Forty StoriesIf 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. |
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... pale. The accusing eyes are nearly hidden by pince-nez, the beard is limp, the lips pursed in pain. It is the image of an old scholar or the forbidding family doctor who has brought too many children into the world. We know him well ...
... pale. The accusing eyes are nearly hidden by pince-nez, the beard is limp, the lips pursed in pain. It is the image of an old scholar or the forbidding family doctor who has brought too many children into the world. We know him well ...
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... pale peasant woman of thirty with a sickle in her hand. In a few pages the whole absurd, lamentable history of these people is revealed: the indifference of the husband, the yearning of the wife, the infinite spaces which separate them ...
... pale peasant woman of thirty with a sickle in her hand. In a few pages the whole absurd, lamentable history of these people is revealed: the indifference of the husband, the yearning of the wife, the infinite spaces which separate them ...
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... pale ... not because the apple was sour, but because they had observed the stern features of Trifon Semyonovich and Karpushka's little snout lit with a smile of pure malignance. “Good day to you, my dears,” Trifon Semyonovich said ...
... pale ... not because the apple was sour, but because they had observed the stern features of Trifon Semyonovich and Karpushka's little snout lit with a smile of pure malignance. “Good day to you, my dears,” Trifon Semyonovich said ...
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... pale. Stumbling after the carriages was the most insufferable man in the world, a brawler and roughneck, as was well known to everyone in the entire province, a certain Mikhey Yegorich Optemperansky, brother of Yegor Yegorich, and a ...
... pale. Stumbling after the carriages was the most insufferable man in the world, a brawler and roughneck, as was well known to everyone in the entire province, a certain Mikhey Yegorich Optemperansky, brother of Yegor Yegorich, and a ...
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... pale and held their breaths. “I'm shooting this one,” the general whispered. “I ... I ... Excuse me, this is the second time you have ...” But nothing came of the dog's pointing. The doctor, with nothing to do, threw a pebble, which ...
... pale and held their breaths. “I'm shooting this one,” the general whispered. “I ... I ... Excuse me, this is the second time you have ...” But nothing came of the dog's pointing. The doctor, with nothing to do, threw a pebble, which ...
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