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Anton Chekhov
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Forty Stories (Vintage Classics) Kindle Edition

by Anton Chekhov (Author), Robert Payne (Introduction, Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 214 ratings
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If any writer can be said to have invented the modern short story, it is Anton Chekhov. It is not just that Chekhov democratized this art form; more than that, he changed the thrust of short fiction from relating to revealing. And what marvelous and unbearable things are revealed in these Forty Stories. The abashed happiness of a woman in the presence of the husband who abandoned her years before. The obsequious terror of the official who accidentally sneezes on a general. The poignant astonishment of an aging Don Juan overtaken by love. Spanning the entirety of Chekhov's career and including such masterpieces as "Surgery," "The Huntsman," "Anyuta," "Sleepyhead," "The Lady With the Pet Dog," and "The Bishop," this collection manages to be amusing, dazzling, and supremely moving—often within a single page.
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  1. Print length
    274 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Vintage
  5. Publication date
    March 9, 2011
  6. File size
    520 KB
  7. Page Flip
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  8. Word Wise
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Editorial Reviews

Review

I long to embrace, to include in my own short life, all that is accessible to man. I long to speak, to read, to wield a hammer in a great factory, to keep watch at sea, to plow. I want to be walking along the Nevsky Prospect, or in the open fields, or on the ocean -- wherever my imagination ranges."

-- Anton Chekhov

If any one writer can be said to have invented the modem short story, it is Anton Chekhov. It is not just that Chekhov democratized this art form; more than that, he changed the thrust of short fiction from relating to revealing.

And what marvelous and unbearable things are revealed in these Forty Stories. The abashed happiness of a woman in the presence of the husband who abandoned her years before. The obsequious terror of the official who accidentally sneezes on a general. The poignant astonishment of an aging Don Juan overtaken by love. Spanning the entirety of Chekhov's career and including such masterpieces as "Surgery," "The Huntsman," "Anyuta," "Sleepy-head," "The Lady With the Pet Dog," and "The Bishop," this collection manages to be amusing, dazzling, and supremely moving -- often within a single page.

Vintage Classic are-quality paperback editions of the world's greatest written works. They are durably bound and are printed exclusively on acid-free paper.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

This is a collection of 40 short stories from author Anton Chekhov, and ranging from the abashed happiness of a woman in the presence of the husband who abandoned her years before, to the poignant astonishment of an aging Don Juan overtaken by love, and many more.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004J4X2XA
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (March 9, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 9, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 520 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 274 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 214 ratings

About the author

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Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

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Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (/ˈtʃɛkɔːf, -ɒf/; Russian: Анто́н Па́влович Че́хов, pronounced [ɐnˈton ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ˈtɕɛxəf]; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short story writer who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theater.Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."

Chekhov renounced the theatre after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text".

Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Unknown[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
214 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

M. Heiss
5.0 out of 5 stars Me likey
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2022
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Great translation of Chekhov - this is done with love and poetry. Well done - the translation is seamless. Suddenly, you are reading Chekhov.

The stories are simply Russian. Some of them are weird and pointless. In most of them, the authorities make no sense. Some of them are quickly touching. Some characters are recognizable, and some you hate from the beginning. Some of the betrayals really hurt. Some of the beauty slows your breathing.

Well done.

Toward the end of the book is a story called The Bride. I will use this as one example. Chekhov looks into this couple's life as a clinical intellectual examining and describing some tasteless, frumpy people, beneath notice really, but we'll just have a look. "Heaven on Earth" is socialism, of course. By page 338, they are "revolutionizing their lives," but by page 341, the novelty of revolution has worn off (the intellectual narrator finds this contemptible.) by page 345, a month has passed, and the terrible consequences of being "revolutionized" are here. The silent weeping, lonely and unwanted, after the past has been ripped away.

Chekhov!

Recommended.
5 people found this helpful
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Brady
5.0 out of 5 stars He Lives On Among The Rest
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2016
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Has anybody here heard of Francine Prose's book Reading Like a Writer? Well, if you haven't, I'll give you a title of one of the chapters.

"Learning From Chekhov"

This chapter of the book reflects a period of time that Francine was teaching at a writer's workshop. People would turn in interesting short stories, but some that she found issues with, and for every issue, she found a Chekhov story that threw it in her face.

"I once told a student that her story was confusing because of how many times the point of view changes. Then I read Chekhov's story "Gusev"."

Gusev is about a sailor who dies. The point of view changes from the sailor, to another sailor, then back to the sailor (who dies), and then to the sailor that buries him at sea, and to all the fish that see his body. One of Francine's students claimed, "we feel as if we are looking through the eyes of God."

Often times, with the best short story writers, we feel this way. In the end of the chapter, she says, in other words, don't listen to me, just read Chekhov.

At this point, my opinion doesn't even matter. If you want to be a writer, or you just like great stories, look no further.

Happy reading!
29 people found this helpful
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Clarence Kennedy
4.0 out of 5 stars Cute and well designed stories
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2019
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Good stories but must apologize for or modify the Russian names so they can be pronounced.
One person found this helpful
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Wendy Reads
5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and wise
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2014
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I've been meaning to get to Chekhov for a while. All my smart writer friends love his stories. I brought it on vacation and spent the afternoon yesterday reading and laughing my way through half the book. My favorite is Death of a Government Clerk, in which a clerk sneezes on the head of a superior bureaucrat and agonizes himself to death over the incident. The clerk's obsessive thinking on his transgression was embarrassingly true to what sometimes goes on inside my own silly head.
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J. Branch
5.0 out of 5 stars A Modern Master Well-Represenred
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2017
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Collection shows the variety of Chekov's personna and writing. From observational to dramatic to humorous, it is all encapsulated here. What a master ! Some stories are short enough to read in a few minutes, others are longer. All evoke admiration for this unique voice.
Oh, that he had lived another 40 years! But at least he was prolific in his relatively short life.
5 people found this helpful
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LHR
5.0 out of 5 stars Am loving this book.
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2021
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I like everything about these Chekhov stories. "The Huntman" is unforgettable.
One person found this helpful
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myra borisute
5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST SHORT STORY WRITER IN HISTORY
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2018
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NOBODY CAN COMPARE TO ANTON CHEKHOV WHEN IT COMES TO THE SHORT STORY - HE WAS A TRUE GENIUS,
HIS WORKS ARE TIMELESS, AS SPLENDID TODAY AS WHEN THEY WERE FIRST WRITTEN MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO
6 people found this helpful
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Buttchops
5.0 out of 5 stars Chekhov short stories
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2014
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I've seen Chekhov plays in London, but never read his short stories. I enjoyed them, although some of them appear to just end in the middle as if he'd gotten up for a cup of tea and started a new story when he sat back down. I still liked them.
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Top reviews from other countries

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BVLenci
5.0 out of 5 stars Non si sbaglia mai con Cechov.
Reviewed in Italy on March 16, 2019
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Cosa posso dire di Chechov? È un genio. Questa collezione ha delle prime opere brevi che non avevo mai letto e alcune novelle que non mi erano nuove. Si vede lo sviluppo del suo stile e della sua visione profonda dell'anima umana.
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Dr. Denise M. Tracey
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in Australia on October 23, 2018
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This book is perfect.
Gave it to my husband for his birthday
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eclectic
5.0 out of 5 stars I always love Chekov, but.......
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2012
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I have given the book 5 stars, because it's impossible to imagine it's worth any less. HOWEVER, nowhere can I find a note of which 40 stories are included. Can this basic information please be supplied before I buy? Thanks.
A few days later:::
Actually, it has now been made available, as the book has been given the "Look Inside" treatment and list of contents is visible.....thanks, this is a great improvement and I am now able to check that it has stories I have not yet read. Am going to buy it..........I bought it and yes, it's worth a go. Some of the stories are maybe early ones of his and not quite as well formed as his later ones. But to me all of Chekov is magic.
16 people found this helpful
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Mrs J Graveson
5.0 out of 5 stars Great short stories
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2021
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Easy read
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J.M. Paul
4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent collection and translation
Reviewed in Australia on September 3, 2019
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This collection of Chekhov's stories is a particularly good one, featuring a large selection of some of his best stories. The book is so good because it's a particularly large selection of his stories; many other compilations of his works tend to have fewer stories than this one, so, if you're going to buy just one collection of Chekhov's stories without buying the expensive, multi-volume complete set, then I can highly recommend this one. That said, it still doesn't feature some of his very best stories - at least as I see it. 'Rothschild's Fiddle', for instance, isn't here, and surely that's one of his very best. Still, as far as a single volume collection of stories is concerned, this is a great buy.
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