Five Great Short Stories

Chekhov's writing shines in this collection. The stories are nice and short--easy to read when you have 15-20 minutes to spare. If you like these, I recommend you read some of his short novels and of course, his four excellent plays.

Fun raeding.

All of these stories were written in the 1890s so they bear the style of that era. Each has a ‘moral,’ I guess from an era when people might ask ‘what’s the moral of that story?’ I’ll focus on the morals, rather than giving away too much plot.In Gooseberries, a harried urban man doing clerical work dreams of an estate in the country where he can grow gooseberries. He eventually is able to retire and fulfill his dream. He comes to realize, in effect, ‘why do we wait to do something about that despair all around us?’ Here’s a quote: “I look at this life and see the arrogance and the idleness of the strong, the ignorance and the bestiality of the weak, the horrible poverty everywhere…” You can only be happy if you ignore what is hidden all around you. Why wait to do something?In The House with the Mezzanine (aka The Painter), a young man and young woman argue about how to best help the poor around them. The woman is into raising money for hospitals, libraries and schools. The man argues you are just wasting your time treating symptoms; we have to overthrow the system that creates these conditions. (Of course another way of looking at it is that she is actually doing something; he just talks.) He claims that if the peasants weren’t working themselves to death, they wouldn’t need hospitals! In the end, his attitude costs him a lot, in a way he could not have imagined.The Lady with a Toy Dog is the story of a May-December romance. We’re at Yalta, a resort on the Black Sea. A man starts an affair with a woman young enough to be his daughter. For the first time in his life he falls in love. They alternate visits between their homes and marriages in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The lives are filled with, yes, love, but also tension, guilt and despair. Is there any way out?The Peasants gives us the full Monty of the unwashed masses of Russia: drunken men who beat anyone or anything in sight; toothless, hungry people who hide food from each other; women who had 13 children and six lived; ignorance so great that some women don’t go to church because they have never learned a prayer. One man says, in effect, ‘We were better off as serfs…there was more to eat and there was more order. Each man knew his place.’The Black Monk is the longest and most substantial story. A man is fascinated by a legend about a mystical black monk who appears to people. And guess what happens? This story is an early treatise (I guess) about the connection between genius and insanity. If you are one of those gifted people, do you want to run the risk of people thinking you are crazy and losing your friends and lover? Or will you ‘take the cure’ and sit by the fireplace (or the TV)?Good stories, reflecting in content and style the era in which they were written.

A good instroduction to Chekhov, for those who are not put off by terrible editing and some amusing failures at English. This whole series runs the gamut. The very old translations come off well enough to give a good picture of some of Chekhov'sbest stories, hopefully whetting the appetite for more.

It's pretty good.

For those who wonder what Anton Chekhov is about but don't like reading plays, Dover Thrift Edition's `Five Great Short Stories' is a good introduction to the universe of the Russian writer. Sure his short tales are not as good as his plays, namely "The Seagull", but they give a fair dimension of this style and interests.And his interests lay rather in the development of the characters psyche than plots twists or an elaborated story. His stories are more about creating an atmosphere than drowning the characters into it. See the first story, for example, "The Black Monk". It is actually a study of the madness, or, for some, the portrait of a supernatural situation. It depends on which side you are coming from.Another good example is "The Lady with the Toy Dog", probably my favorite Chekhov short story. The characters are so real and human that it is not impossible to suffer with them. Like in most of his work, the author tackles with sociological and psychological analyzes of the people he has created --and they end up being as a metaphor for all the human kind, be them Russian or not.Once enjoying this book, the reader can move to more of the Russian author. There are plenty of short stories and wonderful plays to be discovered.

Chekhov has always been one of my favorite short story writers. And if a writer's descriptive capabilities are sufficient to render him or her such an accolade, then "one of my favorites" he remains.That said, these five "great" short stories elude me entirely. What? Because Chekhov is not on target here with those same descriptive capabilities? No -- not in the least. Rather, it's because his story telling aptitude with these five stories leaves a lot to be desired. I guess Dover Publications and I just don't see eye to eye -- and this I suggest quite simply because I know from years past and prior reading that I've always admired Chekhov's stories ... just not these five.RRBHudson, New York, U. S. A.23 April 2023

One problem with this Dover edition is the footnotes refer back to previous identical footnotes. This stops the flow of reading because the reader has to page back. There's no reason not to just repeat the footnote. Chekhov presents even these long-named Russian characters as individuals with defined personalities. The plot is simple or nonexistent. It serves only as background for character development. I'd be reading along and all of a sudden stop dead by a thought so authentic and original that I'd have to highlight it. Then reread it. Then think about it. That's the singular trait which makes Chekhov a writer worth reading.

Excellent - books brand new and speedy service. Well worth reading I hadn't realised that Chekhov rote stories as well as plays

Very happy. Good product

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