[Five Great Short Stories] (By: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov) [published: March, 1991]

by Anton Chekhov

set in Tsarist Russian milieux — reveal noted author's skills in character, nuance and setting development. Includes "The Black Monk" (1894), "The House with the Mezzanine" (1896), "The Peasants" (1897), "Gooseberries" (1898) and "The Lady with the Toy Dog" (1899).

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Russia, Literature, Russian Literature, Classic Literature

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

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

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Every happy man should have someone with a little hammer at his door to knock and remind him that there are unhappy people, and that, however happy he may be, life will sooner or later show its claws, and some misfortune will befall him—illness, poverty, loss, and then no one will see or hear him, just as he now neither sees nor hears others. But there is no man with a hammer, and the happy go on living, just a little fluttered with the petty cares of every day, like an aspen tree in the wind—and everything is all right.”

My favorite of these five stories was “Gooseberries.” It shows how when you experience or hear of something, you can become uneasy for it and your life can be changed.

Like the country: “And you know once a man has fished, or watched the thrushes hovering in flocks over the village in the bright, cool autumn days, he can never really be a townsman, and to the day of his death he will be drawn to the country.”

Or, like gooseberries.

All five were very atmospheric. They work on your subconscious. You think you’re done with the story, but maybe you’re not.

[Donna Petko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a fan of Chekhov's simple, uncluttered prose. His stories are not about dramatic, momentous life events, instead focusing on the little daily moments that cause us anxiety, joy, and reflection. I liked "The Lady with the Little Dog" for its recognition of sadness during what should otherwise be a happy time. It made me think that happiness is never the sole emotion - other commitments, the happenings of the past, and the uncertainty of the future always taint the purity of happiness. Also, in "Gooseberries," I liked Chekhov's commentary about our denial of sadness in others in order to selfishly enjoy our own well-being. I found the realistic portrayal of Russian rural life in "Peasants" welcoming - gone is Tolstoy's idealization of the Russian peasant as the ideal and pure-hearted citizen. Chekhov exposes country life to its sad reality - he writes of the ignorance, harshness, and poverty of the masses.

In all, I admire Chekhov's style. His stories leave me feeling nostalgic for the lost moments, the things left unsaid, the misunderstandings between people that are often the cause of such pain and turmoil.

[Mari]

slim & lovely for those with short attention spans or who need to read one page per cigarette - every time i read chekhov i think, "anton, why are you writing short stories? you are basically writing a play with some prose" and then some paragraph hits me with its incredibleness - the man knows how to tell a story.

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths." (p. 77, Gooseberries)

And read the first story, The Black Monk (that story deserves five stars, the rest, three).

[Mima Flamingo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't sleep all night after reading The Black Monk. I find Chekhov's writing light and yet so profound and frighteningly clever.

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not read Chekhov's full stories before, for all that is name is often referenced in literature. His work is highly readable, his characters realistic. Really, he writes psychological examinations of people's lives--but that said, his subject matters are not my sort of thing. These are incredibly miserable people whose lives we see in detail.

[Anton Grabreck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I forget if I'm having a slice of lemon meringue or a chapter of Chekhov.
Within 50 pages The Black Monk made me question my sanity and The Lady With The Toy Dog had me reevaluate my purpose and morality. Can't ask for much more.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title of this very short collection states: these were five great short stories. Three were excellent stories that touched in some way one of the reasons I love Russian literature: the tension and difficulty of reconciling ideals with reality. These three stories all had excellent descriptions of landscape, characters, and were striking (The Black Monk, The House with the Mezzanine, and Gooseberries). The Black Monk felt very reminiscent of some Dostoevsky which was great, very psychological and intriguing.

The remaining two stories (The Peasants and The Lady with the Toy Dog) were not my favourite but were still well written and full of interesting characters.

I've come to realize from reading this collection that I would really like to read more Chekhov because the stories I really liked in this book were great!

[Miri · Rating 3 out of 5]

last book of the year yippee

[Samuel Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chekhov is a master. Almost cried on an airplane reading The House with the Mezzanine.

[Lisa K · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love Richard Scarry’s Busytown, you will love Anton Chekov’s Russia

[Kait · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sub-ratings
1. The Black Monk 3.5 stars
2. The House With the Mezzanine 5 stars
3. The Peasants 2 stars
4. Gooseberries 3 stars
5. The Lady with the Toy Dog 2.5 stars

[Chris Dietzel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know Chekhov is considered one of the greatest short story writers of all time. I also know some of my favorite authors hold Chekhov as being hugely influential to them. But I couldn't get into these stories at all. There was nothing here that caught my attention, and every short story collection I've read by Atwood, Ford, Moore, Murakami, Vonnegut, and plenty of others has been better than this collection.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's rare to find a book that can give either a lot of delight or none at all, depending on how carefully it is read. On the surface, these stories seem dreary, marked by unwarranted cruelty, untreated disease, and unrewarded hardship. But dig a little deeper, and it's as though Chekhov is inviting the reader to act as a detective, challenging them to pick up on the trails of clues that he's placed just out of sight. The ordering of sentences can allude to a character's affections before anything is expressed openly; a choice of beverage predicts an attitude revealed a page later; a sequence of shorter and shorter clauses parallels a person's life dwindling away and nearing the end. Little details like these became a source of scrutiny and excitement as I tried to anticipate where each story would go.

In creation of characters, Chekhov is observant and empathetic, giving each of them gestures and mannerisms that mean something. For the most part, the characters seem to be ignorantly bumbling through life, but we glimpse their hearts and minds in ways that make them mirrors of ourselves - sometimes painfully so. Additionally, irony leaps out when we may least expect it. Following one character's passionate speech on the necessity of doing good no matter what our position in life, his host's sleepy thought process is described:

He did not trouble to think whether what Ivan Ivanich had been saying was clever or right; his guests were talking of neither groats, nor hay, nor tar, but of something which had no bearing on his life, and he liked it, and wanted it to go on...

Most of the stories end with the characters continuing to bumble along - and despite (or because of) all their shortcomings and oddities, I found myself hoping that they'd manage to keep going and find peace or happiness or knowledge somehow, after their pages had run out. It took me longer to read this book than its 94 pages would seem to warrant. But reading it slowly and carefully was worthwhile for how it's changed my way of looking at stories - and maybe, even at people.

[Read Harder Challenge: a book by a person whose gender is different from mine]

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this a higher rating, I would. There are some out there who like to hate on Chekhov... well whatever. House with the Mezzanine is in my top three favorite short stories. Lady with the Dog is amazing. These five stories are just great. Great, great.

[Kallie Q · Rating 2 out of 5]

my copy had a big printing error, the first 33 pages were poems by samuel oldridge or something like that. so i only got to read "gooseberries" and "lady with the toy dog" because they were the only stories in full in the book, but i wasn't very impressed with either.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially enjoyed "The Black Monk" and "The Lady with the Toy Dog".

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd but enjoyable short stories.

[Mauoijenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Black Monk is the only story out of the 5 in this book, that I enjoyed. The rest were blahhh.

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've yet to really enjoy Russian writers--"Crime and Punishment" was quite literally a punishment. But I liked 3 out of the 5 of these short stories, so there's that.

[Scout Who · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sorry, but I didn't think they were all that great.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

More awesome sexy Chechkov stories.

[Leila Silva Terlinchamp]

Terminei 2006 lendo Chekhov e comecei 2007 lendo Chekhov....acho que vai ser o ano dos russos. Para mim, claro. Comprei este livrinho por menos de um dólar num sebo em Seattle, há quase dois anos. Chekhov não merecia ter passado dois anos ali na estante, mas...c'est la vie. Lembro-me do momento exato em que o comprei, eu pensava que não devia comprar mais um livro porque já tinha comprado tantos e livro pesa, não é? Mas era tão pequeno e tão barato que não resisti. Não ia pesar nem no bolso e nem na mala. Ainda bem que tomei esta sábia decisão.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov médico e escritor russo nasceu na cidade de Taganrog em 1860 e morreu de tuberculose em 1904. Era neto de um servo que comprou a sua liberdade. Sobre sua infância o autor expressa-se da seguinte maneira em uma carta ao irmão: "Filho de um servo, ... servente de loja, cantor na igreja, estudante do liceu e da Universidade, educado para a reverência de superiores e para beijos de mão, para se curvar perante os pensamentos alheios, para a gratidão por qualquer pequeno pedaço de pão, muitas vezes sovado, indo à escola sem galochas".
Este servente de loja e cantor de igreja era o pai, este que educou os filhos para a obediência e ‘reverência aos superiores.’

Quando estava na universidade, em Moscou, Chekhov já escrevia artigos e trabalhos literários assim como anedotas para jornais, com o dinheiro que ganhava pode ajudar a família que estava com sérios problemas financeiros.

Os contos que compõem este Five Great Short Stories são The Black Monk(1894), The House with the Mezzanine, The Peasants, Gooseberries(1898) e The Lady with the Toy Dog (1899). O primeiro, The Black Monk (O monge negro), narra a história de Kovrin, um intelectual que, vitimado pela loucura, vê um monge negro, conversa com ele e nessas conversas o monge sempre enaltece a genialidade de Kovrin, convencendo-o de que ele nasceu para ser ‘grande’. Finalmente, convencido por pessoas que o amam, de que ele não está bem mentalmente, que precisa de ajuda e remédios, Kovrin aceita o tratamento, mas depois condena essas pessoas, sua mulher e o sogro, que o levaram a aceitar o tratamento. Ele não era uma pessoa comum, não podia aceitar que fosse assim e preferia viver feliz na sua megalomania do que infeliz e realista. Passa, então a tratar cruelmente a mulher e o sogro. Ele não só aceita a sua loucura como ainda justifica que esta e a genialidade estiveram sempre ligadas:
“"How fortunate Buddha, Mahomed, and Shakespeare were that their kind relations and doctors did not cure them of their ecstasy and their inspiration," said Kovrin. "If Mahomed had taken bromide for his nerves, had worked only two hours out of the twenty-four, and had drunk milk, that remarkable man would have left no more trace after him than his dog. Doctors and kind relations will succeed in stupefying mankind, in making mediocrity pass for genius and in bringing civilisation to ruin. If only you knew," Kovrin said with annoyance, "how grateful I am to you."”

The Peasants(1897) é um conto extremamente triste sobre a vida dos camponeses nesta época. Triste, mas de nenhum modo condescendente. Os camponeses não são mostrados como simples ‘coitadinhos’, mas como pessoas boas e más, calculistas, infelizes, sonhadoras ou arraigadas àquela realidade, como a personagem Fekla que gostava da pobreza, da sujeira, de usar palavras de baixo calão e odiava o filho Nikolai e sua mulher, Olga, pelo simples fato de que eles odiavam esta vida. A história começa justamente com Nikolai que era garçom em Moscou e que, doente e sem meios, volta para a sua família na esperança de um pouco de repouso. O que encontra é justamente o contrário, problemas familiares, todos os homens dependentes da vodka, a mãe a repreendê-lo o tempo todo por ter voltado para morrer ali e dar mais trabalho ainda para a sua gente. Para Olga, mulher de Nikolai, esse era um universo novo, ela tenta compreender a todos, justificar suas ações, ajudar as mulheres destes homens que se embebedam e descontam nelas, em brutalidades físicas e morais, todas as suas frustrações.
Os demais contos são igualmente interessantes. Muitos deles podem ser lidos aqui em inglês ou aqui para os felizardos que podem ler em russo.

[Shuggy L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the nineteenth century, these five stories show the vast difference in wealth between the Russian nobility and the “peasants.”

1.The lady with the Lap Dog is a story about a married man- Gomov (Moscow) who meets a young married lady- Anna Sergueyevna (from Petersburg but living at S.) on holiday in Yalta.

2.In Gooseberries, Ivan Ivanich, veterinary surgeon, tells his two friends- Bourkin, school master, and Aliokhin, farmer, Sophino, the story about his brother, Nicholai, who has bought some gooseberry bushes on his newly acquired estate-Himalayskoe or Tchimbarshov Corner.

3.The Peasants - grandparents - Osip and grandmother, their three sons, Nikolai (= Olga, daughter: Sasha), Kiriak watchman), = Marya, six daughters, Denis (soldier), Fekla, two children.

Nikolai Tchikildeyeff worked as a waiter in Moscow until he became ill- Slaviansky Bazaar Hotel. He has returned to his village with his family but they are too poor to offer comfort.

The family are poor in the extreme- even though the two daughters-in-law are also employed at the noble’s farm.

Village friends visit and the community is Orthodox but they live sordid lives- there is illiteracy, and inexcusable male heavy drinking and domestic violence (friends: Leonuitcheffs, Matveitcheffs, Ilitchoffs).

4.Mezzanine

Portrays the divergent attitudes of the wealthy to wards to poor. Lydia Volchaninov wants to help them.

She works as a teacher at the local elective assembly school (Zemstvo School) earning twenty-five roubles a month.

Piotr Petrovitch, a landscape painter, thinks that alleviating poverty blocks the way to "spiritual activity".

He wants people to be able to think "of their souls" and that coming their assistance with hospitals and schools does not free them "from their fetters and leads to a vicious cycle of poverty.

Piotr is staying on the estate of his friend, Bielokurov and frequently visits Lydia and her family's house - a white house with a terrace and a mezzanine - to discuss their ideas.

5.The Black Monk

Korvin is a professor who, like Petrovich in the previous story (Mezzanine), struggles with adapting his mental superiority to the needs of the general population.

His anxiety is symbolized by a black monk who eventually inhibits Korvin's relationship with his father-in-law (Egor Semenych) and his wife Tania, whom he had met on Semenych's beautiful country estate.

Eventually, Korvin, goes with a woman who is looking after him, Varvara Nikolaevna to Yalta in Crimea via Sevastopol for health reasons.

There, Korvin encounters the black monk again and calls out to Tania and he also calls out to the joyous life he had had at an earlier time in his life.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.25 stars.
"Hundreds of miles of deserted, monotonous, blackened steppe could not so forcibly depress the mind as a man like that, sitting and talking and showing no signs of going away" (37).
"He thought how much life takes for the insignificant or very ordinary blessings that it is able to give man in exchange" (28).
"I was filled with a sudden dread of being left alone with my inevitable dissatisfaction with myself and people..." (42).
"The other geese could also get into the garden; but these were feeding far across the river, and, like a big white garland, stretched across the meadow" (53).
"'Bring more water! Do your best, Orthodox men and women, on this unfortunate occasion!'" (57).
"'May they burst asunder!' growled sleepy Fekla angrily" (59). *I so enjoy the two above assertions.
"...they had no themes for conversation save need, and forage, and the absence of snow..." (66).
"Money, like vodka, can play queer tricks with a man" (75).
"'Every happy man should have some one with a little hammer at his door to knock and remind him that there are unhappy people, and that, however happy he may be, life will sooner or later show its claws, and some misfortune will befall him--illness, poverty, loss, and then non one will see or hear him, just as he now neither sees nor hears others. But there is no man with a hammer, and the happy go on living, just a little fluttered with the petty cares of every day, like and aspen-tree in the wind--and everything is all right'" (78).
"'Happiness does not exist, nor should it, and if there is any meaning or purpose in life, they are not in our piddling little happiness, but in something reasonable and grand. Do good!'" (79).
"Gomov...thought how at bottom, if it were thoroughly explored, everything on earth was beautiful, everything except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity" (86).
"...leaving only a stunted, wingless life, just rubbish..." (89).

[Liza Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

“But there is nothing enduring in this world, and that is why even joy is not as keen in the moment that follows the first; and a moment later it grows weaker still and finally merges imperceptibly into one's usual state of mind, just as a ring on the water, made by the fall of a pebble, merges finally into the smooth surface.”

“Genya thought that I, as an artist, knew a great deal and could guess what I did not know. She wanted me to lead her into the region of the eternal and the beautiful, into the highest world, with which, as she thought, I was perfectly familiar, and she talked to me of God, of eternal life, of the miraculous. And I, who did not admit that I and my imagination would perish for ever, would reply: "Yes. Men are immortal. Yes, eternal life awaits us." And she would listen and believe me and never asked for proof.”

“‘The point is neither pessimism nor optimism,’ I said irritably, ‘but that ninety-nine out of a hundred have no sense.’”

[Jim Varley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never read any Chekhov prior to the short stories in this book and I have to say they are not like any short stories I have ever read. In each story Chekhov builds an interesting world that you become engaged in and then the story just seems to stop in midair. Like real life, there is no pretty resolution - just preparation for another chapter where you cannot see what is going to happen. The other thing this author brings to life in his short story “The Peasants”, is just how rough peasant life was in Russia at the turn of the 19th Century. Grinding poverty, hopelessness, ignorance, and alcoholism rule the day. Easy to understand how the masses supported the overthrow of the Czar and then, ultimately, got behind the communists. Hard to tell if he was exaggerating or, like Upton Sinclair, just focusing on the lowest and most despised members of society.

[Russell Bittner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chekhov has always been one of my favorite short story writers. And if a writer's descriptive capabilities are sufficient to render him or her such an accolade, then "one of my favorites" he remains.

That said, these five "great" short stories elude me entirely. What? Because Chekhov is not on target here with those same descriptive capabilities? No -- not in the least. Rather, it's because his story telling aptitude with these five stories leaves a lot to be desired. I guess Dover Publications and I just don't see eye to eye -- and this I suggest quite simply because I know from years past and prior reading that I've always admired Chekhov's stories ... just not these five.

RRB
Hudson, New York, U. S. A.
23 April 2023

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short collection contains three short stories that I think are stupendous: The Lady with the Dog; The Black Monk; and The House with the Mezzanine. What Chekhov is able to nail in a few short pages is amazing--which is why I call his short stories palette-cleansers. To be read when fatigued by the yada-yada of so many novelists. His emotional range is what is most interesting to me, though I also appreciate his descriptions of the Russian countryside, gentry, and folkways.

There were two stories that I had trouble connecting with: The Peasants (because so negative) and Gooseberries.

[Heidi Zimmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the Black Monk - "I exist in your imagination, and your imagination is part of nature, consequently I exist in nature too."

Explores the question: If you have a psychological condition that makes you happy, but it's just outside the norm of standard living, would you medicate yourself to be unfeeling and live in society, or stay unmedicated and be happy outside society?

And then the Gooseberries! Loved this simple story that reminds one to remember it is okay to strive for greatness, or riches or fame, or whatever life goal you set for yourself, but to not forget to enjoy life along the journey as well. Your goal when achieved may not contain all the imagined happiness you expected.