Notebook of Anton Chekhov


Book Description

Contains Chekhov's diary from 1896, the text of his notebooks from the years 1892 to 1904 that contain ideas for future works and quotations that he liked, and a collection of themes, thoughts, notes, and fragments.




The Personal Papers of Anton Chekhov


Book Description

The present volume makes available the inimitable Notebook of Anton Chekhov as well as those passages from Chekhov's correspondence that reveal his innermost beliefs as a writer and a man. His lively opinions on the theatre, on stories and novels, on literary figures like Zola, Tolstoy and Gorky, the clinical detachment of Chekhov the physician always tempered by the tender concern and involvement of the artist with his people and his times, make this a lasting and universal testament. From early reviews of the Notebook of Anton Chekhov, included in this collection: "It is extraordinary how interesting these notes on human nature are... The charm of this book is that the reader has the sensation of perfectly intimate, easy intercourse with Chekhov himself. While that intercourse lasts the reader himself feels observant, gentle, disillusioned, humorous and wise." - New Statesman "The years covered by the Notebook are from 1892 to 1904, the year of Chekhov's death. The notes ranging from random jottings for plays and novels to passages of profound meditation on life and death were made for works which Chekhov intended to write. They show his methods of artistic production. The fact that he re-copied most of this material into a special copy book that shows the significance which he attached to it." - Boston Transcript "The whole is a document interesting to writers and to anyone curious about human nature... Chekhov is not a writer who sees life steadily and sees it whole; watching him at work in his kitchen we become aware that he has his favorite ingredients; they are spread out before us uncooked, undisguised with sauces." - London Times ""Affords us a very well-rounded interpretation of Chekhov." - Kenneth Burke, New York Times




The Notebook of Trigorin


Book Description

Offers Williams' adaptation of a late nineteenth-century drama about an actress' rejection of the advances of a melancholy, lovesick young man.




Note-book of Anton Chekhov


Book Description

Reprint of the 1921 ed., published by L. & V. Woolf, Richmond, Eng., under title: The note-books of Anton Tchekhov, together with reminiscences of Tchekhov by Maxim Gorky. The t.p. has been replaced by that of the 1921 ed. published by B. W. Huebsch, New York.




Forty Stories


Book Description

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.




The Complete Short Novels


Book Description

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Aanton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels–here brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The Steppe–the most lyrical of the five–is an account of a nine-year-old boy’s frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia. The Duel sets two decadent figures–a fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibility–on a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant. In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor. The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov’s work.




Seven Short Novels


Book Description

"Anton Chekhov's best stories display a detached sympathy for the Russian people and a controversial skill in portraying the decaying world of czarist Russia. Though not a political man, Chekhov could be cutting in his criticisms of upper-class society, and he turned a lens on its manners and shortsightedness. His finely observed and sharp-as-nails writing created unforgettable characters." "In these short novels, Chekhov was interested, above all, in human relationships, especially mutual unintelligibility and frustration between lovers and the evolution of affection over time. "The Duel," "My Life," and "Ward No. 6" are intimate portraits of individuals and their predicaments, while "A Woman's Kingdom," "Peasants," "Three Years," and "In the Ravine" depict the social milieu on a much larger scale than was possible in his shorter stories."--BOOK JACKET.




Fifty-two Stories, 1883-1898


Book Description

From the celebrated, award-winning translators of Anna Karenina and War and Peace a lavish, masterfully rendered volume of stories by one of the most influential short fiction writers of all time. Chekhov's genius left an indelible impact on every literary form in which he wrote, but none more so than short fiction. Now, renowned translators and longtime house authors Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky give us their peerless renderings of fifty-two Chekhov stories--a full deck These stories, which span the full arc of his career, reveal the extraordinary variety and unexpectedness of his work, from the farcically comic to the darkly complex, showing that there is no one type of "Chekhov story." They are populated by a remarkable range of characters who come from all parts of Russia, all walks of life, and who, taken together, have democratized the short story. Included here are a number of never-before-translated stories, including "Reading" and "An Educated Blockhead." Here is a collection that promises profound delight.




The Essential Tales of Chekhov


Book Description

Of the two hundred stories that Anton Chekhov wrote, the twenty stories that appear in this extraordinary collection were personally chosen by Richard Ford--an accomplished storyteller in his own right. Included are the familiar masterpieces--"The Kiss," "The Darling," and "The Lady with the Dog"--as well as several brilliant lesser-known tales such as "A Blunder," "Hush!," and "Champagne." These stories, ordered from 1886 to 1899, are drawn from Chekhov's most fruitful years as a short-story writer. A truly balanced selection, they exhibit the qualities that make Chekhov one of the greatest fiction writers of all time: his gift for detail, dialogue, and humor; his emotional perception and compassion; and his understanding that life's most important moments are often the most overlooked. "The reason we like Chekhov so much, now at our century's end," writes Ford in his perceptive introduction, "is because his stories from the last century's end feel so modern to us, are so much of our own time and mind." Exquisitely translated by the renowned Constance Garnett, these stories present a wonderful opportunity to introduce yourself--or become reaquainted with--an artist whose genius and influence only increase with every passing generation.




The Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904


Book Description

In the final years of his life, Chekhov had reached the height of his powers as a dramatist, and also produced some of the stories that rank among his masterpieces. The poignant 'The Lady with the Little Dog' and 'About Love' examine the nature of love outside of marriage - its romantic idealism and the fear of disillusionment. And in stories such as 'Peasants', 'The House with the Mezzanine' and 'My Life' Chekhov paints a vivid picture of the conditions of the poor and of their powerlessness in the face of exploitation and hardship. With the works collected here, Chekhov moved away from the realism of his earlier tales - developing a broader range of characters and subject matter, while forging the spare minimalist style that would inspire such modern short-story writers as Hemingway and Faulkner.




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