The Anton Chekhov Collection

by Anton Chekhov, Steppenwolf Press

Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."

The Horse-Stealers
Ward No. 6
The Petchenyeg
A Dead Body
A Happy Ending
The Looking-Glass
Old Age
Darkness
The Beggar
A Story Without A Title
In Trouble
Frost
A Slander
Minds In Ferment
Gone Astray
An Avenger
The Jeune Premier
A Defenceless Creature
An Enigmatic Nature
A Happy Man
A Troublesome Visitor
An Actor’s End
The Schoolmaster
Enemies
The Examining Magistrate
Betrothed
From The Diary Of A Violent-Tempered Man
In The Dark
A Play
A Mystery
Strong Impressions
Drunk
The Marshal’s Widow
A Bad Business
In The Court
Boots
Joy
Ladies
A Peculiar Man
At The Barber’s
An Inadvertence
The Album
Oh! The Public
A Tripping Tongue
Overdoing It
The Orator
Malingerers
In The Graveyard
Hush!
In An Hotel
In A Strange Land
The Party
Terror
A Woman’s Kingdom
A Problem
The Kiss
‘Anna On The Neck’
The Teacher Of Literature
Not Wanted
Typhus
A Misfortune
A Trifle From Life
The Cook’s Wedding
Sleepy
Children
The Runaway
Grisha
Oysters
Home
A Classical Student
Vanka
An Incident
A Day In The Country
Boys
Shrove Tuesday
The Old House
In Passion Week
Whitebrow
Kashtanka
A Chameleon
The Dependents
Who Was To Blame?
The Bird Market
An Adventure
The Fish
Art
The Swedish Match
The Bishop
The Letter
Easter Eve
A Nightmare
The Murder
Uprooted
The Steppe
The Darling
The Duel
Excellent People
Mire
Neighbours
At Home
Expensive Lessons
The Princess
The Chemist’s Wife
The Schoolmistress
A Nervous Breakdown
Misery
Champagne
A Lady’s Story
In Exile
The Cattle-Dealers
Sorrow
On Official Duty
The First-Class Passenger
A Tragic Actor
A Transgression
Small Fry
The Requiem
In The Coach-House
Panic Fears
The Head-Gardener’s Story
The Beauties
The Shoemaker And The Devil
The Wife
Difficult People
The Grasshopper
A Dreary Story
The Privy Councillor
The Man In A Case
Gooseberries
About Love
The Lottery Ticket
The Witch
Peasan

2805 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 12, 2019

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