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In the Ravine & Other Stories
Anton Chekhov was one of the world’s most accomplished short-story writers and this collection displays the breadth and variety of his genius.
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. In the Ravine & Other Stories are translated by Constance Garnett and selected and introduced by novelist Paul Bailey.
Chekhov had an incomparable ability to write about the seemingly every day with insight, humour and compassion. His characters are brilliantly drawn, from the church warden who’s convinced his wife’s a witch because strangers arrive on the doorstep whenever there’s a storm, to the wronged wife who confronts her husband’s chorus-girl lover, to the melancholy school teacher who imagines how her life might have been.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1970
25 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Anton Chekhov
5,890 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 61 reviews
November 30, 2016
More reviews can be found on my book blog.
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This is a collection of Chekhov's short stories, spanning from 1983 with The Trousseau to 1900 with the title story, In the Ravine. I hadn't read anything by Chekhov before, and I'm usually not a huge short story fan, but a small collection narrated by Kenneth Branagh seemed like a great place to start.
This collected the following stories:
Oh! The Public
The Chorus Girl
The Trousseau
A Story Without a Title
Children
Misery
Fat and Thin
The Beggar
Hush!
The Orator
An Actor's End
I In the Ravine
II The elder son Anisim came home very rarely
III In the village Shikalovo lived two dressmakers
I was surprised by how modern the writing and plot felt in some of these stories. I suppose I get that feeling with a lot of classics, but I think since these are so short and focused it's easy to imagine some of them happening in our time. If the details of the setting aren't relevant to the plot, they aren't provided (Chekhov's Gun I suppose), and I think that makes some of them feel timeless in a way.
Some of these are actually quite funny. Oh! The Public deals with a clueless train ticket collector dealing with angry customers. He tries to follow the rules but they just lead to more and more issues. The funniest of the bunch, I thought, was The Orator, in which a man at a funeral gives a eulogy but gets his information wrong. Instead of eulogizing the man in the casket, he accidentally speaks about a man in the audience and causes some offence.
Hush! is a great little story of a writer blaming his lack of progress on everything around him. Too much noise, and not enough tea. He blames everything but himself and can't see what a pompous tyrant he is to those around him while he tries to write. It reminds me a bit of when I try to write anything.
I loved Misery. It's the story of a horse-drawn sledge driver who just lost his son, and he tries desperately to confide in each passenger he picks up. He wants to tell them what happened, but none of them will pay him much mind. It perfectly captures how surreal and isolating it can be to lose someone close, to have your world change so dramatically and then step back into your regular life to find that no one else is affected. To find that your loss is about as relevant to them as the five-day forecast, and how, as selfish as it seems, sometimes you just want to tell someone everything and try to have them understand a bit of what you felt. This man has no one in his life who will listen.
I listened to this on audio, which Branagh narrated perfectly, so I had no idea of Chekhov's fondness for ellipses until just now. I wonder if that's common in all of his stories?
Weirdly, In the Ravine was one of my least favourites of the bunch. It seems to be the most popular, so I might have to revisit it at some point and see what I missed. As a whole, though, I really enjoyed this. Maybe I'll read one of his plays next.
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This is a collection of Chekhov's short stories, spanning from 1983 with The Trousseau to 1900 with the title story, In the Ravine. I hadn't read anything by Chekhov before, and I'm usually not a huge short story fan, but a small collection narrated by Kenneth Branagh seemed like a great place to start.
This collected the following stories:
Oh! The Public
The Chorus Girl
The Trousseau
A Story Without a Title
Children
Misery
Fat and Thin
The Beggar
Hush!
The Orator
An Actor's End
I In the Ravine
II The elder son Anisim came home very rarely
III In the village Shikalovo lived two dressmakers
I was surprised by how modern the writing and plot felt in some of these stories. I suppose I get that feeling with a lot of classics, but I think since these are so short and focused it's easy to imagine some of them happening in our time. If the details of the setting aren't relevant to the plot, they aren't provided (Chekhov's Gun I suppose), and I think that makes some of them feel timeless in a way.
Some of these are actually quite funny. Oh! The Public deals with a clueless train ticket collector dealing with angry customers. He tries to follow the rules but they just lead to more and more issues. The funniest of the bunch, I thought, was The Orator, in which a man at a funeral gives a eulogy but gets his information wrong. Instead of eulogizing the man in the casket, he accidentally speaks about a man in the audience and causes some offence.
Your speech may be all right for a dead man, but in reference to a living one it is nothing but sarcasm!
Hush! is a great little story of a writer blaming his lack of progress on everything around him. Too much noise, and not enough tea. He blames everything but himself and can't see what a pompous tyrant he is to those around him while he tries to write. It reminds me a bit of when I try to write anything.
I loved Misery. It's the story of a horse-drawn sledge driver who just lost his son, and he tries desperately to confide in each passenger he picks up. He wants to tell them what happened, but none of them will pay him much mind. It perfectly captures how surreal and isolating it can be to lose someone close, to have your world change so dramatically and then step back into your regular life to find that no one else is affected. To find that your loss is about as relevant to them as the five-day forecast, and how, as selfish as it seems, sometimes you just want to tell someone everything and try to have them understand a bit of what you felt. This man has no one in his life who will listen.
Just as the young man had been thirsty for water, he thirsts for speech. His son will soon have been dead a week, and he has not really talked to anybody yet... . He wants to talk of it properly, with deliberation.... He wants to tell how his son was taken ill, how he suffered, what he said before he died, how he died.... He wants to describe the funeral, and how he went to the hospital to get his son's clothes. He still has his daughter Anisya in the country.... And he wants to talk about her too.... Yes, he has plenty to talk about now. His listener ought to sigh and exclaim and lament....
I listened to this on audio, which Branagh narrated perfectly, so I had no idea of Chekhov's fondness for ellipses until just now. I wonder if that's common in all of his stories?
Weirdly, In the Ravine was one of my least favourites of the bunch. It seems to be the most popular, so I might have to revisit it at some point and see what I missed. As a whole, though, I really enjoyed this. Maybe I'll read one of his plays next.
November 2, 2008
Chekhov's shorts always leave me feeling like they're incomplete. But then I realize that he purposely does not give you more because he wants you to think about what he is saying, as well as what he is not saying, in the story. My favorite story in the collection was the one about the pious monk who traveled to town and returned to tell all of the monks, in detail, about the hedonistic ways of the townspeople. He locked himself up in a room and cried for weeks about the state of humanity's downfall. When he came outside again, he found himself alone. All the monks fled to the village.
March 12, 2019
First of all, Kenneth Branagh, need I say more? This was my first experience with Chekhov and I was completely caught up in each story. The monk story was quite an amusing tale. The audio version was just lovely. Branagh was amazing and the segments of Tchaikovsky and Balakirev were moving and a lovely lead in between each story.
November 14, 2020
For some reason, I really want to like classic Russian literature, but I don't. I like the idea of it, but not the reading experience. This way the same.
July 6, 2024
I mainly wanted to read the novella In the Ravine from this collection, but I liked rereading the other shorter stories. It was like singling them out and highlighting them to me! Transition music slapped too.
Chekhov has this incredible way of taking the honest approach and not letting a story go too sentimental or the easy route. Idk, In the Ravine has one of the most violent evil acts I've read in fiction and the person gets away with it per all measures of regular success. But the ending is not dark, nor cheesy by being too light. It's literally perfect and something I'd never guess, and that's how basically all of his endings are, a suckerpunch surprise
Chekhov has this incredible way of taking the honest approach and not letting a story go too sentimental or the easy route. Idk, In the Ravine has one of the most violent evil acts I've read in fiction and the person gets away with it per all measures of regular success. But the ending is not dark, nor cheesy by being too light. It's literally perfect and something I'd never guess, and that's how basically all of his endings are, a suckerpunch surprise
August 2, 2020
Short stories are not my favourite form of literature and most of these are more like little vignettes than stories at all. However, they are beautifully constructed and psychologically acute. Definitely worth listening to. The reader is excellent but in my view Naxos readers in general are exceptional.
Personally I preferred the little snapshots to the Ravine but the length of the only real short story enables the writer to give us more detail.
Personally I preferred the little snapshots to the Ravine but the length of the only real short story enables the writer to give us more detail.
November 22, 2022
Firstly, how the heck am I supposed to review a short story collection??
I will say this. A collection like this would be so fun to do with a book group. A story a week and then coming together to discuss each persons impressions of the stories and what did (or didn't) happen in each, would be amazing.
Here are each of the short stories renamed by my summary
1. Dying Men Will Do What Dying Men Do, Stupid Men Will do What Stupid Men Do
2. Maybe They Were Con Artists?
3. She Knew It Was Coming All Along...
4."Set a Watch, O Lord, At The Door Of My Lips."
5. Sleep is Worth More than it's Weight in Kopecks
6. This is the Reason Men Love Their Creatures More Than One Another.
7. The Most Dreaded Meeting of a Childhood Friend
8. You May Think You are the Reason, but You are Nothing. God Will Work as He Wills
9. Maybe Working on a Normal Work Schedule Could Be a Good Place to Start, Ya Freak
10. Well That's One Way To Burry Someone Alive
11. Just Take The Poor Fool Home!!!
The last short story came in three parts, and boy was that rough.
This story was so cruel. So Wicked. So mean. I thought to myself, "This is either the story of how this daughter-in-law destroys this family, or how the other one saves it. But this is Russian Literature, so let's be real, this family has no hope." I'll just say one thing. I hate it when I'm right.
I will say this. A collection like this would be so fun to do with a book group. A story a week and then coming together to discuss each persons impressions of the stories and what did (or didn't) happen in each, would be amazing.
Here are each of the short stories renamed by my summary
1. Dying Men Will Do What Dying Men Do, Stupid Men Will do What Stupid Men Do
2. Maybe They Were Con Artists?
3. She Knew It Was Coming All Along...
4."Set a Watch, O Lord, At The Door Of My Lips."
5. Sleep is Worth More than it's Weight in Kopecks
6. This is the Reason Men Love Their Creatures More Than One Another.
7. The Most Dreaded Meeting of a Childhood Friend
8. You May Think You are the Reason, but You are Nothing. God Will Work as He Wills
9. Maybe Working on a Normal Work Schedule Could Be a Good Place to Start, Ya Freak
10. Well That's One Way To Burry Someone Alive
11. Just Take The Poor Fool Home!!!
The last short story came in three parts, and boy was that rough.
This story was so cruel. So Wicked. So mean. I thought to myself, "This is either the story of how this daughter-in-law destroys this family, or how the other one saves it. But this is Russian Literature, so let's be real, this family has no hope." I'll just say one thing. I hate it when I'm right.
September 20, 2021
Handsome little hardcover volume here that'd fit right in your pocket if you so wished. I got it to read the title story, which George Saunders mentioned in an interview with Ezra Klein this year. Apparently "In the Ravine" upset a lot of readers when first published in 1900, and one can see why -- the story is upsetting, the outcome tragic, and injustice wins out. It acknowledges that sometimes a person of influence can get away with hateful, evil behavior, that sometimes a community looks the other way when a move-'n'-shaker does their worst. And people suffer for it. This doesn't jar at all with my understanding of life. Instead, it rings with truth, affirming another one of the countless ways things can and do go wrong. And how the tender-hearted can hang on to their tender-heartedness despite the worst.
The other stories are great, too -- it's Chekhov after all!
The other stories are great, too -- it's Chekhov after all!
April 29, 2011
Просто перечитаю рассказ "В овраге". Читаю Набокова Лекции о русской литературе, так хочется все бросить и перечитать Анну Каренину в 8 раз, Мертвые души в 5 раз, и т.д. Но поскольку это сейчас невозможно, то хотя бы Чехова немного (не знаю в какой раз, я его так люблю и столько раз перечитывала).
March 19, 2020
"If you have a choice of audiobook editions," my friend Valerie told me, "choose Naxos." I started listening and a frisson of delight went through me: Kenneth Branagh was narrating! Chekhov and Branagh is a superlative match.
My oldest brother introduced me to Chekhov in 2006; I have fond memories of reading myself to sleep in a Pennsylvania farmhouse with strange Russian stories. Chekhov is a helpful entryway to the Russian psyche. Some stories are simply a slice of life. They don't go anywhere ... and then they stop.
These were hard to listen to if there are any distractions. Short stories are pity and condensed. If you miss one detail, you may miss the meaning of the story. I repeated most three times and picked up details with each re-reading. Snippets of Tchaikovsky and Balakirev in between stories are beautiful and mood-inducing.
My oldest brother introduced me to Chekhov in 2006; I have fond memories of reading myself to sleep in a Pennsylvania farmhouse with strange Russian stories. Chekhov is a helpful entryway to the Russian psyche. Some stories are simply a slice of life. They don't go anywhere ... and then they stop.
These were hard to listen to if there are any distractions. Short stories are pity and condensed. If you miss one detail, you may miss the meaning of the story. I repeated most three times and picked up details with each re-reading. Snippets of Tchaikovsky and Balakirev in between stories are beautiful and mood-inducing.
May 15, 2023
I wrote a review but I guess it didn’t save. Ugh. I love Chekhov’s sentences. They are a joy to read. His characters are well drawn and you learn so much about them with only a few sentences. The funniest story is the Orator and the other one I loved was the one about the man whose son had died.
I’m not generally a fan of the short story (thanks high school English teachers) but Chekhov’s prose! I need more of it in my life.
I’m not generally a fan of the short story (thanks high school English teachers) but Chekhov’s prose! I need more of it in my life.
December 9, 2019
Listened on Audible, picked this up because I naturally had no choice but to buy everything Kenneth Branagh narrated. Don't know how I made it this far in life without stumbling across Chekhov til now. This dude fuckin got it. "Misery" left me SHOOK and I had to take a break for a day. I ugly-cried several times throughout these stories. I want more.
August 18, 2023
In the Ravine is a brutal story frequently included in other Chekhov collections. But this collection had many interesting and enjoyable stories I hadn't previously encountered. I especially liked Children (metaphorical?), A Story Without a Title (Chekhov as comedian?), and The Beggar.
March 9, 2016
Wow.
Some of these were really funny. The depressing ones were gut wrenching.
Funny -
"A Story Without A Title" - A gentleman visits the monastery and yells at the monks for sitting around stuffing their faces while the people in the village are hungry and need help. So the Father Superior goes down to the village and is horrified by the sins he sees. He goes back to the brothers and gives this huge rousing sermon about the drinking and gambling and laughter and beautiful women and loose morals and nude statues. Then he turns around, and they're all gone - down to the village. :)
"Oh The Public" - A ticket collector decides to stop drinking on the job, do his job, and actually collect passenger's tickets on the train. Unfortunately the first guy he wakes up to ask for his ticket has been taking sleeping meds, and is very disgruntled to be awoken. He wakes him up two more times throughout the night, as the guy takes more and more medication. Then the ticket collector gets scolded, and decides to start drinking again.
The Depressing Ones
"The Chorus Girl" - A singer, who works in a brothel, is visited by a lover's wife. The wife says that her family is starving and demands any presents her husband has given the girl, so that she can sell them for food. Moved, the girl gives her the presents other men have given her, because the husband hadn't given her anything of value. Then the husband, who was hiding the entire time, rages against the girl because his wife had to bow down before the girl, who he feels is so far below her station as to be disgusting.
"Misery" - "To whom should I tell my grief?" A coach driver loses his adult son ("Death knocked at the wrong door") and wants to tell someone, anyone who would listen. He wants to tell them about his life and his spark and his three days in the hospital, but no one wants to listen. At the end, he tells his horse. Man, that made me tear up while walking.
And then there's "In The Ravine" which was an utter punch to the gut. So you know the thing about Chekhov's Gun? Where if there's a gun on the mantle in Act 1, it must be fired by Act 3? Welcome to Chekhov's Baby. There was a baby, and the baby was loved. And it was loved so much that you knew something awful was going to happen. And it did.
I need something fluffy now.
Some of these were really funny. The depressing ones were gut wrenching.
Funny -
"A Story Without A Title" - A gentleman visits the monastery and yells at the monks for sitting around stuffing their faces while the people in the village are hungry and need help. So the Father Superior goes down to the village and is horrified by the sins he sees. He goes back to the brothers and gives this huge rousing sermon about the drinking and gambling and laughter and beautiful women and loose morals and nude statues. Then he turns around, and they're all gone - down to the village. :)
"Oh The Public" - A ticket collector decides to stop drinking on the job, do his job, and actually collect passenger's tickets on the train. Unfortunately the first guy he wakes up to ask for his ticket has been taking sleeping meds, and is very disgruntled to be awoken. He wakes him up two more times throughout the night, as the guy takes more and more medication. Then the ticket collector gets scolded, and decides to start drinking again.
The Depressing Ones
"The Chorus Girl" - A singer, who works in a brothel, is visited by a lover's wife. The wife says that her family is starving and demands any presents her husband has given the girl, so that she can sell them for food. Moved, the girl gives her the presents other men have given her, because the husband hadn't given her anything of value. Then the husband, who was hiding the entire time, rages against the girl because his wife had to bow down before the girl, who he feels is so far below her station as to be disgusting.
"Misery" - "To whom should I tell my grief?" A coach driver loses his adult son ("Death knocked at the wrong door") and wants to tell someone, anyone who would listen. He wants to tell them about his life and his spark and his three days in the hospital, but no one wants to listen. At the end, he tells his horse. Man, that made me tear up while walking.
And then there's "In The Ravine" which was an utter punch to the gut. So you know the thing about Chekhov's Gun? Where if there's a gun on the mantle in Act 1, it must be fired by Act 3? Welcome to Chekhov's Baby. There was a baby, and the baby was loved. And it was loved so much that you knew something awful was going to happen. And it did.
I need something fluffy now.
June 27, 2025
Harsh realities of Russian villages bringing you vividly back in time … What an important contribution to world literature.
August 8, 2017
I know Chekhov's stories quite well (my research was in the American short story; Chekhov was an parent and natural starting point) and I wanted a new perspective. This collection provided that. Beautifully read by Branagh, a highlight was 'Despair', which is one of my favorite stories in any case, but narrated with such tenderness that I felt its depth all over again.
A good selection, although there's always room for 'The Lady and the Dog', although one shouldn't comment on what is omitted. And I loved 'A Story Without a Title', a one-time read I had not come across, and a good one.
Beautiful incidental music by Russian composers a bonus. A great package in all.
A good selection, although there's always room for 'The Lady and the Dog', although one shouldn't comment on what is omitted. And I loved 'A Story Without a Title', a one-time read I had not come across, and a good one.
Beautiful incidental music by Russian composers a bonus. A great package in all.
September 30, 2009
Kenneth Branagh does a superb job bringing these Chekhov stories to life.
May 23, 2012
My favorite story was the one about the monk. Unfortunately "In the Ravine" was my least favorite. I may have to revisit this book at a later date.
November 23, 2014
Chekhov is brilliant. Nothing else.
March 19, 2015
They thing about Chekhov's short stories is that they're all kinda sad. Even the hilarious ones have a tinge of sadness to them. Beautiful stories all.
July 25, 2024
Chekhov is quickly distinguishing himself as one of my favourite short story writers, as he more than Gogol ever could writes both amusing anecdotes stretched well to short story length, and tragic tales about the poor and the miserable without ever undermining his feelings for them.
Through his writing you feel the reality of his sufferers, and feel for them, but you also laugh when laughter is expected, while even in the funniest tales there is often a sly sense of tragedy beneath, stemming from a social awareness and empathy.
Another thing differentiating Chekhov from Gogol is his ability to write women without painting them as only unreal ideals or horrible harpys. In the Ravine alone is a masterful example with a considerable cast of characters where each woman and man carries their own face and can be despised only for their individual actions and not for the hatred the author might carry for their gender.
Kenneth Branagh adds a quiet sombre tone to the stories, coming into them with respect for the material, and only in a few bespoke moments letting his emotions out. His characters have nuances and differences in their sound, and while a bigger cast can get unwieldy to listen to, he lends sombre life to them as well.
A great example of both author and speaker.
Through his writing you feel the reality of his sufferers, and feel for them, but you also laugh when laughter is expected, while even in the funniest tales there is often a sly sense of tragedy beneath, stemming from a social awareness and empathy.
Another thing differentiating Chekhov from Gogol is his ability to write women without painting them as only unreal ideals or horrible harpys. In the Ravine alone is a masterful example with a considerable cast of characters where each woman and man carries their own face and can be despised only for their individual actions and not for the hatred the author might carry for their gender.
Kenneth Branagh adds a quiet sombre tone to the stories, coming into them with respect for the material, and only in a few bespoke moments letting his emotions out. His characters have nuances and differences in their sound, and while a bigger cast can get unwieldy to listen to, he lends sombre life to them as well.
A great example of both author and speaker.
January 9, 2025
Chekhov is maybe the only author I can think of who is somehow able to both horrify and comfort you at the same time. “Your’s is not the worst of sorrows. Life is long, there will be good and bad to come, there will be everything.” I mean, come on! Or how about, “In reality, life was arranged and human relations were complicated so utterly beyond all understanding that when one thought about it one felt uncanny and one’s heart sank.” I don’t know. There’s just a kind of gripping, simple magic about the language, about the candidness of his tone which so perfectly conveys the seemingly boundless totality of his empathy. I had a professor who marveled at Chekhov’s ability to understand, with complete compassion, the sum of every human being’s feelings. She attributed this to his career as a doctor. And I think it’s true. For some reason he was apparently able to imagine and inhabit any sort of person, whether they be extraordinary or ordinary, from peasants to monks to school teachers and chorus girls, and treat them with remarkable empathy and kindness and truth, and thereby illuminate their inner life, and reveal some kind of inherent preciousness or value to their existence, both in terms of whatever story they’re written into but also on a much higher scale.
October 19, 2022
3.5 stars.
I think the guiding principle for this collection was an attempt at showing how varied the characters Chekhov can conjure. I'm not really sure what else binds these stories, as they are all quite different from each other.
The 'realness' of Chekhov's characters is marvelous. Many of these stories feel a lot more like masterful character sketches: lacking narrative movement, character development, etc. "In the Ravine" certainly offers the most as far as narrative, but I think the story of the children playing a game, each for his or her own reasons, is my favorite.
Favorite line:
"And however great was wickedness, still the night was calm and beautiful, and still in God's world there is and will be truth and justice as calm and beautiful, and everything on earth is only waiting to be made one with truth and justice, even as the moonlight is blended with the night."
I think the guiding principle for this collection was an attempt at showing how varied the characters Chekhov can conjure. I'm not really sure what else binds these stories, as they are all quite different from each other.
The 'realness' of Chekhov's characters is marvelous. Many of these stories feel a lot more like masterful character sketches: lacking narrative movement, character development, etc. "In the Ravine" certainly offers the most as far as narrative, but I think the story of the children playing a game, each for his or her own reasons, is my favorite.
Favorite line:
"And however great was wickedness, still the night was calm and beautiful, and still in God's world there is and will be truth and justice as calm and beautiful, and everything on earth is only waiting to be made one with truth and justice, even as the moonlight is blended with the night."
April 10, 2019
Careful and character driven, but I think we have different expectations of the short story nowadays. Often, there is minimal sense of plot and little to no stakes--even counting the unsaid and the internal. But you gotta love them a little for their honest portrayal of Russian life, peasant and gentry. My favorite had to be "Misery," which hit the hardest and built tension through a series of encounters that all lead to nothing. The sorrow of the father in this story felt so palpable. The titular story exceeded my expectations, laid good groundwork, and built steadily to what should have been tragedy--but somehow just ends up being a sad ending to a very realist tale, neither indulging nor shirking from the innate melancholy. We feel Chekhov's lens widening to encompass all he can, and in this way, his stories have a subtle beauty to them that makes them worth reading despite the unspectacular plot and low stakes.
December 23, 2019
What a poignant collection of short stories. I read Chekhov a long time ago, never really as an adult, so that I do not recall identifying and empathizing with the characters, events, drama. They are like fables. Short and every word matters.
Branagh is a great narrator and I trusted that he would sound all the right notes ... pathos, mimicry, ignorance, humility, kindness ... complex emotions, well-delivered ...
*The Trousseau
*Misery
*Fat and Thin
And *Children is really a sweet story
I am not sure what I thought of the long series that is the title of the book In the Ravine . Scenes are great - but it seems less focused, not as tightly written and so it seemed to suffer some in comparison to the other stories in the collection.
But it is sort of ridiculous for me to even suggest this about Chekhov, yes?
Branagh is a great narrator and I trusted that he would sound all the right notes ... pathos, mimicry, ignorance, humility, kindness ... complex emotions, well-delivered ...
*The Trousseau
*Misery
*Fat and Thin
And *Children is really a sweet story
I am not sure what I thought of the long series that is the title of the book In the Ravine . Scenes are great - but it seems less focused, not as tightly written and so it seemed to suffer some in comparison to the other stories in the collection.
But it is sort of ridiculous for me to even suggest this about Chekhov, yes?
September 16, 2023
How can I refuse Chekhov short stories as narrated by Kenneth Branagh? The answer is, I cannot. And this one did not disappoint. A four star experience! I wish there were some way for me to explain the power of Chekhov's storytelling ability but you really do have to experience for yourself. I laughed, I cried, I screamed and I enjoyed every moment of these stories, even the really heartbreaking ones. I must say that reading a bunch of Chekhov stories always makes me feel abundantly grateful for all that I have, they are worth it for that alone!
March 26, 2024
I loved this collection. In particular, the story Misery (a definite five star for me) laid bare the isolation and loneliness a person can experience, even when surrounded by others. An Actor's End explored a similar theme. I also loved The Beggar, which examined what adds true value, and the folly of self-satisfaction. And the title novella...wow. (Also a five star.) Chekov's social commentary on life in Russia toward the end of the 19th century was harsh, honest, and unapologetic, and consequently very powerful.
November 19, 2021
An interesting selection of little vignettes, and the longer story "In the Ravine" itself, wonderfully read by Kenneth Branagh. Though the tone of many of the stories is quite dark, there is a lot of humour here too, such as in the very entertaining "The Orator", which begins with this wonderful line..
"ONE fine morning the collegiate assessor, Kirill Ivanovitch Babilonov, who had died of the two afflictions so widely spread in our country, a bad wife and alcoholism, was being buried."
"ONE fine morning the collegiate assessor, Kirill Ivanovitch Babilonov, who had died of the two afflictions so widely spread in our country, a bad wife and alcoholism, was being buried."
July 12, 2022
A collection of Chekhov's short stories narrated by the suburb Kenneth Branagh for Audible. The writing felt quite modern surprisingly, but his voice felt authentic. And his ability to draw the reader into his story with only a few lines is just remarkable. Some were more interesting than others, but all were well-told stories.
A quick note about a few of them.
Oh the Public - hilarious!
A Story without a Tale - clever
The Orator - hilarious!
Misery - heartbreaking
In the Ravine - grim
A quick note about a few of them.
Oh the Public - hilarious!
A Story without a Tale - clever
The Orator - hilarious!
Misery - heartbreaking
In the Ravine - grim
Read
December 11, 2025Chekhov especially enjoys repetition in dialogue, especially in Hush!, The Trousseau, An Actor's End, Misery, Oh! The Public, The Chorus Girl. And yet they're all written so well that this is easy to overlook, but also, each works well in its own way. Plenty of insufferable people, and ruin, and misery. Like Nabokov said, people who want to do good but never seem able to achieve it. Were better upon first reread.
Will probably reread each one.
Will probably reread each one.
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