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The Undiscovered Chekhov: Forty-Three New Stories
The Undiscovered Chekhov gives us, in rich abundance, a new Chekhov. Peter Constantine's historic collection presents 38 new stories and with them a fresh interpretation of the Russian master. In contrast to the brooding representative of a dying century we have seen over and over, here is Chekhov's work from the 1880s, when Chekhov was in his twenties and his writing was sharp, witty and innovative.
Many of the stories in The Undiscovered Chekhov reveal Chekhov as a keen modernist. Emphasizing impressions and the juxtaposition of incongruent elements, instead of the straight narrative his readers were used to, these stories upturned many of the assumptions of storytelling of the period.
Here is "Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town," written as a series of telegrams, beginning with "Have been drinking to Sarah's health all week! Enchanting! She actually dies standing up!..." In "Confession...," a thirty-nine year old bachelor recounts some of the fifteen times chance foiled his marriage plans. In "How I Came to be Lawfully Wed," a couple reminisces about the day they vowed to resist their parents' plans that they should marry. And in the more familiarly Chekhovian "Autumn," an alcoholic landowner fallen low and a peasant from his village meet far from home in a sad and haunting reunion in which the action of the story is far less important than the powerful impression it leaves with the reader that each man must live his life and has his reasons.
Many of the stories in The Undiscovered Chekhov reveal Chekhov as a keen modernist. Emphasizing impressions and the juxtaposition of incongruent elements, instead of the straight narrative his readers were used to, these stories upturned many of the assumptions of storytelling of the period.
Here is "Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town," written as a series of telegrams, beginning with "Have been drinking to Sarah's health all week! Enchanting! She actually dies standing up!..." In "Confession...," a thirty-nine year old bachelor recounts some of the fifteen times chance foiled his marriage plans. In "How I Came to be Lawfully Wed," a couple reminisces about the day they vowed to resist their parents' plans that they should marry. And in the more familiarly Chekhovian "Autumn," an alcoholic landowner fallen low and a peasant from his village meet far from home in a sad and haunting reunion in which the action of the story is far less important than the powerful impression it leaves with the reader that each man must live his life and has his reasons.
244 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
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About the author
Anton Chekhov
5,895 books9,766 followers
Antón Chéjov
(Spanish)
Dramas, such as The Seagull (1896, revised 1898), and including "A Dreary Story" (1889) of Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, also Chekov, concern the inability of humans to communicate.
Born ( Антон Павлович Чехов ) in the small southern seaport of Taganrog, the son of a grocer. His grandfather, a serf, bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught to read. A cloth merchant fathered Yevgenia Morozova, his mother.
"When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." Tyranny of his father, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, open from five in the morning till midnight, shadowed his early years. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog from 1867 to 1868 and then Taganrog grammar school. Bankruptcy of his father compelled the family to move to Moscow. At the age of 16 years in 1876, independent Chekhov for some time alone in his native town supported through private tutoring.
In 1879, Chekhov left grammar school and entered the university medical school at Moscow. In the school, he began to publish hundreds of short comics to support his mother, sisters and brothers. Nicholas Leikin published him at this period and owned Oskolki (splinters), the journal of Saint Petersburg. His subjected silly social situations, marital problems, and farcical encounters among husbands, wives, mistresses, and lust; even after his marriage, Chekhov, the shy author, knew not much of whims of young women.
Nenunzhaya pobeda , first novel of Chekhov, set in 1882 in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Mór Jókai. People also mocked ideological optimism of Jókai as a politician.
Chekhov graduated in 1884 and practiced medicine. He worked from 1885 in Peterburskaia gazeta.
In 1886, Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him, a regular contributor, to work for Novoe vremya, the daily paper of Saint Petersburg. He gained a wide fame before 1886. He authored The Shooting Party , his second full-length novel, later translated into English. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in later her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . First book of Chekhov in 1886 succeeded, and he gradually committed full time. The refusal of the author to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intelligentsia, who criticized him for dealing with serious social and moral questions but avoiding giving answers. Such leaders as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, however, defended him. "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 The Wood Demon , play in 1889, and problems with novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890, he traveled across Siberia to Sakhalin, remote prison island. He conducted a detailed census of ten thousand convicts and settlers, condemned to live on that harsh island. Chekhov expected to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. Hard conditions on the island probably also weakened his own physical condition. From this journey came his famous travel book.
Chekhov practiced medicine until 1892. During these years, Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgmental 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." Because he objected that the paper conducted against [a:Alfred Dreyfu
Dramas, such as The Seagull (1896, revised 1898), and including "A Dreary Story" (1889) of Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, also Chekov, concern the inability of humans to communicate.
Born ( Антон Павлович Чехов ) in the small southern seaport of Taganrog, the son of a grocer. His grandfather, a serf, bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught to read. A cloth merchant fathered Yevgenia Morozova, his mother.
"When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." Tyranny of his father, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, open from five in the morning till midnight, shadowed his early years. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog from 1867 to 1868 and then Taganrog grammar school. Bankruptcy of his father compelled the family to move to Moscow. At the age of 16 years in 1876, independent Chekhov for some time alone in his native town supported through private tutoring.
In 1879, Chekhov left grammar school and entered the university medical school at Moscow. In the school, he began to publish hundreds of short comics to support his mother, sisters and brothers. Nicholas Leikin published him at this period and owned Oskolki (splinters), the journal of Saint Petersburg. His subjected silly social situations, marital problems, and farcical encounters among husbands, wives, mistresses, and lust; even after his marriage, Chekhov, the shy author, knew not much of whims of young women.
Nenunzhaya pobeda , first novel of Chekhov, set in 1882 in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Mór Jókai. People also mocked ideological optimism of Jókai as a politician.
Chekhov graduated in 1884 and practiced medicine. He worked from 1885 in Peterburskaia gazeta.
In 1886, Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him, a regular contributor, to work for Novoe vremya, the daily paper of Saint Petersburg. He gained a wide fame before 1886. He authored The Shooting Party , his second full-length novel, later translated into English. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in later her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . First book of Chekhov in 1886 succeeded, and he gradually committed full time. The refusal of the author to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intelligentsia, who criticized him for dealing with serious social and moral questions but avoiding giving answers. Such leaders as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, however, defended him. "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 The Wood Demon , play in 1889, and problems with novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890, he traveled across Siberia to Sakhalin, remote prison island. He conducted a detailed census of ten thousand convicts and settlers, condemned to live on that harsh island. Chekhov expected to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. Hard conditions on the island probably also weakened his own physical condition. From this journey came his famous travel book.
Chekhov practiced medicine until 1892. During these years, Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgmental 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." Because he objected that the paper conducted against [a:Alfred Dreyfu
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 24, 2023
Chaotic Russian energy and I love it!!
January 15, 2018
The edition I read is titled "The Undiscovered Chekhov: Thirty-eight New Stories" (hardcover). There is no foreword, only an introduction by the translator, Peter Constantine. This edition is copyrighted 1998, and published by Seven Stories Press. But the stories contained here are the same as those in other editions listing forty-three or forty-one stories.
In his earliest years as a writer, Chekhov wrote as a journalist in that he had to meet deadlines and produce as many stories as possible in order to make some extra income. These stories are short, sometimes more anecdote than story, a vignette or scene or slice of life. But they are vivid, and give a strong impression of the world that seemed chaotic to the young Chekhov. The final stories are absurdist, anticipating trends in fiction by at least twenty years.
Chekhov grew from writing with humor and sometimes silliness into a deeply humanitarian, compassionate and insightful writer. I can see in some of his sketches here the characters he will explore more deeply in his later work, his careful depiction of the arc of a life, and the role of circumstance, or perhaps fate, in guiding a life.
In his earliest years as a writer, Chekhov wrote as a journalist in that he had to meet deadlines and produce as many stories as possible in order to make some extra income. These stories are short, sometimes more anecdote than story, a vignette or scene or slice of life. But they are vivid, and give a strong impression of the world that seemed chaotic to the young Chekhov. The final stories are absurdist, anticipating trends in fiction by at least twenty years.
Chekhov grew from writing with humor and sometimes silliness into a deeply humanitarian, compassionate and insightful writer. I can see in some of his sketches here the characters he will explore more deeply in his later work, his careful depiction of the arc of a life, and the role of circumstance, or perhaps fate, in guiding a life.
December 26, 2023
I was driven to read this book having just read “Question 7” by Richard Flanagan.
To understand Richard Flanagan did I need to read “The Undiscovered Chekhov”? Probably not, I am glad I did though.
I was wanting to source “Question 7”. It is the second last question in the story. “Questions posed by a mad mathematician” originally published in1882.
I read the other 7 questions then I read the other 42 stories. I have now discovered Anton Chekhov. Another “ beautiful mind”.
To understand Richard Flanagan did I need to read “The Undiscovered Chekhov”? Probably not, I am glad I did though.
I was wanting to source “Question 7”. It is the second last question in the story. “Questions posed by a mad mathematician” originally published in1882.
I read the other 7 questions then I read the other 42 stories. I have now discovered Anton Chekhov. Another “ beautiful mind”.
May 3, 2018
Charming little collection of humorous tails and sketches from Chekov’s earliest days preceding most collections of his short fiction. Some of these are really interesting and some of these are simply too short to be of much notice. But the whole collection reads super easy and quick.
February 19, 2025
A light and funny collection of vignettes from Anton Chekhov, a Russian author from whom I'd never read. I liked this overall; some stories more compelling than others, but still a nice introduction to his work.
August 25, 2017
fun short witty stories worth a read
November 18, 2017
Early work. Not my favorite Chekhov collection.
March 22, 2020
Eglenceli
March 20, 2017
Love Chekhov, regardless of the length of his stories! There's something so mystifying and inexplicable about his way of conveying emotions with such brevity. These are mostly all incomplete fragments, but some of them have a sharp wittiness in them that is somewhat reminiscent of the clever humor in Chekhov's longer work.
Some of these (such as the vignettes and glossaries near the end) are simply written for art's sake and don't seem to go anywhere meaningful. Some are purely experimental, although more than a handful do seem to be mini-episodes with the potential pathos of a much broader story - such as "In Autumn" and "Confession - or Olya, Zhenya, Zoya: A Letter." Others will just make you chuckle and groan from the cheesy irony (personal favorites: "How I Came to Be Lawfully Wed" and "The Two Letters")
I think this collection shows Chekhov's versatility and his natural aptitude for writing even in his youth. It's no A Lady with the Little Dog or The Black Monk, but the rudiments of his later literary style - laconic yet thought-provoking - are present here. The whole collection is a short-read, so if you enjoy any of Chekhov's stories or just cherish Russian Literature, this a great addition to your literary repertoire.
Some of these (such as the vignettes and glossaries near the end) are simply written for art's sake and don't seem to go anywhere meaningful. Some are purely experimental, although more than a handful do seem to be mini-episodes with the potential pathos of a much broader story - such as "In Autumn" and "Confession - or Olya, Zhenya, Zoya: A Letter." Others will just make you chuckle and groan from the cheesy irony (personal favorites: "How I Came to Be Lawfully Wed" and "The Two Letters")
I think this collection shows Chekhov's versatility and his natural aptitude for writing even in his youth. It's no A Lady with the Little Dog or The Black Monk, but the rudiments of his later literary style - laconic yet thought-provoking - are present here. The whole collection is a short-read, so if you enjoy any of Chekhov's stories or just cherish Russian Literature, this a great addition to your literary repertoire.
March 19, 2011
This is a collection of 50 short stories by Anton Chekhov, dating from the 1881-1886 period before he hit the big time, none of them apparently published in English before 1999. I have not read any Chekhov (I tried one of the plays as a teenager, but bounced off the dramatis personæ) so this was fairly new territory. The stories are all very short - the total length of the book is only 234 pages; even so they are interesting enough, reflecting contemporary Russian urban lifestyles, especially if you happen to be a young doctor. A number of them take interesting narrative forms - telegrams, diary entries, dreams. Most of them are meant to be funny, but some of the humour has definitely faded over the centuries. An introduction to a Great Writer previously unknown to me, which has done me no harm at all.
September 23, 2009
For starters, I'm a big fan of this book's cover. The cover designers didn't mess around on this one: forty-three new stories, forty-three mug shots of Chekhov on the cover. That's one Chekhov mug shot for each new story. Nice work, peeps.
The book can also be encouraging for beginning writers. The stories are some of Chekhov's earliest published work. Though witty and readable, they are far from mature. Some stories in the collection are only a paragraph long, but in the hands of young Chekhov they still entertain without seeming incomplete. In this book you'll get a glimpse of a talented writer at the beginning of his career, just beginning to master his craft.
Also pick it up for "At the Pharmacy," a six page story about a sick man who dies because he is a six cents short, and the pharmacist will not let him buy a prescription on credit.
The book can also be encouraging for beginning writers. The stories are some of Chekhov's earliest published work. Though witty and readable, they are far from mature. Some stories in the collection are only a paragraph long, but in the hands of young Chekhov they still entertain without seeming incomplete. In this book you'll get a glimpse of a talented writer at the beginning of his career, just beginning to master his craft.
Also pick it up for "At the Pharmacy," a six page story about a sick man who dies because he is a six cents short, and the pharmacist will not let him buy a prescription on credit.
March 25, 2017
My first book by Chekhov and I was pleasantly surprised. There's a lot of irony and humour in them, most of which focus on the daily interactions and occurrences in people's lives. Chekhov also uses a variety of different narrative formats (telegrams, epistolary, diary entries) to tell the stories and some of them are only a paragraph long. This made them seem more like fragments of longer tales, they felt incomplete, like little peeks into late 19th century Russian life, but I didn't really mind since I picked up this book specifically for times when I didn't want to read anything too long. But I ended up reading it all in a day anyway, ha!
May 8, 2012
Great read for any Chekhov fan & for anyone looking to try him out: the first section had some witty pieces that read very similarly to the more well known shorts, while the second had some sketches and a few more loosely sketched & poetic pieces that I loved and found very thoughtful and unique, especially the one about elements normally found in a novel. Reminded me of a prose poem, which just goes to show Chekhov's scope.
Currently reading
May 12, 2009Long not considered a vital part of Chekhov's work, these short stories were re-discovered 10 years ago. However, I just discovered, they were re-discovered. You can really see from reading these stories how Chekhov's abusurdist sense developed. Some of these are funnier than his later more well known works.
July 4, 2007
Constantine has updated this collection as new Chekhov stories have been discovered, but this one was a wonderful surprise when it was released.
August 6, 2007
Early Chekhov. Made me laugh out loud from the first story on. Mystery's there too.
September 22, 2011
AC strikes me the same way as Jane Austen. Both were ahead of their times in style. That is to say quite modern sounding...
August 2, 2011
From the late 19th century, Russian impressions on life and society, in a collection of short writings. Interesting with quick characters... and a time period with mood.
October 15, 2012
Very clever and witty!
December 30, 2013
Interesting choice of stories. These short stories really show how much of a genius Chekhov really was.
February 17, 2014
Humour on the practical basis.
August 22, 2015
his vignettes are actually funny.
June 30, 2016
Cheeky Chekhov
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews