Chekhov Shorts: Sleepy

Title: Sleepy (*note – the translation read for this review was Pevear & Volokhonsky’s in Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov (Bantam Books)
Date Read: 16th March 2010
Briefly: The masters of the little nurse Varka are unrelenting in their demands of the thirteen-year-old. By day she lifts and carries, and by night she is forced to [...]

Chekhov Shorts: Vanka

Title: Vanka (*note – the translation read for this review was Pevear & Volokhonsky’s in Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov (Bantam Books)
Date Read: 16th March 2010
Briefly: It’s Christmas Eve and poor shoemaker’s apprentice Vanka is missing home. The nine-year-old sits down and pens a little to his distant grandfather, in the hope that he [...]

Chekhov Shorts: Grisha

Title: Grisha
Date Read: 9th March 2010
Briefly: Venturing out into the big wide world for the first time, toddler Grisha tries to make sense of all that he sees. As he looks to his nurse for some reassurance and guidance, the world seems a discouraging place for someone so small. And it’s made all the [...]

Chekhov Shorts: A Nightmare

Title: A Nightmare
Date Read: 9th March 2010
Briefly: The proposed opening of a church parish school in Sinkino brings cause for Kunin – a well-to-do member of the Rural Board for the Borisovo district – to invite the local priest Father Yakov Smirnov, to his home. Finding Father Yakov completely disheveled and without any air [...]

Chekhov Shorts: Agafya

Title: Agafya
Date Read: 16th February 2010
Word Count: 4047
Briefly: Agafya is the young wife of the village signalman and she’s taken to sneaking off in the night to visit the desirable Savka, who is the watchman for the kitchen gardens of Dubovo. On the night that this story is set Agafya turns up in the [...]

Chekhov Shorts: A Joke

Title: A Joke
Date Read: 16th February 2010
Word Count: 1637
Briefly: Poor old Nadenka is trying to come to terms with her aversion towards cascading down a steep, icy hill on a sledge. She’s coaxed into it however, and after going down a first time she is keen to repeat the ordeal again. Not because she [...]

Chekhov Shorts: Ivan Matveyitch

Title: Ivan Matveyitch
Date Read: 2nd February 2010
Word Count: 2063
Briefly: Frustrated with the persistent lateness of his young male secretary Ivan Matveyitch, the ‘man of learning’ (for he has no other name) is determined to let his young secretary know that he isn’t too happy.
Afterthoughts: This story is quite enjoyable actually. Not the best story [...]

Chekhov Shorts: Anyuta

Title: Anyuta
Date Read: 2nd February 2010
Word Count: 1543
Briefly: Medical student Stepan Klotchkov is in the throes of exam revision in his rather rundown apartment, when he calls upon his room mate Anyuta to pose as his ‘living skeleton’ for him (so that he can get it clear in his head the exact positioning of [...]

Chekhov Shorts: The Requiem

Title: The Requiem
Date Read: 26th January 2010
Word Count: 1989
Briefly: Shopkeeper Andrey Andreyitch is waiting for the church to empty at the end of Sunday mass, when he notices an angry Father Grigory beckoning him over. It’s about a note that Andrey handed in before mass, asking for prayers to be given to his [...]

Chekhov Shorts: An Actor’s End

Title: An Actor’s End
Date Read: 26th January 2010
Word Count: 2375
Briefly: After a big row with his manager, Shtchiptsov the actor – a very large and strong yet simple man – storms back to his room to sulk. Visited by one of his colleagues – the comic man Sigaev, Shtchiptsov reveals that he wants to [...]

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