It may well be me. I did not enjoy this or find much of interest in these short novels. As I’m planning on reading his Short Stories, I hope this is not a more definite quality. The characters were not very pleasant and that would have been fine, if they were interesting. They weren’t. It was a long haul to get through them. I did consider giving up, which is something I don’t really do. It did not help that the first The Steppe was both the longest and the most boring. I did finish. I thought of giving it one star, but that would put it on the same level as the hideous James Cavell monstrosity I read once (shudder!!) and Chekhov can write at least.

It was a great joy reading Chekhov’s Short Stories, showing a completely different side to him, especially finding a series of works many years later. I began to find and see a very humorous side to Chekhov I never saw before. There were some stories which weren’t great, the hardest thing to judge was the fact some stories were just too short to critique.

Only read the short novel, "Peasants". Very good, was censored due to the portrayal of peasant life during 19th century Russia. Chekov chose to accurately portray the ruthless depiction of the poverty of the Russian peasants and not paint them in a romantic light. (Like Tolstoy has a habit of doing.) Appeared at the height of the Marxist/Populist controversy.

Pretty sad there isn't any more Chekhov fiction capably translated into English. May have to learn Russian.

4.5

Every time I read a classic Russian fiction that’s as philosophical and edifying as it is entertaining, I inevitably wonder why I bother reading anything else. That’s the way it goes. Chekhov is beautifully and casually expressive, and these novellas stimulate both the head and heart. They thrum with ideologies, they’re tense with passionate, searching, pathetic, wonderful characters, and they glow with their compassion and art.

For me it was a complete disappointment.. after I read for Distoivisky and Tolistoy .. I were hope for the same quality .. but in general it's a good book .. there was a good novels .. as the little child that he suffer and his letter for his grandfather.. it was touching..

I was surprised that David Gilmour chose to talk about Chekhov's personality, a matter so subjective (and where did he find the sources anyway), when there are so many more juicy, fact-backed tidbits to talk about:

1) If we are talking about his virtues, isn't it likely that he contracted that tuberculosis because he was running left and right healing the peasants on his estate?
2) How about the fact that he was not much of a romantic, and preferred professional touch? That he got married reluctantly and never really lived together with this wife? One would think Gilmour would be all over that, considering.

(And I take offense at Gilmour's comment about Chekhov looking older than his years. It's only the beard.)

FLAG AWAY!

(The Duel and Story of an Unknown Man)

Finished reading The Duel, one of the short novels in this collection. The duel dramatizes the conflict of ideas in Russia in the 19th century.

The human condition and the portraits of his characters make this a must read!

This one took me a little longer than expected because I preferred to invest my time in most of unproductive activities during this period. One of the best books I read so far.
Some stories particularly had a profound impact on me, I would like to mention some of which I loved the most Дуель (the Duel), Шуточка (the joke), Палата но.6 (ward no.6), Душечка (the darling).

Some of the ideas which particularly I found interesting:
1) Marcus Aurelius said “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
The wise, or simply, the thinker hates pain, he is always happy and is not surprised by anything

2)How do you know that genius people never saw ghost? They say nowadays that genius is akin to insanity. My friend, healthy and normal are only ordinary, common people.

3)The higher the person is from a mental and moral development, the freer he is, the more enjoyable life is to him.

4)I was out of my mind, I had the superiority complex, but I was cheerful, often interesting and original. Now I have become more thoughtful and have become like everyone else, I am bored to live. I had hallucinations, but who was hurt by that?

5)She concluded every discussion to a dispute, she had this desire to always catch someone's mistake, always to be there to correct someone's sayings. You start talking to her about something, but she already starts to look into your face and waits a good moment to interrupt you.

6)We were silent and in front of strangers she had this irritation against my nature; It did not matter what I was talking about, she would not agree with me, and if I argued than she always took my opponents' side.

Wonderfully written stories, some of the masterpieces, brought to us more than 100 years ago. I liked the fact that he touched a lot the love theme and the existence/understanding of the human bodies and nature. I can say this is a book I would definitely recommend for reading.

Comprising 5 Chekhov short novels.

The Steppe (Степь, 1888)
The Duel (Дуэль, 1891)
The Story of an Unknown Man (Рассказ неизвестного человека, 1893)
Three Years (Три года, 1895)
My Life (Моя жизнь, 1896)

I did individual reviews on these if anyone is interested in looking those up. I really enjoyed all of them. My personal favourite may be the first one The Steppe about a young boy journeying across the Russian Steppe to relocate and start a new life.

Chekhov only did one "long" novel The Shooting Party 1884, but I think that's an earlier work that I assume isn't as well-regarded as these novels and his better short stories. There's also a short novel called "The Unnecessary Victory" (1882) also not included here.

Apparently he wrote 574 short stories, including unfinished ones. And 12 "novelettes" (I guess 'long short story' is a bad term to use) I've only read a few of the stories, translated by the same team in "Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov" there are 30 in that collection. Maybe I'll try and find some more of his stories.

Honestly, I'd love to read some mediocre/bad stories by Chekhov. It's almost a shame that with modern translated collection of short-stories (and poetry for that matter) we really only ever get "the best of". But I feel like, as with my favourite musical acts, a best-of collection isn't good enough.

He also 7 four-act plays and 10 one-act plays. These days, it's the better of his plays that he's best known for. But I really love his short-stories - and now his novels.