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alyosha33's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
luannocracy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
rmbenson's review against another edition
3.0
I finally read Chekov because Francine Prose said I should. In her excellent Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them, Prose venerates Chekov as the writer’s writer, the master of human emotion, keen observation and the devastatingly well-placed detail.
Prose offers Chekov as a writer of superhuman intellect and heart. She writes, ““By the time Chekov died of tuberculosis at the age of forty-four, he had written, in addition to his plays, approximately six hundred short stories. He was also a medical doctor. He supervised the construction of clinics and schools, he was active in the Moscow Art Theatre, he married the famous actress Olga Knipper, he visited the infamous prison on Sakhalin Island and wrote a book about that.” (Prose 243) I happen to be 44 and suddenly feel like a slacker. I had to take a look.
Prose devotes an entire chapter to “Learning from Chekov”. From Chekov’s letters, “You are right in demanding that an artist should take an intelligent attitude to his work, but you confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist.” (Prose 245) I was intrigued by the proposition that writers shouldn’t aim to solve problems but only ensure that the problem is properly stated.
And then this from Chekov’s letters, “It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything.” (Prose 246)
Yes.
Having read Prose, I understood that I was supposed to love Chekov and love him deeply. I picked up The Essential Tales of Chekov (Richard Ford, editor) thinking myself ready to love. The actual experience was something else. Not love. Remote admiration, perhaps. Confused esteem. Chekov, it turns out, is very Russian. He writes about thoughts and feelings so fine, so nuanced and mature that I revert to a confused, naive youngster. After all, I’m only 44. What’s this story about? Love. Passion. Disappointment. And also something more. It is the something more I could not grasp.
There are, to be sure, clear moments of brilliance. There are many more moments that sail entirely over my head. I’m not grown up enough, or cultured enough or, perhaps, Russian enough.
Chekov had always been presented to me as the master of showing not telling, but in the stories I read he tells more often than shows. The fascinating thing about Chekov is where he starts and stops his stories. He does not begin with catastrophe and he does not end with resolution. The beginning and end are more ambiguous. We meet characters in the middle of their situations and leave them before they understand their situations for themselves.
Chekov, to me, seems the forefather of flash fiction. Stories told quickly in a rush that isn’t actual impatience but an attention to weird, unexpected detail that alludes to bigger truths off-page.
You can, it turns out, appreciate Chekov without exactly loving him. If you get the chance to read for yourself, I recommend “Hush!”, “An Anonymous Story” and “The Lady with the Dog”.
Prose offers Chekov as a writer of superhuman intellect and heart. She writes, ““By the time Chekov died of tuberculosis at the age of forty-four, he had written, in addition to his plays, approximately six hundred short stories. He was also a medical doctor. He supervised the construction of clinics and schools, he was active in the Moscow Art Theatre, he married the famous actress Olga Knipper, he visited the infamous prison on Sakhalin Island and wrote a book about that.” (Prose 243) I happen to be 44 and suddenly feel like a slacker. I had to take a look.
Prose devotes an entire chapter to “Learning from Chekov”. From Chekov’s letters, “You are right in demanding that an artist should take an intelligent attitude to his work, but you confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist.” (Prose 245) I was intrigued by the proposition that writers shouldn’t aim to solve problems but only ensure that the problem is properly stated.
And then this from Chekov’s letters, “It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything.” (Prose 246)
Yes.
Having read Prose, I understood that I was supposed to love Chekov and love him deeply. I picked up The Essential Tales of Chekov (Richard Ford, editor) thinking myself ready to love. The actual experience was something else. Not love. Remote admiration, perhaps. Confused esteem. Chekov, it turns out, is very Russian. He writes about thoughts and feelings so fine, so nuanced and mature that I revert to a confused, naive youngster. After all, I’m only 44. What’s this story about? Love. Passion. Disappointment. And also something more. It is the something more I could not grasp.
There are, to be sure, clear moments of brilliance. There are many more moments that sail entirely over my head. I’m not grown up enough, or cultured enough or, perhaps, Russian enough.
Chekov had always been presented to me as the master of showing not telling, but in the stories I read he tells more often than shows. The fascinating thing about Chekov is where he starts and stops his stories. He does not begin with catastrophe and he does not end with resolution. The beginning and end are more ambiguous. We meet characters in the middle of their situations and leave them before they understand their situations for themselves.
Chekov, to me, seems the forefather of flash fiction. Stories told quickly in a rush that isn’t actual impatience but an attention to weird, unexpected detail that alludes to bigger truths off-page.
You can, it turns out, appreciate Chekov without exactly loving him. If you get the chance to read for yourself, I recommend “Hush!”, “An Anonymous Story” and “The Lady with the Dog”.
cjvillahermosa's review against another edition
5.0
Possibly the first best short story collection I've ever read. No story is a filler. No emotion was not felt. These stories depict the lives of Russians in the 19th century: their dreams, their hopes, their attempt to garner a semblance of normality amidst squalor and despondency. There is humor and there is tragedy. There are lovers, both faithful and unfaithful. There are peasants and there are lords. Overall, it feels like peering into a diorama of what it means to be human. In these stories, Chekhov shows why he is a literary god.
valzi's review against another edition
4.0
Not as good as they say, yet quite good. I was left wanting to read much more Chekhov.
nileimaj's review against another edition
4.0
I went to the library with the intent of finding something challenging and stimulating for my otherwise underused brain, and ended up choosing this from an armload of other "C's" -- Camus and Calvino. My previous experience with Chekhov was reading a series of three "lost" stories published in Harper's about ten years ago, when I was in my early 20's. Like the editor of this volume, "I remember no one telling me anything more than that Chekhov was great, and that he was Russian."
The introduction to this collection is fantastic, and I highly recommend reading it. Highly. Read it before you start reading, and reread it once you finish. For anyone not sure if Chekhov is for them (or rather, if they are ready for Chekhov, since I would say his stories are for everyone who thinks and reads), read the introduction and then decide. I cannot describe these stories in any way that would be more clear than Richard Ford's introduction. He writes,"...Chekhov seems to me a writer for adults, his work becoming useful and also beautiful by attracting attention to mature feelings, to complicated human responses, and small issues of moral choice within large, overarching dilemmas, any part of which, were we to encounter them in our complex, headlong life with others, might evade even sophisticated notice."
That I am giving this 4 stars is a comment on my current state of readiness and awareness at age 31, having let my critical thinking brain cells deteriorate into fluff. The first section of the book was easy for me to understand, and I loved the stories. I got distracted and stuck once the longer ones began, and faltered several times after. However, I always sensed that there was something there that I just wasn't comprehending, and that it was not the fault of the author, but my own shortcomings. Richard Ford describes this as feeling "highly respectful of something I can only describe as a profound-feeling gray light emanating from the story's austere interior."
Chekhov seems to me to be an illuminator of those dark corners in human behavior, in our minds, which we are all aware of yet choose not to acknowledge. He shines his light and what appears is so clear, it is something that can no longer be denied. It simply exists, without judgment, without shame -- though of course I quickly apply that judgment and shame to it, and marvel at his skill and his knowing. I laugh, I cry, I think about my life, my secret imaginings and dreams, and I know I will seek out his stories again in a few years, and a few years after that, for the rest of my life.
The introduction to this collection is fantastic, and I highly recommend reading it. Highly. Read it before you start reading, and reread it once you finish. For anyone not sure if Chekhov is for them (or rather, if they are ready for Chekhov, since I would say his stories are for everyone who thinks and reads), read the introduction and then decide. I cannot describe these stories in any way that would be more clear than Richard Ford's introduction. He writes,"...Chekhov seems to me a writer for adults, his work becoming useful and also beautiful by attracting attention to mature feelings, to complicated human responses, and small issues of moral choice within large, overarching dilemmas, any part of which, were we to encounter them in our complex, headlong life with others, might evade even sophisticated notice."
That I am giving this 4 stars is a comment on my current state of readiness and awareness at age 31, having let my critical thinking brain cells deteriorate into fluff. The first section of the book was easy for me to understand, and I loved the stories. I got distracted and stuck once the longer ones began, and faltered several times after. However, I always sensed that there was something there that I just wasn't comprehending, and that it was not the fault of the author, but my own shortcomings. Richard Ford describes this as feeling "highly respectful of something I can only describe as a profound-feeling gray light emanating from the story's austere interior."
Chekhov seems to me to be an illuminator of those dark corners in human behavior, in our minds, which we are all aware of yet choose not to acknowledge. He shines his light and what appears is so clear, it is something that can no longer be denied. It simply exists, without judgment, without shame -- though of course I quickly apply that judgment and shame to it, and marvel at his skill and his knowing. I laugh, I cry, I think about my life, my secret imaginings and dreams, and I know I will seek out his stories again in a few years, and a few years after that, for the rest of my life.
teresatumminello's review against another edition
5.0
Reread (for a buddy read with Howard)
I’m so glad the stories are in chronological order, as they show the maturation of Chekhov as a writer, one who has either influenced many, many writers (of course he has) or anticipated, arguably, much of twentieth-century writing, including [a:Erskine Caldwell|17326|Erskine Caldwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1255330914p2/17326.jpg]’s [b:Tobacco Road|59091|Tobacco Road|Erskine Caldwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1369852920l/59091._SY75_.jpg|1238780] (at least I think so).
The story “The New Villa” is full of the same issues we are grappling with in the twenty-first century: The huge gap between rich and poor; the paternalism of the rich; the communication divide, no one understanding the other—even though they're speaking the same language, they're not. The unfinished bridge in “The New Villa” reminded me of construction projects such as interstate overpasses cutting through Black neighborhoods. The community doesn't want the overpass and after the money has run out—or, more likely, been diverted—it ends up leading nowhere. It's downright depressing sometimes how nothing changes.
Original review (March 5, 2008):
I'm not sure what else there is to say about these stories of Chekhov that hasn't been said already by many others. Richard Ford writes in the introduction that his first encounter with Chekhov came when he was too young, at the age of 20. I can say the same thing, having first read Chekhov in high school. There was no way I could've grasped the subtlety of the details in, for example, "Lady with a Dog" back then.
Chekhov's characters break your heart, including the dog in "Kashtanka," which is told from its viewpoint. There is humor in the stories too, whether it's the mistake made by the parents of an old-maid daughter in "A Blunder" or just the ironic voice of a narrator.
The stories are elegant but simple. And many, if not all, of them feel as if they could've been written today.
I’m so glad the stories are in chronological order, as they show the maturation of Chekhov as a writer, one who has either influenced many, many writers (of course he has) or anticipated, arguably, much of twentieth-century writing, including [a:Erskine Caldwell|17326|Erskine Caldwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1255330914p2/17326.jpg]’s [b:Tobacco Road|59091|Tobacco Road|Erskine Caldwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1369852920l/59091._SY75_.jpg|1238780] (at least I think so).
The story “The New Villa” is full of the same issues we are grappling with in the twenty-first century: The huge gap between rich and poor; the paternalism of the rich; the communication divide, no one understanding the other—even though they're speaking the same language, they're not. The unfinished bridge in “The New Villa” reminded me of construction projects such as interstate overpasses cutting through Black neighborhoods. The community doesn't want the overpass and after the money has run out—or, more likely, been diverted—it ends up leading nowhere. It's downright depressing sometimes how nothing changes.
Original review (March 5, 2008):
I'm not sure what else there is to say about these stories of Chekhov that hasn't been said already by many others. Richard Ford writes in the introduction that his first encounter with Chekhov came when he was too young, at the age of 20. I can say the same thing, having first read Chekhov in high school. There was no way I could've grasped the subtlety of the details in, for example, "Lady with a Dog" back then.
Chekhov's characters break your heart, including the dog in "Kashtanka," which is told from its viewpoint. There is humor in the stories too, whether it's the mistake made by the parents of an old-maid daughter in "A Blunder" or just the ironic voice of a narrator.
The stories are elegant but simple. And many, if not all, of them feel as if they could've been written today.
jcoyuela's review against another edition
5.0
Uno de los mejores libros que he leído este año. La belleza del cuento corto en su máxima expresión. Altamente recomendable.
bipolarneutron's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
beckykeister's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0