The Complete Stories of Anton Chekhov, Volume 2

by Anton Chekhov, Anthony Heald (Narrator), Constance Garnett (Translator)

A Russian author, playwright, and physician, Anton Chekhov is widely considered one of the best short-story writers of all time. Having influenced such writers as Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and James Joyce, Chekhov's stories are often noted for their stream-of-consciousness style and their vast number. Raymond Carver once said, "It is not only the immense number of stories he wrote—for few, if any, writers have ever done more—it is the awesome frequency with which he produced masterpieces, stories that shrive us as well as delight and move us, that lay bare our emotions in ways only true art can accomplish."

In The Complete Stories of Anton Chekhov, Volume 2: 1886, Blackstone has compiled fifty-five of Anton Chekhov's short stories: Art, A Blunder, Children, Misery, An Upheaval, An Actor's End, The Requiem, Anyuta, Ivan Matveyitch, The Witch, A Story without an End, A Joke, Agafya, A Nightmare, Grisha, Love, Easter Eve, Ladies, Strong Impressions, A Gentleman Friend, A Happy Man, The Privy Councillor, A Day in the Country, At a Summer Villa, Panic Fears, The Chemist's Wife, Not Wanted, The Chorus Girl, The Schoolmaster, A Troublesome Visitor, The Husband, A Misfortune, A Pink Stocking, Martyrs, The First-Class Passenger, Talent, The Dependents, The Jeune Premier, In the Dark, A Trivial Incident, A Tripping Tongue, A Trifle from Life, Difficult People, In the Court, A Peculiar Man, Mire, Dreams, Hush!, Excellent People, An Incident, The Orator, A Work of Art, Who Was to Blame?, Vanka, and On the Road.

Genres: Fiction

Audiobook

Published November 11, 2011

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

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly brilliant. Chekhov has no equal.

A few that really stood out to me are
A Nightmare
Difficult People
Dreams
Excellent People

I felt this passage of Excellent People was apropos at the moment, so I'm including sections of it here.

"Non-resistance to evil means an attitude of non-interference with regard to all that in the sphere of mortality is called evil."

Saying this, Vladimir Semyonitch bent over the table and took up a novel. This novel, written by a woman, dealt with the painfulness of the irregular position of a society lady who was living under the same roof with her lover and her illegitimate child. Vladimir Semyonitch was pleased with the excellent tendency of the story, the plot and the presentation of it. Making a brief summary of the novel, he selected the best passages and added to them in his account: "How true to reality, how living, how picturesque! The author is not merely an artist; he is also a subtle psychologist who can see into the hearts of his characters. Take, for example, this vivid description of the emotions of the heroine on meeting her husband," and so on.

...

He wanted to turn off these tedious conversations with a jest, but somehow it was beyond a jest; his smile was artificial and sour. His sister gave up sitting beside his table and gazing reverently at his writing hand, and he felt every evening that behind him on the sofa lay a person who did not agree with him. And his back grew stiff and numb, and there was a chill in his soul. An author's vanity is vindictive, implacable, incapable of forgiveness, and his sister was the first and only person who had laid bare and disturbed that uneasy feeling, which is like a big box of crockery, easy to unpack but impossible to pack up again as it was before.

"Very nice!" she said. "But still there's a great deal I don't understand. For instance, in Leskov's story 'Belonging to the Cathedral' there is a queer gardener who sows for the benefit of all -- for customers, for beggars, and any who care to steal. Did he behave sensibly?"

From his sister's tone and expression Vladimir Semyonitch saw that she did not like his article, and, almost for the first time in his life, his vanity as an author sustained a shock. With a shade of irritation he answered:

"Theft is immoral. To sow for thieves is to recognise the right of thieves to existence. What would you think if I were to establish a newspaper and, dividing it into sections, provide for blackmailing as well as for liberal ideas? Following the example of that gardener, I ought, logically, to provide a section for blackmailers, the intellectual scoundrels? Yes."

Vera Semyonovna made no answer. She got up from the table, moved languidly to the sofa and lay down.

"I don't know, I know nothing about it," she said musingly. "You are probably right, but it seems to me, I feel somehow, that there's something false in our resistance to evil, as though there were something concealed or unsaid. God knows, perhaps our methods of resisting evil belong to the category of prejudices which have become so deeply rooted in us, that we are incapable of parting with them, and therefore cannot form a correct judgment of them."

"How do you mean?"

"I don't know how to explain to you. Perhaps man is mistaken in thinking that he is obliged to resist evil and has a right to do so, just as he is mistaken in thinking, for instance, that the heart looks like an ace of hearts. It is very possible in resisting evil we ought not to use force, but to use what is the very opposite of force -- if you, for instance, don't want this picture stolen from you, you ought to give it away rather than lock it up. . . ."

"Volodya," Vera Semyonovna interrupted his critical effusions, "I've been haunted by a strange idea since yesterday. I keep wondering where we should all be if human life were ordered on the basis of non-resistance to evil?

"In all probability, nowhere. Non-resistance to evil would give the full rein to the criminal will, and, to say nothing of civilisation, this would leave not one stone standing upon another anywhere on earth.

[Hannah Schumacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories were a step above volume 1 but where is volume 3!?! We aren’t even in the 1890s and I know he gets better there

In terms of the actual stories, I liked them because even in 1880s Russia I could see ourselves in it. The characters were complicated, sometimes funny and sometimes tragic, and their problems were real and relatable.

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

If literature is primarily meant to show us what it means to be human, there are few people more competent in that regard than Anton Chekhov. Quite a few of these stories read almost like 19th century episodes of Curb, and plenty of the others, though less comic, still hold up as both mirrors into our own souls precisely because they're such good windows into others'. While I think the previous volume was a little more solid throughout—there were a few stories in here that really just didn't hold my attention—I really enjoyed making my way through the final batch of his short fiction.

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely magnificent! I am sad it ended. I wished the stories could go on forever. And the voice of Anthony Heald - just music in my ears. He brings every character alive.
In my opinion, Chekhov is the best story writer ever.
Pick it up and spend an afternoon listening to it. You won’t regret it.

[Jack Allred · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how Chekhov is able to write about children and animals. The author is able to disappear behind his words leaving the reader with a clear image of his story.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have thoroughly enjoyed these volumes of Chekhov's short stories!
Anthony Heald is an amazing narrator and I could listen to him for hours (and I did!).
He really brings to life these amazing classic stories!