“Chekhov Shorts”: The Bird Market
October 13, 2008 by Rob
Filed under Checkin Off the Chekhov Shorts
Title: The Bird Market
Date Read: 12 October 2008
Word Count: 1296
Briefly: A snapshot of life at a Sunday market in Moscow, with an emphasis on the bird market.
Afterthoughts: This is a really nice story about life in a Moscow market. I was unsure if Trubnoy Square really exists, or if if were simply a figment of Chekhov’s imagination, so I went searching and found that it does indeed exist under the more common name of Trubnaya Square (here’s a shot from roughly Chekhov’s time).
Notable Quote: “Along one side of the square there stands a string of waggons. The waggons are loaded, not with hay, not with cabbages, nor with beans, but with goldfinches, siskins, larks, blackbirds and thrushes, bluetits, bullfinches. All of them are hopping about in rough, home-made cages, twittering and looking with envy at the free sparrows.”
Rating: 
*Story read as part of my Checking Off The Chekhov Shorts reading challenge.
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Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell were lined with books)
