About Love and Other Stories

by Anton Chekhov, Rosamund Bartlett (Translator)

Raymond Carver called Anton Chekhov "the greatest short story writer who has ever lived." This unequivocal verdict on Chekhov's genius has been echoed many times by writers as diverse as Katherine Mansfield, Somerset Maugham, John Cheever and Tobias Wolf. While his popularity as a playwright has sometimes overshadowed his achievements in prose, the importance of Chekhov's stories is now recognized by readers as well as by fellow authors. Their themes - alienation, the absurdity and tragedy of human existence - have as much relevance today as when they were written, and these superb new translations capture their modernist spirit. Elusive and subtle, spare and unadorned, the stories in this selection are among Chekhov's most poignant and lyrical. The book includes well-known pieces such as The Lady with the Little Dog, as well as less familiar work like Gusev inspired by Chekhov's travels in the Far East, and Rothschild's Violin, a haunting and darkly humorous tale about death and loss. The stories are arranged chronologically to show the evolution of Chekhov's art.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Russian Literature, Russia, Literature, 19th Century

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

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 Alfred Dreyfus, his friendship with Suvorin ended

Reviews

[Leonard Gaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before being a successful playwright, Chekhov was an extraordinarily prolific and influential author of short stories: several hundred of them in the span of twenty years. This collection includes only a dozen of his most famous stories, presented chronologically, which provides a beautiful cross-section of his entire writing career.

As the title indicates, love is a recurring theme, but Chekhov really explores various subjects and forms. Some of the earlier stories like The Huntsman, The Letter or Fish Love are hilarious tales about couples and parent-child relationships. Gusev is uncharacteristically set in the Far East and ends at the bottom of the ocean. The Black Monk combines fantastical and tragic elements. Rothchild’s Violin touches on antisemitism in Russia. The Student is a compact meditation on the Gospel. The House with the Mezzanine and The Lady with the Little Dog are stories about forbidden love. In the Cart shows a miserable schoolmistress dreaming of a better life. The Bishop is a semi-autobiographical story about impending death. And a couple of my favourites are included in the Ivanych/Burkin “little trilogy”—The Man in a Case, Gooseberries (see my review) and About Love.

Most of these stories are set in provincial Russia and depict the lives of the rural middle-class and peasantry. This prosaic subject, the relatively uneventful plots, and Chekhov’s subtle portraits of ordinary country doctors, teachers, or priests may give the reader a first impression of blandness and vapidity. But nothing could be further from the truth. What Chekhov achieves through these stories is to ask questions about everyday fundamental subjects—social conventions, human emotions, truth, faith, happiness, freedom, beauty, desire, responsibility, stupidity, death. And he does so with careful, elegant inquisitiveness (often with irony and humour, sometimes with lyricism) rather than conclusive or definitive answers.

Milan Kundera once said: “A novel does not assert anything; a novel searches and poses questions...The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude.” This fits Chekhov’s stories like a glove.

[Violet wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently, someone asked me who I thought the most overrated writer is. I answered, somewhat flippantly, Margaret Atwood. After reading the first five stories in this collection I decided I would change my answer to Chekhov. I was astonished just how dreary I found them. He was the favourite writer of one of my heroines, Katherine Mansfield, and I hadn't disagreed with her about anything, so I was shocked how little merit I was finding. My memory of those stories now is patchy - I can't remember why I found them so heavy handed and lacking in artistry despite the odd inrush of brilliance. But when I arrived at a whimsical story about a fish in love with a girl I very nearly put the book aside. Thankfully, I didn't because the next story and all those following were fabulously inspired and captivating. A problem with this collection is that the stories have been gathered together thematically rather than chronologically so they span his entire career. What this makes evident are the enormous strides Chekhov made as a writer and also, probably, to what extent contracting a fatal disease heightened his insight into the human condition.

Chekhov's characters are invariably dissatisfied, caught in that quandary of believing there must be more to life. He never attempts to answer the questions his characters pose. Rather he leaves them adrift in their nostalgia, longing or melancholy. Love for Chekhov isn't any kind of solution; more, it's the gateway through which we experience the entire spectrum of heightened emotion and find ourselves in closer contact with the natural world - in which Chekhov imparts, in a fabulously evocative manner, far more wisdom than is attainable by any individual consciousness.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this collection of Chekhov’s short stories, I understand why he is considered one of the best. Anton Chekhov lived from 1860 to 1904, so he was writing prior to the Russian revolutions. Most of these stories are slices of life in the Russian countryside in the late 19th century. A few contain elements of fantasy. Common themes running throughout these stories are love, religion, hypocrisy, materialism, and leading a meaningful life. My favorites are Fortune and The Black Monk.

The Huntsman – 1885 – 4 stars
On the Road – 1886 – 4.5 stars
The Letter – 1887 – 4.5 stars
Fortune – 5 stars
Gusev – 1890 – 3.5 stars
Fish Love – 3 stars
The Black Monk – 1894 – 5 stars
Rothschild's Violin – 1894 – 4 stars
The Student – 1894 – 3 stars
The House with the Mezzanine – 1896 – 4 stars
In the Cart – 1897 – 3.5 stars
The Man in a Case – 1898 – 3.5 stars
Gooseberries – 1898 – 4 stars
About Love – 1898 – 4.5 stars
The Lady with the Little Dog – 1899 – 4.5 stars
At Christmas Time – 1900 – 3.5 stars
The Bishop – 1902 – 4 stars

[☾da · Rating 4 out of 5]

چخوف ساده ترین و درعین حال عمیق ترین قلم رو داره، اینو تازه متوجه شدم. احساس میکنی یه پیرمرد گوگولی نشسته رو کاناپه و گربه ت رو نوازش میکنه و برات از زندگی حرف میزنه. بدون هیچ دلیل و منطقی دوستش داشتم. داستان هایی که به طور مستقیم یا غیر مستقیم سروکارشون با عشق بود. ساده یا پیچیده، معمولی یا ممنوعه، هرچند هیچ عشقی معمولی نیست. خوندنش تو این هوای سرد، با جوراب پشمی و شبهای طولانی پاییز یه لذت دیگه داشت.

«معمولا عشق را به شعر در می‌آورند و با گل و بلبل می‌آرایند، اما ما روس‌ها عشقمان را با پرسش‌های حیاتی زینت می‌دهیم، و از میان آن‌ها هم بی‌رنگ و بوترین را انتخاب می‌کنیم. در مسکو که دانشجو بودم معشوقی داشتم، بانویی جذاب که هربار در آغوش می‌گرفتمش به این فکر می‌کرد که ماهانه چقدر می‌توانم به او بدهم و اینکه گوشت گاو چند است. به این ترتیب زمانی هم که عاشقیم این پرسش‌ها را رها نمی‌کنیم:
شرافتمندانه است یا غیرشرافتمندانه، هوشمندانه است یا احمقانه، و این عشق ما را به کجا می‌کشاند و غیره.
اینکه این پرسش‌ها خوبند یا بد نمی‌دانم، اما این را می‌دانم که آدم را ارضا نمی‌کنند، به خشم می‌آورند و مانع راهند.»
- از متن کتاب


ترجمه ی رضا امیررحیمی رو خوندم از نشر نیما که روان و خوب بود.

راستی یلداتون مبارک🍉
آذر ۱۴۰۴

[Helga · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many more good people in the world than bad ones.

About Love and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Anton Chekhov, the great Russian playwright and short-story writer.
Each story gives us an insight into the customs in Russian provincial towns and the life of the peasants.

My favorites were About Love and Rothschild's Violin.

I confessed my love for her and with a burning pain in my heart I realized how unnecessary, petty and deceptive everything which had got in the way of our love had been. I realized that when you love someone, your reasoning about that love should be based on what is supreme, on what is more important than happiness or unhappiness, sin or virtue, in the way that they are usually understood, otherwise it is not worth reasoning at all.

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best collection I have read from Chekhov by a mile.

[Sir Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chekhov describes a character or a scene just enough to let the reader cleanly infer what’s being indicated. His descriptions are never overstated or garish; always subtle, wavering, whimsical, but precise. He lets his stories tell themselves somehow, getting out of the way when he should.

And the descriptions of these all-too-human people in mediocre villages in one-hundred-years ago Russia are so vivid that it all seems familiar and nostalgic.

Highlights! An uncharacteristically zany story about a fish falling in love with a woman and the difficulties of a trans-species relationship. Also, a series of three stories that work off each other and have the same characters. I’ve never run into this in any other Chekhov collection. The collection ends with a story so uncompromisingly dreary ("The Bishop") that it’s almost comic. The ending of "the Bishop" is similar in terms of despair-level to the ending of Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night ("the most depressing ending in modern literarture," pronounced Zizek, one of the few times a theorist managed to get something right about literature).

And it also includes some classic Chekhov stories of muted loss, failure, and quiet joy. So many of these stories have to do with provincial panic: the sense of being tucked in some remote village wasting your life away, never able to find a way to live the type of life you know you could, like a light under a bushel.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

About Love by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

10 out of 10





Love is perhaps the most generous subject, one that has inspired authors and amateur poets for ages, but Thomas Mann has written that we can find the sentiment only in art, literature, in its true form…when real people say that ‘they love so much that there are no words to express the feeling’ that is an exaggeration to say the least, because Love itself means so much that we do not really meet with It in our regular lives…the under signed was thinking earlier that there is a major difference between his native tongue, in which people rarely use ‘te iubesc’, and English and French, to name the only other languages he is familiar with, where earthlings abuse the word, saying frequently that they love – or ils aiment – this color, car, flower or anything for that matter, in what has become a cliché



Anton Pavlovich seems to have a realistic view of Love, although some might criticize him for being too negative, with almost all his tales ending in something that looks like disaster, and there is an unhappy ending to his short stories about love (and we can say any other subject) which have an inspiration in reality – where almost half of marriages end in divorce and they would have had the same abrupt end in other eras, if ending marital vows were allowed – making me think of Ionitch – which will be noted on next, tomorrow Insha’Allah – wherein we have an amateur writer, whose creation have little to do with reality, as Chekhov says…

Furthermore, if we refer to the beginning of About Love, we may be inclined to think that the same negative outlook is hanging over all affairs, given that even the poor folks of the lower classes appear to have problems with their emotions…’Alehin told us that the beautiful Pelagea was in love with this cook…As he drank and was of a violent character, she did not want to marry him, but was willing to live with him without…He was very devout, and his religious convictions would not allow him to "live in sin"; he insisted on her marrying him, and would consent to nothing else, and when he was drunk he used to abuse her and even beat her…’



After this brief interlude, the narrative moves on to the more complex relationship between Anna Alexyevna Luganovitch and Alehin, the one who is the narrator, lover and ‘armchair philosopher’ here…’how far questions of personal happiness are of consequence in love -- all that is known; one can take what view one likes of it…So far only one incontestable truth has been uttered about love: 'This is a great mystery…Everything else that has been written or said about love is not a conclusion, but only a statement of questions which have remained unanswered…The explanation which would seem to fit one case does not apply in a dozen others, and the very best thing, to my mind, would be to explain every case individually without attempting to generalize…We ought, as the doctors say, to individualize each case."

Alehin has acquired a respectable education at university , but feels he has to work at the farm, where debts have been accumulated by his father, in large part on account of expenses connected with his education – we also learn about the plight of the Russian peasants, who are called upon to work along with this landowner, whether they want it or not…alas, this would later result in the communist revolution, which has brought calamity with it, even in my land…god damn them all – and the protagonist dedicates himself so much to working the land that he is exhausted, eats in the kitchen and does not even find the energy and will to sleep in the bedroom, falling asleep in odd places…



He meets with Luganovitch, vice-president of the circuit court, when the hero is elected an honorary judge and is invited to the mansion, where he meets the ravishing Juliet aka Anna Alexyevna ‘a lovely young, good, intelligent, fascinating woman’ that attracts Alehin at first sight – though we have a local writer that has argued that the so called love at first sight is in fact love at numerous sights, for we collect through the years images, impressions and find at the right time the perfect collection embodied in one person that represents all that had been positive, lovely, charming, exuberant…

With hindsight, he seems less exulting when he recounts the past to his companions, saying he ‘should find it difficult to define what there was so exceptional in her, what it was in her attracted me so much’ and making this reader reminisce and look at his own past…once upon a time, I met the winner of the Miss Romania pageant – the first one at that – and fell in love – according to various texts, including the aforementioned Thomas Mann work, that might have been infatuation, projection, an urge – would spend maybe ten months in her enchanting and demanding company, only to find the end unbearable, destructive, calamitous and after some decades, think that maybe it was for the best…



Alehin finds the marriage between this spectacular, glorious woman and the limited, modest, simple minded, older, bland Luganovitch difficult, if not impossible to comprehend, because at that time in the past, the protagonist is mesmerized and does not see anything except in a certain light, albeit he is cold headed enough to consider that taking the married woman with him would not work, she would replace that uninspiring life with the same and besides, financially he is in debt and he could place her in jeopardy…later on he would think ‘when you love you must either, in your reasonings about that love, start from what is highest, from what is more important than happiness or unhappiness, sin or virtue in their accepted meaning, or you must not reason at all’ but when it mattered, he stayed cautious…



Luganovitch is in fact friendly towards the man who is considering eloping with his spouse and offers him all sorts of gifts and when he finds that his friend – for by now the loving hero is a regular visitor at the house and a frequent companion, they go to the theater together, meet often – had accumulated debts and is in a precarious financial situation, he says that he is ready to help, there is only a need to say and they would be glad to offer assistance…however, Alehin would never take a loan, money from this family…their relationship is affected when Anna Alexyevna starts attacking Alehin, mocking, laughing at him – qui s’aiment se taquinent says a silly French proverb – probably in frustration with the futureless affection they have for each other, which may come to a brusque end when Luganovitch is assigned to a new position, in a faraway place… https://americanliterature.com/author...

[Tania Korshid · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘People don’t need six feet of earth, or even a house in the country, but the whole globe, the whole of nature in its entirety, so they can have the space to express all the capacities and particularities of their free spirit.’

Incredible writer. Chekhov writes with compassion towards all his characters whether they are a member of the clergy, an unhappily married man or a lonely schoolteacher. The stories explore a wide range of themes including love, death, freedom, faith and loneliness. This is the sort of collection where you feel you need a long pause after each story to soak up and reflect on everything you have just read before moving to the next one. After finishing the book, I actually went back to reread some of the stories.
The stories in this edition are arranged chronologically so you get a good sense of Chekhov’s development as a writer. It also includes a comprehensive introduction by the translator Rosamund Bartlett, with a biographical and literary context that gives the reader a good background to Chekhov’s work. I enjoyed Bartlett’s translation and I’m looking forward to reading her translations of Chekhov’s other short stories as well as Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

[Hamidreza · Rating 3 out of 5]

love is to leave

[Sana Abdulla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of short stories, a lot of descriprions of the settings, the clothes, the seasons, and the people of course. Old people, young people, clergy, peasants, artists and even a love stricken carp.
After all the build up the stories fizzle out to an abrupt, hasty ending which I find disappointing.
I am not very fond of short stories and think that along with poetry only an infintissimal number of short stories and poems are worth being published.

[martinae · Rating 5 out of 5]

the greatest to ever do it fr

[Jonathan Terrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection featured many stories I had previously read last year but those I had not read were refreshing. The difference in translation of the old stories however was both refreshing and disappointing.

While I felt with stories previously read I was reading them afresh the change in meaning was a disappointment at times. While at times things made unclear in previous translations were revealed with more clarity.

On the whole as with any work of Chekhov's worth reading to observe a master short story writer work his craft. He really was a genius regardless of the quality of translation.

[Lea (huge reading slump ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was typically Russian literature (I loved it) but the supposed love stories themselves didn’t grip me as much as I had wished they would- even though I loved the philosophical themes so much <3

[Gerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chekhov is one of a kind! Every single story in this superb collection, is an exquisitely crafted and miniature world, in itself! Chekhov is a master at depicting the most subtle of details and turns of phrase in the dialogue between characters in each story, and in his use of colorfully vivid imagery, whether in carefully describing a supposedly humdrum scene of life, or in capturing idyllic and picturesque natural settings, as if you were right there, gazing in wonder, alongside with the characters themselves. Not to be missed! :)

A note on the translation and translator: Perhaps the very finest translation of Chekhov's stories (tr. Rosamund Bartlett), I have ever come across! Ronald Wilks' translations are a close second. Rosamund Bartlett is not only a world renown scholar and translator of Russian literature, but also a noted specialist on Russian music and culture, particularly, on the reception of Wagner's music into the world of Russian music. Her translations are as lyrically beautiful and diamond cut, as the finest pieces of music!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to try another translation of these stories!

[Mohammad Alamarneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anton Chekhov wrote very beautiful stories, and I am in no position to criticize any of his writings, So I will talk about the things I liked about this book.

First, one of the greatest aspects of Chekhov's stories are the conversations between the characters. In just a few pages, you feel like you know the characters very well and that you've suddenly developed a bond with them. The conversations sometimes are slow and calm, and in other times they're stormy and fierce; both are beautiful in their own setting.
Second, I liked how Chekhov didn't forget about the formal education he got. You can clearly see his attachment to science and medicine in some of his stories, and that is very beautiful.

Overall, this was my first book from the Russian culture, and it was interesting. It gave a preview on how they used to look at the world (Especially that Russia has got a very interesting history), and Chekhov's stories portrayed the Russian society in a very sensitive era.
I should also point out that this specific translation of the book (by Rosamund Bartlett) was absolute. It was very interesting, and her choice of words were artistic and beautiful. I read some of Chekhov's stories translated by other people on the web, and I found her versions of all the stories more vivacious and compelling.

‘But you haven’t had a university education? So you can’t really know what science is. All the sciences across the world share the same raison d’être: the pursuit of truth! Every single one of them, even something bizarre like pharmocognosis, * is dedicated to the pursuit of truth, not to usefulness or comfort. It’s wonderful! When you set out to study a branch of science, it is the beginning stage that astounds you most of all...‘

[Emily Archer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories makes for a great introduction to Russian literature: they are sharp, bitingly observant and hauntingly real. The characters he conjures are startlingly multidimensional and it's quite rare to feel that in writing so effortless it is almost sparse. Just totally in awe to be honest and really happy to have read them. 

Having said all of this, my favorite story was ‘Fish Love'. It is a two-page story about a carp that falls in love with a beautiful woman. Totally deranged, adored it.

[shay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give the book 3.5 stars. The short stories were ok. My favourite one was ‘About Love’ but I think I read it at a moment where I really needed to hear those words. Beautifully put, and a great way to start valentine’s day.

[Tym · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anton Chekhov strikes me as a very sad man with a poetic soul.

[Zak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chekhov is the short story goat.

'Gooseberries', 'The Student' and 'About Love' all particularly banged.

Will be revisting a few, even 'Fish love' a tale as old as time (about a carp in a pond falling in love with a woman).

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a single miss. The huntsman hits you over the head w chekhov’s skillfulness and every subsequent story lives up to it. On the road was my favorite but there was a lot to enjoy. loved it

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still don’t understand love but whatever this is good

[Wouter Zwemmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Verrassend moderne korte verhalen, ook al zijn ze gezet in andere tijden en een andere cultuur dan de onze.

Girl with the white dog
Interesting ideas:
- A haunting image: two people like two birds living in seperate cages.
- Does love remain when beauty fades? Difference between being or falling in love and love. Falling in love is nature’s great deceit: you project only positive aspects to the other person, and neglect the negative. It is what comes after that disturbing period, that matters. Humbert Humberts Dolores’ natural beauty faded already early. He himself thinks he never loved anyone else more than her, but only in her previous state - is that love?
- Is the social life for everyone ‘untrue’, is everyone only their true self in secrecy?
Some critique, or second thoughts:
- The falling in love is strange; the man haresses the woman, and she falls deeply in love with him? Love is by nature unpredictable because a chemistry between people, but this is not realistic. They know nothing about eachother. Is he interested in her, or just running from his unhappy mariage, or otherwise?
- How would the story have been told from the female perspective?
- The story is set in a privileged environment: rich people who are able to travel, go to first night galas at the theatre, upper class people living wealthy lives. How would this work for less privileged people or for intellectuals? Would they have less division between social (untrue) and secretive (true) lives?
Apparently inspiration for the movie Oci Ciorni with Marcello Mastroianni.

Story two: house with the attic
- Elite again, people that do nothing all day. Nowadays we know that this is psychologically not good for people.
- Also a link to normal people.
- Poor people cannot engage in spiritual activity because they suffer and have to work hard. While spirituality is what distinguishes men from animals.
- Bringing schools to poor people enslave them more because they learn about what they cannot have, and they have to work harder to pay for books etc.
- A discussion between the earthly (temporary) and spiritual (eternal) matters. The male rejects the earthy matters, and the woman wants to take care of them for poor people.
- Unexpected love. Not for the elder daughter (Lida) bit for the younger (Zhenya). Possibly an illusion because the young girl fled from the man and moved out with her mother.

Story three: the black monk
- The setting is a country house with a large, special and detailed garden. The main characters are the old horiticulturer, his stepson and his daughter. The stepson is a philosopher who teaches psychology. He grew up in the country house with the daughter when they were children. Now he only comes back every now and then and finds her to have become a woman. Nice opening.
- In the second part the stepson tells of a legend of a monk dressed in black who’s image was replicated in the desert and kept on replicating into the universe until it would come back to earth. One night the stepson encounters the image of the monk out in nature, with no other person present.
- The secret of the garden is the love of the gardener for it. The real enemy of our work isn’t in the work, but in the man who doesn’t care. The stepson reads articles from the gardener and dislikes them. He ponders over the hallucination of the black monk.
- The father and the daughter get angry with each other. The girl at first does not want to give up but after intervention of the stepson makes up with her father. They end up walking and eating rye bread with salt together.
- Stepson has a conversation with the monk and asks himself if he is mentally ill, because the monk is hallucination. The monk says: Only the mediocre is normal. “If you want to be healthy and normal, go join the herd”.
- The stepson has conversations with the black monk (=internal conversations) and is seen as mentally ill, also by himself. Whereas selfimprovement can also be seen as mental strength. He seeks treatment and medication, becomes an ‘ill person’.
- The philosopher leaves his wife and stepfather and starts a new life with another woman, who takes care of him. Het is awarded a professorship at the university.
- Difference earthly love (garden, marriage) en heavenly love (ideas, eternal truth, god, the monk and the philosopher). Pondering on fame (social) versus happiness (spiritual): are joy and happiness extraordinary (elite) or should they be ordinary (common, for everyone)? Is happiness an exceptional state or the normal state of everyone?
- There is also an element of sin: pride and contentment will come to fall… the stepson and the gardener are so content with their set up marriage with the daughter, that they are corrected…
- The social step towards marriage ultimately made the young philosopher unhappy… what is the message here? Marriage as a cage for freedom and creativity. At the end the woman hates her husband…
- The philosopher ponders on how much life expects in return for small ordinary blessings. The monk returns once again. The philosopher dies knowing that it is because his body lost balance (illness) and his mind list balance (he did not believe in himself anymore).

Man in a case
- When something is forbidden it is clear. When something is allowed it is dubious, vague, there may be risk of something going wrong. Which may result in being freightened of everything.
- “I have noticed that Ukraine women can only cry and laugh, there is no happy medium.”
- Life: not really prohibited by rules, but not really allowed either.
- Man in a case = encapsulated men, encapsulated by (self imposed) rules that prohibit living and flourishing.

Gooseberries
- “it’s obvious that the happy man feels contented only because the unhappy ones bear their burden without saying a word”
- “Sooner or later life will show him its claws and disaster will overtake him (…) and there will be noone to hear or to see him.”
- The meaning if life is not in happiness, but in doing good.
- While telling the story the participants ponder over the large paintings of aristocracy who live a beautiful life before, and the beautiful maid, a young woman, of the host.

About love
- For theorizing about love, you have to have a nobler standpoint than mere happiness of unhappiness, sin or virtue.

[Ally · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure I 'got' these stories. For me it was a one-dimensional look at human behaviours, the negative side of life and love. While interesting and universal, to me this was just half the story. I was also a bit disappointed that the inspiration behind so many of my favourite authors, particularly Katherine Mansfield, didn't really live up to my expectations. BUT...I'm sure I'm missing something so I want to re-visit these stories in a few years time. Maybe I'll appreciate them more at another time in my life!

[Descending Angel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's been awhile since i read a short story collection, i like russian literature and Chekhov has a reputation of being one of the best short story writers of all time. Unfortunately this collection doesn't prove that. Most of the stories are too short and aren't satisfying in the least and they aren't gunna bring you back to read them again and again. A couple favorites ~ "The Black Monk", "The Man In A Case" and "The House With The Mezzanine" are worth reading.

[Naile Berna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know I liked reading short stories. Apparently I do.

My favorites were Lady with the Little Dog, Gooseberries, Rothschild's' Violin, About Love.

It's interesting Chekhov keeps using the same character names. It can be confusing sometimes with remnants of one character attached to a name, blending into an unrelated one.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosamund Bartlett carefully introduces her readers to the poignant, whimsical and profound world of Chekhov, undoubtedly the pioneer of short stories about humanity devoid of conflict. Crafting the context, his lyrical merit and his inspirations for his stories, the reader is immersed in Chekhov's universe where his forward-thinking perspectives about human nature and realism command attention and acknowledgement in a time where it was absent. These are incredibly written stories that are translated to the universal audience, which truly capture the essence of living.

[Anita Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it. Anita Kirk author

[Maan Kawas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short stories! Highly recommend!