous ineffable and elusive joys that redeem it. An almost inhuman and strange chimerical combination of empathy and detachment pervades these stories.

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Apr 05, 2007

Dan rated it

· review of another edition

Richard Ford's intro makes you want to actually read some Chekhov stories, rather than just buy the book and let it sit on your shelf for when Amherst girls come over. I blatantly ripped off "A Trifle From Life" for a short story, but that's okay because it's Chekhov. Everyone who writes realist fiction should A) read these stories and B) get a job.

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May 05, 2010

Zach rated it

the first Chekhov my sister gave me the edition with the introduction by Richard Ford, Why We Like Chekhov. Usually I skip the intros. In fact, I did skip to the story about the little dog in the circus act. But then I flipped back to the intro and read it. I've yet to read a better introduction to a book of Chekhov short stories.

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Feb 16, 2009

Suzanne Macartney rated it

Shelves: favoriteauthors

Searching for the Lady with the Little Dog story by Chekhov featured in the film "The Reader" with Kate Winslet, I found two collections. Stories are quite short so you can pick-up or put down at will. Chekhov does not disappoint. I read the dog story first. You could say it is a mature & thoughtful love story. Quite worth reading.

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Jan 26, 2010

Stokespower rated it

· review of another edition

i am liking the chekov very much. seperated by over a hundred years its still possible to see that people back then felt the same feelings as people now. there's also a nice progression in these stories - selected by richard ford - and class starts to become more of a prominent issue towards the later stories.

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Oct 16, 2009

Maurene rated it

Shelves: classicawesomeness

(Sorry, I'm posting this again b/c it wasn't showing up in my feed, I think I accidentally deleted it:)

My God, Chekhov's short stories are perfection. "The Kiss" is one of the best stories I've ever read. His plays may be meandering and sleepy but his stories are amaaaazing.

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Jun 08, 2008

Dawn rated it

· review of another edition

I like the order of this collection the way you can go through it like that. And weep. Chekhov is good for an afternoon weeping without explaining anything, without even nodding in your direction he his here to tell you something, isn't he. I said, isn't he?

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Apr 08, 2009

Alyce rated it

I think Richard Ford has an excellent point when he states in his introduction that you need to be older to fully appreciate Checkhov. And it's amazing how much resonance these stories still have, over 100 years after they were written.

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Feb 17, 2009

Corey rated it

These stories really feel essential, so finely observed, so psychologically acute. I am ashamed to say that this is the first I've read Chekhov. There's a reason some great writers are called great.

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Apr 05, 2009

Faith Bradham rated it

Shelves: short-stories, russian-literature

I quite liked this book. The stories were all at least a little depressing, some more than others. But I really like Russian lit, I think it's fascinating. Not exactly a 'fun' read, but a good read.

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Aug 08, 2011

Madeline rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, library-books, short-stories, translations, russia, westernish-canon, marriage-lets-you-down, class, women

I think I was not really in the right place to read these when I read them. Also, I suspect the translation doesn't do much to help the stories ...? IDK. Not this time, Chekhov! Sorry.

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Jun 21, 2007

Gavin Marshall rated it

Recommends it for: Anyone with a heart

Shelves: fiction, shortstories

What i like about Checkhov is his fascinating attention to detail: especially prelevant on The Lady With The Dog. Richard Ford's introduction is excellent too.

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Aug 24, 2009

Laurie rated it

Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: read-in-2009

This volume was from the library and I had to return it. I want to read more of Chekhov - the stories I read were great.

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About Anton Chekhov

Антон Павлович Чехов

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern Russia, the son of a grocer. Chekhov's grandfather was a serf, who had bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught himself to read and write.Yevgenia Morozov, Chekhov's mother, was the daughter of a cloth merchant.

"When I think back on my childh...moreАнтон Павлович Чехов

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern Russia, the son of a grocer. Chekhov's grandfather was a serf, who had bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught himself to read and write.Yevgenia Morozov, Chekhov's mother, was the daughter of a cloth merchant.

"When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." His early years were shadowed by his father's tyranny, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, which was open from five in the morning till midnight. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog (1867-68) and Taganrog grammar school (1868-79). The family was forced to move to Moskow following his father's bankruptcy. At the age of 16, Chekhov became independent and remained for some time alone in his native town, supporting himself through private tutoring.

In 1879 Chekhov entered the Moskow University Medical School. While in the school, he began to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support himself and his mother, sisters and brothers. His publisher at this period was Nicholas Leikin, owner of the St. Petersburg journal Oskolki (splinters). His subjects were silly social situations, marital problems, farcical encounters between husbands, wives, mistresses, and lovers, whims of young women, of whom Chekhov had not much knowledge – the author was was shy with women even after his marriage. His works appeared in St. Petersburg daily papers, Peterburskaia gazeta from 1885, and Novoe vremia from 1886.

Chekhov's first novel, Nenunzhaya pobeda (1882), set in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Hungarian writer Mór Jókai. As a politician Jókai was also mocked for his ideological optimism. By 1886 Chekhov had gained a wide fame as a writer. His second full-length novel, The Shooting Party, was translated into English in 1926. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926).

Chekhov graduated in 1884, and practiced medicine until 1892. In 1886 Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him to become a regular contributor for the St. Petersburg daily Novoe vremya. His friendship with Suvorin ended in 1898 because of his objections to the anti-Dreyfus campaingn conducted by paper. But during these years Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgemental author. He outlined his program in a letter to his brother Aleksandr: "1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6. compassion."

Chekhov's fist book of stories (1886) was a success, and gradually he became a full-time writer. The author's refusal to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intellitentsia and he was criticized for dealing with serious social and moral questions, but avoiding giving answers. However, he was defended by such leading writers as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov. "I'm not a liberal, or a conservative, or a gradualist, or a monk, or an indifferentist. I should like to be a free artist and that's all..." Chekhov said in 1888.

The failure of his play The Wood Demon (1889) and problems with his novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890 he travelled across Siberia to remote prison island, Sakhalin. There he conducted a detailed census of some 10,000 convicts and settlers condemned to live their lives on that harsh island. Chekhov hoped to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. It is probable that hard conditions on the island also worsened his own physical condition. From this journey was born his famous travel book The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin (1893-94). Chekhov returned to Russia via Singa(less)

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