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A review by nileimaj
The Essential Tales of Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
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.