Stories
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) is a Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the history of world literature. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.
Chekhov practiced as a doctor throughout most of his literary career:
"Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."
1. "A Daughter of Albion" (download 6 min free)
They both have a common hobby that is fishing. But even the hobby is not able to reconcile their contradictory characters. She is not a very young English woman, a spinster, a governess. He is her employer, a Russian landowner, the father of the pupil under her care. He is an indelicate, but a very frank person. Their relations are complicated.
Enjoy a funny and witty sketch in a psychological story by the young Chekhov!
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2. "The Darling” (download 12 min free)
“The Darling”– Olenka is an amazing, unique psychological type of a woman who is able to love almost everyone just to live his life and take care of him.
Having no personal life goals, she completely merges with her next partner being able to exist only in such a way. Chekhov is convincing in showing this type, leading her through ordeals of her life.
Having buried her father and two husbands, Olenka loses her third lover. She has no children, no hope for the future; her life is as empty as her deserted yard.
Suddenly her life has lit up with new hope to gain sense of life – this is her new and last love…
Here comes one more psychological conclusion of Chekhov’s story: Olenkas are loved always and by everyone: they are needed, they are eternal.
And that is why a Real Woman should be a little of Olenka.
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3. "The House with a Mansard (An Artist’s Story)” (download 13 min free)
The protagonists of Chekhov’s story “The House with a Mansard (An Artist’s Story)” are various types of Russian nobility of the end of 19th century, who are “doomed by fate to permanent idleness and doing nothing.”
Here you can see a sluggish, dull, talkative landowner Byelokurov, and a dreamy, tender, sensitive young Misyuce Volchaninova, a daughter of a rich estate hostess; among other characters there are Misyuce’s elder sister, energetic Lida who cannot “sit twiddling her thumbs” and takes an active part in social life, teaching poor children reading and writing, organizing medical help for the poor. The main protagonist is a talented artist, rich enough not to think of money, Lida’s opponent, “an extra (useless) person,” painting landscapes, criticizing everything, descanting on life in general and its sense.
The love story of the artist and Misyuce unfolds against the background of the wonderful nature of the Russian temperate climate.
Thoughts on the sense of life, on the future of people and their homeland, reflect the pain and anxiety of Chekhov himself, a real patriot and writer of genius.
“The House with a Mansard” is an ideal fiction prose, where deep content harmonizes with the unique form of Chekhov’s narration.
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4. "The Lady with a Little Dog” (download 10 min free)
On the quay of Yalta, the fashionable Black Sea resort, there is a monument to The Lady with the Little Dog, who is the protagonist of Chekhov’s story of the same name.
This touching, dramatic story of the hopeless love of two mature people is written in a laconic style, psychologically correct, in the wonderful language of the great Chekhov.
Chapter 1. On the quay of Yalta, a man and a woman meet and soon enter into relations.
They are the bored Dmitri Gurov, a married Moscow official, experienced in love affairs, and the young, respectable, and humble provincial Anna Sergeyevna, for the first time on vacation far away from her annoying husband.
Chapter 2. An inevitable holiday romance develops according to the rules of the genre and comes to an end in parting without any hope for future relations.
Chapter 3. Gurov immerses into the hustling Moscow high life, sure he will soon forget Anna Sergeyevna, as he did with the rest of his mistresses. But the time goes by and Gurov understands that there, in Yalta, for the first time in his life, he met his real love. He makes the decision to find Anna and to tell her about his feelings. He arranges so that meets her and makes her a declaration of love. Her feeling happens to be mutual and they agree to meet regularly.
Chapter 4. Tender and hot meetings in lonesome hotel rooms alternate with long weeks of separation and expectation…
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5. "The Story of Lady NN” (download 5 min free)
“The Story of Lady NN” is a dolorous confession of a lonely woman, whose youth, beauty, hopes, and happiness have faded into nothing. The protagonist’s monologue shows that she has not realized the reasons of her life’s sad finale, though she was “beautiful, rich, healthy, and noble.” She blames her surroundings and circumstances only.
As always, Chekhov does not judge, does not give an unequivocal estimate, but enables the reader to do that.
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