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Tales of Chekhov #6
The Witch and Other Stories
This large print title is set in Tieras 16pt font as reccomended by the RNIB.
148 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1918
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572 people want to read
About the author
Anton Chekhov
5,892 books9,761 followersDramas, 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
December 11, 2012
The short story does not simply differ from the novel (or novella) in length, although brevity is one of its defining characteristics. It does not have the development of characters and narrative that you find in the longer forms of fiction. It must offer the reader a different experience. In its purest form, it is like a memory recalled, often no more than an incident or encounter where it may seem that little or nothing happened. Its essence lies in the detail: a single word or sentence may create an image or feeling that opens up a wider world left to the reader's imagination. Little may occur dramatically in a short story, but often by the end something has changed significantly, and a greater understanding has been reached by one or more of the characters - and the reader.
Available free on iBooks, this collection of short stories by Anton Chekhov is a good starter for anyone reading his works for the first time. In addition to his 14 plays (of which the last 4 are classics) and 6 novellas, Chekhov wrote well over 200 short stories and he is generally considered to be among the greatest practitioners of this art form.
The stories in this collection show the range of Chekhov's writing. The title story - 'The Witch' - is like a one-act play, with just four characters sharing a dwelling during a single night. A post carriage is forced to seek shelter from a lethal snowstorm which may or may not have been created by the sorcery of the woman of the house. There are short, vivid descriptions of the weather and the bleak setting of this brief tale, but much of the writing consists of dialogue, as in a play. Although there is the potential for much to happen, very little action takes place. At the end we feel that the man and his wife are still both locked in their own private hells.
The second story - 'Peasant Wives' - opens up wider possibilities for its varied characters. It too unfolds over the course of a single night, but here the story takes you back to events long in the past, as well as toying with possible choices for the future, even if we are left feeling that probably nothing much will change in the lives of Chekhov's characters. There is a story within a story, bitterly told from a male perspective, yet it is the women in this story who capture the imagination: unloved, abused, exploited, but not wholly passive as they seek to shape their own destinies. The story suggests many other untold stories, with each character having a backstory that we can expand in our imagination from the hints we are given. The revelation in the penultimate sentence is heartbreaking, and opens our minds to untold horrors: “Kuzka brushed the hay off it with his sleeve, put it on, and timidly he crawled into the cart, still with an expression of terror on his face as though he were afraid of a blow from behind.” There is so much hidden depth in the 23 or so pages here, that in our minds this short story becomes an epic.
Of the other 13 stories in this collection, some personal favourites of mine are 'The New Villa' (a mini-saga novel in 5 chapters, describing how the attempts of an engineer and his wife to build social bridges with local villagers are met with suspicion, ignorance, and rebuttal, leading to their departure); 'At Christmas Time' (the perfect short story, told in two chapters each just a few pages long: the first about the writing of a letter in a rural village, the second about its receipt in St Petersburg); 'Gusev' (an episodic account of sick troops on a homeward bound steamer, on a journey the two main protagonists will not complete - the ending is extraordinary!); 'In the ravine' (the longest piece in this collection, telling in 9 episodes how a bourgeois, village family comes together before disintegrating through corruption, ambition, and cruelty); and 'Peasants (the final story in this collection, told in 9 short chapters, describing how a young Muscovite and his family are forced through his ill-health to return to the rural village of his childhood where relentless poverty confronts their aspirations and faith - a graphically harsh and unromantic view of rural peasant life in Russia in the late 19th century).
There are a number of common themes running through Chekhov's stories: the failures of his characters to communicate and connect; the way social conventions (class, religion, superstition) restrict human relationships and prevent personal development; the social oppression of women; the deadening and abrasive effects of a harsh environment on its inhabitants; how poverty brutalises the human spirit; the stifling effect of ignorance and superstition on change and progress ... There is very little warmth or joy here, which is undoubtedly an accurate reflection of what life was like for the majority of people in Tzarist Russia at that time. But Chekhov writes with wit and a belief in the perseverance of the human spirit, and the reader can find a sharply detailed insight into human behaviour and its frailties. Chekhov's themes are timeless, sharply observed and beautifully written, and subtly woven through these seemingly simple stories.
Having read this collection, I put Chekhov up there with Hemingway, Lawrence, Joyce, Borges and Poe as my favourite short-story writers.
QUOTES:
“The clerk and the elder of the rural district who had served together for fourteen years, and who had during all that time never signed a single document for anybody nor let a single person out of the local court without deceiving or insulting him, were sitting now side by side, both fat and well-fed, and it seemed as though they were so saturated in injustice and falsehood that even the skin of their faces was somehow peculiar, fraudulent”
Excerpt from: 'In The Ravine'
“Aksinya had naive grey eyes which rarely blinked, and a naive smile played continually on her face. And in those unblinking eyes, and in that little head on the long neck, and in her slenderness there was something snake-like; all in green but for the yellow on her bosom, she looked with a smile on her face as a viper looks out of the young rye in the spring at the passers-by, stretching itself and lifting its head”
Excerpt from: 'In The Ravine'
“the ancient barrows, once watch-mounds and tombs, which rose here and there above the horizon and the boundless steppe had a sullen and death-like look; there was a feeling of endless time and utter indifference to man in their immobility and silence; another thousand years would pass, myriads of men would die, while they would still stand as they had stood, wit h no regret for the dead nor interest in the living, and no soul would ever know why they stood there, and what secret of the steppes was hidden under them.”
Excerpt from: 'Happiness'
Available free on iBooks, this collection of short stories by Anton Chekhov is a good starter for anyone reading his works for the first time. In addition to his 14 plays (of which the last 4 are classics) and 6 novellas, Chekhov wrote well over 200 short stories and he is generally considered to be among the greatest practitioners of this art form.
The stories in this collection show the range of Chekhov's writing. The title story - 'The Witch' - is like a one-act play, with just four characters sharing a dwelling during a single night. A post carriage is forced to seek shelter from a lethal snowstorm which may or may not have been created by the sorcery of the woman of the house. There are short, vivid descriptions of the weather and the bleak setting of this brief tale, but much of the writing consists of dialogue, as in a play. Although there is the potential for much to happen, very little action takes place. At the end we feel that the man and his wife are still both locked in their own private hells.
The second story - 'Peasant Wives' - opens up wider possibilities for its varied characters. It too unfolds over the course of a single night, but here the story takes you back to events long in the past, as well as toying with possible choices for the future, even if we are left feeling that probably nothing much will change in the lives of Chekhov's characters. There is a story within a story, bitterly told from a male perspective, yet it is the women in this story who capture the imagination: unloved, abused, exploited, but not wholly passive as they seek to shape their own destinies. The story suggests many other untold stories, with each character having a backstory that we can expand in our imagination from the hints we are given. The revelation in the penultimate sentence is heartbreaking, and opens our minds to untold horrors: “Kuzka brushed the hay off it with his sleeve, put it on, and timidly he crawled into the cart, still with an expression of terror on his face as though he were afraid of a blow from behind.” There is so much hidden depth in the 23 or so pages here, that in our minds this short story becomes an epic.
Of the other 13 stories in this collection, some personal favourites of mine are 'The New Villa' (a mini-saga novel in 5 chapters, describing how the attempts of an engineer and his wife to build social bridges with local villagers are met with suspicion, ignorance, and rebuttal, leading to their departure); 'At Christmas Time' (the perfect short story, told in two chapters each just a few pages long: the first about the writing of a letter in a rural village, the second about its receipt in St Petersburg); 'Gusev' (an episodic account of sick troops on a homeward bound steamer, on a journey the two main protagonists will not complete - the ending is extraordinary!); 'In the ravine' (the longest piece in this collection, telling in 9 episodes how a bourgeois, village family comes together before disintegrating through corruption, ambition, and cruelty); and 'Peasants (the final story in this collection, told in 9 short chapters, describing how a young Muscovite and his family are forced through his ill-health to return to the rural village of his childhood where relentless poverty confronts their aspirations and faith - a graphically harsh and unromantic view of rural peasant life in Russia in the late 19th century).
There are a number of common themes running through Chekhov's stories: the failures of his characters to communicate and connect; the way social conventions (class, religion, superstition) restrict human relationships and prevent personal development; the social oppression of women; the deadening and abrasive effects of a harsh environment on its inhabitants; how poverty brutalises the human spirit; the stifling effect of ignorance and superstition on change and progress ... There is very little warmth or joy here, which is undoubtedly an accurate reflection of what life was like for the majority of people in Tzarist Russia at that time. But Chekhov writes with wit and a belief in the perseverance of the human spirit, and the reader can find a sharply detailed insight into human behaviour and its frailties. Chekhov's themes are timeless, sharply observed and beautifully written, and subtly woven through these seemingly simple stories.
Having read this collection, I put Chekhov up there with Hemingway, Lawrence, Joyce, Borges and Poe as my favourite short-story writers.
QUOTES:
“The clerk and the elder of the rural district who had served together for fourteen years, and who had during all that time never signed a single document for anybody nor let a single person out of the local court without deceiving or insulting him, were sitting now side by side, both fat and well-fed, and it seemed as though they were so saturated in injustice and falsehood that even the skin of their faces was somehow peculiar, fraudulent”
Excerpt from: 'In The Ravine'
“Aksinya had naive grey eyes which rarely blinked, and a naive smile played continually on her face. And in those unblinking eyes, and in that little head on the long neck, and in her slenderness there was something snake-like; all in green but for the yellow on her bosom, she looked with a smile on her face as a viper looks out of the young rye in the spring at the passers-by, stretching itself and lifting its head”
Excerpt from: 'In The Ravine'
“the ancient barrows, once watch-mounds and tombs, which rose here and there above the horizon and the boundless steppe had a sullen and death-like look; there was a feeling of endless time and utter indifference to man in their immobility and silence; another thousand years would pass, myriads of men would die, while they would still stand as they had stood, wit h no regret for the dead nor interest in the living, and no soul would ever know why they stood there, and what secret of the steppes was hidden under them.”
Excerpt from: 'Happiness'
September 24, 2020
Veštica - odlična reprezentacija odnosa između muškarca i žene koja se nije promenila iako je prošlo više od veka otkad je pripovetka napisana. Prikaz nesigurnog muškarca koji sve svoje osobine projektuje na ženu i krivi je za to sa jedne strane, a sa druge ženin duh koji je još uvek borben, ali nije u mogućnosti da se izbori za sebe zbog načina na koji je odrasla.
Tajni savetnik - Pripovetka koja nam pokazuje da stalež nema nikakve veze sa ozbiljnošću i inteligencijom, kao i da lako može da nas povuče činjenica da neko naizgled ima više od nas (što na kraju krajeva ne mora da znači da je tako).
Na letovanju - Ovo mi je definitivno najbolja od svih jer pokazuje mudrost žene koja odlično poznaje muške nagone i u svoju korist to okreće. Takođe, pokazuje ego muškarca i koliko lako mogu da učine greh ukoliko se ne kontrolišu.
Dosadan život - Ova priča pokazuje koliko lako možemo da skrenemo sa našeg puta ukoliko pustimo drugim ljudima da upravljaju našim životom. Naša i njihova vizija tog života je u potpunosti drugačija, a ukoliko je prihvatimo bez razmišljanja, ona može da nas uništi. Takođe, govori nam koliko dosada može da bude loša ukoliko je konstantna i da nas prepusti stvarima koje smo rekli da nikada nećemo da radimo.
Sve u svemu, pomalo mračna, ali zanimljiva knjiga sa razrađenim likovima.
Tajni savetnik - Pripovetka koja nam pokazuje da stalež nema nikakve veze sa ozbiljnošću i inteligencijom, kao i da lako može da nas povuče činjenica da neko naizgled ima više od nas (što na kraju krajeva ne mora da znači da je tako).
Na letovanju - Ovo mi je definitivno najbolja od svih jer pokazuje mudrost žene koja odlično poznaje muške nagone i u svoju korist to okreće. Takođe, pokazuje ego muškarca i koliko lako mogu da učine greh ukoliko se ne kontrolišu.
Dosadan život - Ova priča pokazuje koliko lako možemo da skrenemo sa našeg puta ukoliko pustimo drugim ljudima da upravljaju našim životom. Naša i njihova vizija tog života je u potpunosti drugačija, a ukoliko je prihvatimo bez razmišljanja, ona može da nas uništi. Takođe, govori nam koliko dosada može da bude loša ukoliko je konstantna i da nas prepusti stvarima koje smo rekli da nikada nećemo da radimo.
Sve u svemu, pomalo mračna, ali zanimljiva knjiga sa razrađenim likovima.
June 16, 2009
Chekhov's short stories are supposedly required reading for getting the art of the short story down. These are an almost eerie set of stories about life in the Russian peasantry in the 19th century--but the issues he deals with of adultery, passion, jealousy and resignation are universal. Some of the stories I felt I was missing something, some issue of lingual/cultural/historical translation no doubt, but others were quietly heartbreaking.
October 23, 2017
After reading a collection such as The Witch, and Other Stories, one can clearly see why Anton Chekhov is regarded as the master of the short story. Every single tale here was engaging, compelling, and fluidly translated. In true Russian fashion, they are all rather bleak, but they are achingly human, and beautiful for it. Chekhov renders everything, from his settings to his characters, in the most detailed and realistic manner in this wonderful and rich collection of diverse stories.
June 15, 2012
Chekhov's theme may as well be distilled to the following maxim:
Nobody really understands anybody else at all, and the worst thing about this is that we strut around through life believing that we are really good at this communication business.
These stories, along with those in other volumes of Chekov that I've read, such as The Chorus Girl, are among the most heartbreaking and sad pieces I've ever come across. Reading Chekhov stories always makes me feel hopeless and shitty, but I keep coming back to them anyway.
Nobody really understands anybody else at all, and the worst thing about this is that we strut around through life believing that we are really good at this communication business.
These stories, along with those in other volumes of Chekov that I've read, such as The Chorus Girl, are among the most heartbreaking and sad pieces I've ever come across. Reading Chekhov stories always makes me feel hopeless and shitty, but I keep coming back to them anyway.
April 28, 2011
While always a reader I had never read Chekhov. But whenever anyone talks about mastering the short story, Chekhov's name is mentioned. So I started with these stories. I generally don't like reading ANYONE'S short stories one right after another, anymore than I enjoy listening to one artist sing one song right after another, but I enjoyed these. While not his best - it's easy to understand why his work has become classic.
June 16, 2023
Shorts on peasant life. Ravine is the most powerful. I also have a soft spot for Pipe on winter, despondency, the human condition.
May 4, 2025
Setting: Russia; late 19th century.
A good collection of short stories, largely concerning the trials and tribulations of the peasantry in Russia in the late 19th century. Some great characters and storylines in this selection - 8/10.
A good collection of short stories, largely concerning the trials and tribulations of the peasantry in Russia in the late 19th century. Some great characters and storylines in this selection - 8/10.
December 7, 2019
I think of myself as a lover of subtlety in writing, but Chekhov may be too subtle even for me. His insights into Russian culture are interesting and informative, but the characters often lack likability, and the stories lack resolution. Still, his writing skill is undeniable.
July 6, 2017
'In the Ravine' is another superb story. Nothing compares to reading a Russian classic - it's like a high and several lows in the same story, it's like beginning to enjoy a ride in sunny just perfect weather, then getting hit by hail and rain on a steep hilly section, before the weather turns sunny again - except the sun now is not as warm as before and the rain soaked clothes turn the ride into an experience you are in two minds whether to end immediately or continue to eternity.
August 12, 2012
Read during my trip back home since it was the only book left.
May 3, 2025
Not a classic…
Honestly, this was a slog fest to get through. At times I felt that either the author himself, or the translator, were eight years old. I also couldn’t figure out if these stories weRE PRO- Communist or Pro-czarist….or just all about the poverty of the basic Russian people at the turn of the 20th Century….At the end of it,I just wish I had the hours invested in reading it back so that I could read something better.
Honestly, this was a slog fest to get through. At times I felt that either the author himself, or the translator, were eight years old. I also couldn’t figure out if these stories weRE PRO- Communist or Pro-czarist….or just all about the poverty of the basic Russian people at the turn of the 20th Century….At the end of it,I just wish I had the hours invested in reading it back so that I could read something better.
December 12, 2017
I now understand why Chekhov is considered one of the all time great short-story writers. His stories hold up even today.
I bet the American author, Ron Rash, with his tales of Appalachia woe, is a huge fan of Chekhov.
I bet the American author, Ron Rash, with his tales of Appalachia woe, is a huge fan of Chekhov.
December 30, 2017
Sitting in my Trans Siberian train i realized that i have never read Chekhov. So i downloaded this book and read it, and looking outside my train window and imagine the life of Russian as i read it in the book.
May 6, 2022
Nice stories, some more than others. My favorite out of these was one about an injured soldier who is on a boat back home. He dreams about the reunion with his family and talks to other injured soldiers who are dying. His dream keep getting interrupted by a strange visdreams
July 3, 2019
Chekhov paints with words the way a grand master paints with a brush. A few delicate strokes and a picture emerges full of character life and interest. I love reading Chekhov.
December 7, 2019
The Witch 3/5
January 27, 2022
Gut punch after gut punch
Heartbreak after heartbreak
Mastery and beauty all along the way.
Chekhov is singular and eternal.
Heartbreak after heartbreak
Mastery and beauty all along the way.
Chekhov is singular and eternal.
May 22, 2022
Good humorous stories that made me lol plenty of times. Pre modern peasant life stores that brought joy to my days
November 9, 2024
4.5 stars
My favorites: In the Ravine, Peasants, Agafya
My favorites: In the Ravine, Peasants, Agafya
September 8, 2020
Richard Ford says Chekhov is an author for adults, something you start to appreciate as you get older. And Chekhov has certainly aged well in the over 100 years since he wrote short stories. I'd even throw it out there that he might be the missing link between more traditional writers who pursue Poe's unity of effect and some of the contemporary stuff that appears in the New Yorker, blended dream-like scenes without a predominant direction. Chekhov plants seemingly unrelated vines in his stories, but when you get to the end all the grapes combine into a subtle, harmonious wine.
January 9, 2022
Elk van de kortverhalen uit dit boek neemt je op een meesterlijke manier mee naar het Rusland van eind negentiende eeuw. Ze wedijveren met elkaar op het vlak van uitzichtloosheid, tristesse en melancholie, maar zetten je ook meer dan eens aan het denken.
October 5, 2014
The Witch was certainly a good one, and Gusev was very very powerful- I can recommend both of these. Chekhov has a fresh and simple style.
Probably take a few reads most of these- in fact, seeing the half-empty page indicating the end of a story made me panic most times because I hadn't picked up the story's meaning yet. I found it hard to concentrate on a lot of these stories: peasants, fishing, fishing peasants and frosty fishing peasants horses postmen. Slice-of-life-tastic! (Review pretty much stops here and the rest are notes for me.)
Alice Munro didn't get going until she was 37, did she? Well, there's a chance I'll return to Chekhov around that age. 12 years previous, my favourite writer was the guy who wrote the Pokemon TV series, so there's every chance.
I didn't pick up on anything interesting structurally, even although I know Chekhov's structure is a fave of Alice Munro's- I shall investigate.
Conclusion 1: Constance Garnett, try as she might, has probably done unknowable harm to readers who approach Russian literature for the first time for her dull translations. I did not suspect her foul play on this translationventure but did narrow my eyes when I saw that name again. Kareninaaaaaaaaaaa!
Conclusion 2: will read more Alice Munro.
Probably take a few reads most of these- in fact, seeing the half-empty page indicating the end of a story made me panic most times because I hadn't picked up the story's meaning yet. I found it hard to concentrate on a lot of these stories: peasants, fishing, fishing peasants and frosty fishing peasants horses postmen. Slice-of-life-tastic! (Review pretty much stops here and the rest are notes for me.)
Alice Munro didn't get going until she was 37, did she? Well, there's a chance I'll return to Chekhov around that age. 12 years previous, my favourite writer was the guy who wrote the Pokemon TV series, so there's every chance.
I didn't pick up on anything interesting structurally, even although I know Chekhov's structure is a fave of Alice Munro's- I shall investigate.
Conclusion 1: Constance Garnett, try as she might, has probably done unknowable harm to readers who approach Russian literature for the first time for her dull translations. I did not suspect her foul play on this translationventure but did narrow my eyes when I saw that name again. Kareninaaaaaaaaaaa!
Conclusion 2: will read more Alice Munro.
June 24, 2015
The shepherd looked at the sky again, thought a moment, and said deliberately, as though chewing each word:
"It's all going the same way... There is nothing good to be looked for."
Not a happy ending anywhere in this dour collection of short stories, featuring the depressing existence of peasants and the lower middle class. But really, given the nationality, did I need to use the adjectives "dour" or "depressing"?
There's a passage in Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time" which comes to mind when I read Russian literature. Inspector Grant is commenting on an one of the books sitting by his hospital bed:
The situation [...] had not materially changed since Silas's last book: mother lying-in with her eleventh upstairs, father laid-out after his ninth downstairs, eldest son lying to the Government in the cow-shed, eldest daughter lying with her lover in the hayloft, everyone else lying low in the barn. The rain dripped from the thatch, and the manure steamed in the midden. Silas never omitted the manure. It was not Silas's fault that its steam provided the only uprising element in the picture. If Silas could have discovered a brand of steam that steamed downwards, Silas would have introduced it.
3.5/5, rounded up for those who need a dose of grimness. Available on Gutenberg.
"It's all going the same way... There is nothing good to be looked for."
Not a happy ending anywhere in this dour collection of short stories, featuring the depressing existence of peasants and the lower middle class. But really, given the nationality, did I need to use the adjectives "dour" or "depressing"?
There's a passage in Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time" which comes to mind when I read Russian literature. Inspector Grant is commenting on an one of the books sitting by his hospital bed:
The situation [...] had not materially changed since Silas's last book: mother lying-in with her eleventh upstairs, father laid-out after his ninth downstairs, eldest son lying to the Government in the cow-shed, eldest daughter lying with her lover in the hayloft, everyone else lying low in the barn. The rain dripped from the thatch, and the manure steamed in the midden. Silas never omitted the manure. It was not Silas's fault that its steam provided the only uprising element in the picture. If Silas could have discovered a brand of steam that steamed downwards, Silas would have introduced it.
3.5/5, rounded up for those who need a dose of grimness. Available on Gutenberg.
July 5, 2014
I want to like Chekhov's writing. His reputation seems to depend on literary historicity: if you subscribe to the dominant paradigm of Anglo-European literary history, Chekhov is an important formalist and his stories are a refreshing part of the historical flow. And in these stories he predominantly evokes rural life and natural settings, seeming to look backward at a time when progress was effecting radical changes for everyone.
But he dwells relentlessly on rural failure, misery, and hopelessness, which really doesn't teach us anything new, nor does his pretense of ending stories with questions. After all, the "short story" is only part of the global ethnographic continuum of human storytelling; in that broader context we find myth, legend, parable, and history itself, with many transformative lessons, from many cultures, for solving life's problems and inspiring us to care for each other and our planet.
Chekhov can only offer discouragement.
But he dwells relentlessly on rural failure, misery, and hopelessness, which really doesn't teach us anything new, nor does his pretense of ending stories with questions. After all, the "short story" is only part of the global ethnographic continuum of human storytelling; in that broader context we find myth, legend, parable, and history itself, with many transformative lessons, from many cultures, for solving life's problems and inspiring us to care for each other and our planet.
Chekhov can only offer discouragement.
December 17, 2015
Every time I come back to Chekhov now, I think that his writing is probably the most beautiful I have read...the prose is astonishing at times; passing gorgeous poetic phrases scattered around like it were nothing at at all, the ability to briefly anthropomorphise nature, the weather, animals with the keenest observance, as if his whole life, down to every tiny detail, he was constantly writing, in his head...this collection is wonderful, and costs zip on kindle...as ever ploughs alternately bleak and comedic intimate depictions of russian peasant life layered with meaning, unfolding every so often into moments of profound clarity and revealing (as close, brutally honest and beautiful as I have found so far, bar maybe Kafka) our very nature to us. staggering work...food for the soul. 'dreams' and 'the new villa' stand out here but this is all dynamite :-)
October 24, 2013
Almost flawless as one might expect from one of the world's all time great writers though it does suffer a little from the perennial problem with short story collections in that the juxtaposition of some of the tales does them no favour. A good story following a great story can often seem less well developed than it actually is and here there are many great stories so those that are a little less developed appear weaker than they almost certainly are.
The tales evoke a set of times and places which to their original audience may have been obviously unique and separate but to me at least appeared bound together and tangled into a single tale with many stories, like an epic drama 70 years before it's time - "Fear and Misery of Tsarist Russia" anyone?
The tales evoke a set of times and places which to their original audience may have been obviously unique and separate but to me at least appeared bound together and tangled into a single tale with many stories, like an epic drama 70 years before it's time - "Fear and Misery of Tsarist Russia" anyone?
Want to read
March 6, 2014
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/worl...
CONTENTS:
THE WITCH
PEASANT WIVES
THE POST
THE NEW VILLA
DREAMS
THE PIPE
AGAFYA
AT CHRISTMAS TIME
GUSEV
THE STUDENT
IN THE RAVINE
THE HUNTSMAN
HAPPINESS
A MALEFACTOR
PEASANTS
17/8/2012: On hold
April 2, 2014
Chekhov is one of the best short story writers ever. Many of his works are quite short, describing one moment in time, and yet ends of reflecting a life time of pain, an entire culture, a universal struggle, or a black irony that most can appreciate. I wish I could read Russian, as I assume these stories are even more powerful in their original language. I give this collection a 4 star rather than a 5, because not every story is great. But they are all well worth the read.
November 26, 2014
the book is about the life and misery of the peasants in russia.. sometimes the story has no plot but merely depicts some trivial everyday scene which gives it more force i think since it gives no explanation nor justification but just the crude reality of a bunch of people looking for happinnes but never find it... i loved the book the only regret was that i can't read russian..i would have prefered the original version
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