CHEKHOV TEXTS ON THIS SITE

Our final anthology of the best stories of the great Russian story-teller and playwright. 1. A LIVING CHATTEL (1882) Groholsky is embracing Liza in her sitting-room and is in the process of proposing that she run away with him when her husband Bugrov enters the room. Whereupon Groholsky tells all to Bugrov and proposes a financial recompense. After upping the stakes the husband finally agrees to hand over his wife – but not their little son. The bargain is carried out but it is soon clear (…)

A series of short, light and amusing tales from the early part of the great master’s writing career, while he was still at university (studying to become a doctor) and shortly afterwards.
They have all been translated specially for this site. 1. THE MOTHER-IN-LAW LAWYER (1883) Michel’s mother-in-law comes for a talk with him a month after his marriage to her daughter Lisa. She berates him for the life he makes Lisa lead, reading and studying instead of going out dancing. Michel tells her (…)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. THE TRAGEDIAN (1883) The daughter of a police captain becomes so enthusiastic about the theatre and about actors after seeing her first performance by a travelling company that she goes there every night, and ends up running away with the chief tragedian. But life on the road for an impoverished actor’s wife is not as magical as she’d imagined. (1,300 words)
2. THE BIRD MARKET (1883) A colourful and engaging description of a Moscow marketplace specialised in selling (…)

Grigory Ivanovitch is an experienced doctor who, while doing his rounds at the hospital, is so upset with his incompetent assistant for being drunk on duty that he utterly loses his temper and strikes the fellow. The consequences of this act on the life of the hospital and on the career of the doctor and the assistant, and the play of forces at work in the hospital organisation and in the judicial system – for there are judicial consequences – are the marrow of this story with a strong (…)

During his medical studies in the Moscow State Medical University between 1879 and 1884, Chekhov regularly contributed captions to humorous drawings in various literary publications.
You will find below a selection of works from this interesting and little-known aspect of the master’s literary activity.. The magazine Shards (Осколки) (1861-1916) TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. FROM THE THEATER WORLD 2. AT A PARTY 3. POETIC DREAMS 4. THREE DRAWINGS 5. IN THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD 6. A WOMAN’S (…)

Podgorin, a thirty-year-old lawyer, receives a mail from Tatyana and Varya, two young women of his age with whom he’d been very close ten years previously, asking him to come for a visit to Tatyana’s family home where she lives with husband and two young children and her young sister Nadezhda. He feels obliged to go, knowing that the husband is a wastrel and a profligate and that they probably have financial problems. Which turns out to be very much the case, as they are bankrupt, the estate (…)

A group of people gathers on a grassy hillside to listen to a concert. It begins with the singing of the cuckoo, then a wide variety of creatures join in, and after an intermission the star of the evening gives a performance that reduces the audience, human and natural, to a stunned and appreciative silence. But the concerts ends on a sadder note.
This charming short story was written while Chekhov was still studying for his medical degree.
(725 words)
It has been translated here (…)

Twelve tales with a distinctive mix of humour and cynicism that have been translated into English here for the first time ever.
1. THE CONFESSION (Исповедь) (1883) Grigory Kuzmich is delighted to have been appointed treasurer and is pleasantly surprised to find that everyone’s suddenly very amiable with him. Not only do they invite him to visit their homes to meet their daughters, but they always come to his parties – and borrow increasingly large amount of money from him. So he borrows (…)

More outstanding stories by the most prolific short-story writer in the history of world literature. CONTENTS
1. GREEN SCYTHE (Зелёная Коса) (1882) The narrator and his friends love to spend their summers on the Black Sea with with the vivacious Olya. Life is gay there but there’s a problem : Olga had promised her father on his deathbed that she would marry Chaykhidzev, son of his best friend, whereas she was secretly in love with her neighbour Lieutenant Egorov. So the narrator and his (…)

A further selection of the best stories of the great Russian writer that have so far remained untranslated into English.
CONTENTS
1. LOST BUSINESS (Пропащее дело) (1882) The narrator recounts how on a lovely spring day he’d gone to see his beloved Varya to empty his heart and soul to her. He’d mumbled a few phrases while his beloved looked at him encouragingly, and then he’d explained to her how poor he was and although she mentioned that she had a dowry, carried away by his flame for (…)