Happy it's over, in fact. I started reading these selected stories by Chekhov after great experiences with [a:Tolstoy|17054541|Tolstoy L.|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and [a:Dostoevsky|17005568|Dostoevsky|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] but I quickly faced a lot of disappointment.

I don't think 'stories' of 4 to 5 pages can ever manage to captivate a reader enough to start caring. In fact, most of the times, Chekhov doesn't even seem to want you to care about the characters or the story. He always writes from a great distance away from what is happening.

The stories became better and more to my liking near the end -- they are ordered chronologically in this collection. In the last few we finally get some insight in the psyche of some characters and "The Kiss" was actually even pretty good.

The only thing that I could really appreciate was that a light was shone over the 'normal' Russians from the 19th century, whereas Chekov's contemporary writers seem to focus on the gentry only.

If you like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, this does not mean you will automatically like Chekhov's short stories. ( )

This was a book I read quite some time ago that I noticed was not in my collection for some reason. Chekhov's stories illuminate the daily lives of the Russian populace of his time on various levels. There are great things to be garnered here and there are stories here for everyone. A lot of the themes are universal and unifying, which make the case for why Chekhov's pieces were masterpieces of their own time and beyond. Overall, I think anyone seriously looking into short stories should read him.

4 stars. ( )

This selection of Chekhov stories consists of several early, short, almost anecdotal, stories and a few longer, less well known, later ones. I had read all of these stories before in college and a few of them I remember quite distinctly. The longer ones, "Three Years" and "The Peasants," I remember reading, but couldn't recall a thing about them. These are not his best stories, and yet there is something magical about how Chekhov is able to reveal the ineffable seemingly through atmosphere alone. His tales have no "plot", but they are wonderful and bitter and familiar. 25 years later, I feel that I appreciate the story better than I did in college. Back then I was looking for events, characters, explanations, whereas now I see that what Chekhov does is let the reader recognize something we all sense, but can not put into words.
Contents: The Confession, He Understood, At Sea--A Sailor's Story, A Nincompoop, Surgery, Ninochka--A Love Story, A Cure for Drinking, The Jailer Jailed, The Dance Pianist, The Milksop, Marriage in Ten or Fifteen Years, In Spring, Agafya, The Kiss, The Father, In Exile, Three Years, The House with the Mansard--An Artist's Story, Peasants, The Darling ( )

In the story "The Father," Chekhov uses 80 percent dialogue to expose a father's weak character and his codendent relationship with his son. It's a case of the unreliable narrator exposing his foibles and lies unwittingly to us, his son and ultimately to himself. Chekhov rounds out all these stories with his classic device of book-ending: beginning and ending with a similar thematic device. ( )