Usually when I review a collection of short stories, I’ll include a paragraph for each story. Not this time. This time will only appear a fairly brief review for the entire collection. That’s because I didn’t get it. I’m missing something. I thought Chekhov was supposed to be the epitome of the short story writer, but I’m not sure what I should be noticing about the writing. Mostly idle Russian noblemen fret about their lives. Is there some symbolism I’m supposed to notice? Are these particularly classic views of Russian life? My quick reading of SparkNotes’ Chekhov entry doesn’t really explain why they are masterful in terms I can understand. I guess part of my problem is that I didn’t give a rip about any of the characters. So the possible fact that they were particularly good examples of pathos or something like that went right by me. If he was a trailblazer, I think I am glad his literary descendants read him and used him and not I.
For the record, the stories are:
- The Black Monk (1894)
- The House with the Mezzanine (1896)
- The Peasants (1897)
- Gooseberries (1898)
- The Lady with the Toy Dog (1899)
Title: Five Great Short Stories
Author: Anton Chekhov
Imprint / publisher: Dover
Format: Paperback
Length: 94 p.
Publication date: 1990 (stories originally published in 1890s)
ISBN-10: 0-486-26463-7
