A review by booklightexplorer
Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov

4.5

I haven’t read a “new to me” short story collection in so long that I’ve forgotten just how much I appreciate the short story. How, in just several pages, a story full of all the emotion of a 300+ novel can deliver the same kind of punch. Maybe it’s Chekov’s flawed characters, many possibly struggling with undiagnosed mental health issues, who just feel so real. Perhaps it how so many of them are quite heartbreaking and some even have elements of horror which is made all the more powerful because of how believable these people are. Most of the characters, like many of us in real life, don’t realize how they are contributing to their struggles, and I think it was this element that delivered the biggest emotional impact for me. 

 

Some of my favorite stories include: 

·      Sleepy 

·      The Fidget 

·      Ward 6 

·      The Darling 

·      The Lady with the Little Dog 

·      The Ravine