Great Stories by Chekhov

Great Stories by Chekhov by Anton Chekhov published by Dover Publications is a collection of seven short stories from the person attributed as the father of the short story. Chekhov lived from 1860 until 1904 and lived in a range of semi-comfort and of poverty. He began writing to pay for his tuition at medical school and to support his family. He was well traveled in Russia and met and interviewed a variety of people including prisoners. His works consist mostly of plays and short stories.
This Dover edition presents seven of the lesser known short stories to give a reader an introduction to the writer. Russian literature, to me has always seemed more human and in touch with the common people than other European literature. Chekhov is a master of portraying people in a very honest and at times touching way. It is not always the simple good man that he writes about. He can take you into the mind of a manipulative character and the reader will hear the rationalizations going justifying his actions and passing the blame along. Other characters, like the carriage driver who lost his son, are alone in the world and are simply seen as automatons. These characters find compassion in forms other than humans. The rich Russian culture, the good and bad, are also displayed in the stories.

The Dover edition gives the reader a very adequate introduction to Chekhov and a simple introduction to the short stories. Words of Russian origin are also defined for the reader. Everything that a novice to Russian literature needs is provided in this edition. The language in the stories is simple. Russian literature tends to be intimidating in the length of the work rather than the story line. Being short stories, the longest story is under one hundred pages. Constance Garnett provides the translation into English. Her work is well known and her experience extensive -- translating over seventy volumes of Russian literature. Well done and, as always, a very affordable Dover publication.

Thank you NetGalley and Dover Pubblications for giving me the opportunity to read this beautiful collection of short stories by Checkov. It's a collection to be published in January 2017 and translated by Constance Garnett, who actually translated most of the classical literary productions of Russian literature.
Whenever we think of Russian literature, we think of words like "hopelessness", "despair", and "dark"; but I can think of only two words when it comes to it "amazing" and "truthful". Despite his blunt and to the point writing, Checkov will always stand out for his concise messages and beautiful descriptions of characters and places. His style can easily be described as Impressionist. Impressionism as a movement was based on capturing a subjective experience rather than the realistic description of it. Checkov does not give too many details in his stories and leaves us as readers to peace the story together from his hints. As a reading audience we totally depend upon the appearances and actions of the characters. Each story is told through the characters' actions, movements and thoughts. If the action becomes confusing sometimes, it's because the characters are confused too. By the way of telling the story, we as readers become caught up in the plot as if it were happening to us right then and there.
Some critics described his stories "short and sweet". They may be short in length but they make up for the content. Checkov describes the characters in such a way that the audience already knew them. Checkov's writing style is so wonderful because of that. It make us connect with the charactes, bad or good, and he does that in such a beautil way.
I totally recommend this short collection of stories for all of you who love Russian literature and short stories.

A nice collection by a wonderful author. If you have not been exposed much to the Russian writer Anton Chekhov than I highly recommend this book. My previous exposure was his highly acclaimed play "The Cherry Orchard", so for me this was a treat.