Plot summaries of the stories of Anton Chekhov
A. Chekhov∗
July 5, 2012
Contents
This is a (growing) collection of plot summaries, since for the most part they
seem to be missing from Chekhov’s Wikipedia pages [C]. When known, links
are given to webpages with summaries.
Short stories
Plot summaries of the short stories of Anton Chekhov.
1880
• “Because of Little Apples”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
Teenage boy and his sweetheart are caught stealing apples by a cruel
landowner and his sadistic assistant. The tortuous tribulations they put
the young couple through is interuppted by the landowner’s daughter. The
story ends with the landowner continuing his sick ways and the traumatized couple never seeing each other again.
1882
• “The Album”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
∗ Compiled
and latexed by D. Joyner, wdjoyner@gmail.com
1
• “At the Barber’s”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Boots”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “A Classical Student”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “A Country Cottage”
Note: Not to be confused with “At a Country House” The date for this
story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “An Enigmatic Nature”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Gone Astray”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “An Inquiry”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “In the Hotel”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Joy”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
2
• “Late-Blooming Flowers”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11818
• “A Living Chattel”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “Malingers”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Nerves”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “Oh! The Public”
Note: The date for this “early” story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 18821885.
Summary:
A story told by a self-critical drinking man who is a ticket collector working
on a train. One of the passengers argues with him, saying he is sick and
dying and wants to sleep. In truth, he has no ticket. This repeats. Finally,
the collector goes back his compartment to have another drink.
Audio: Read by Kenneth Branagh (on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=92A3C135220A7135).
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “A Slander”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1882-1885.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23055
• “A Tragic Actor”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
3
1883
• “The Bird Market”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Daughter of Albion”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “The Death of a Civil Servant”
Note: Also “The Death of a Government Clerk”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “An Incident at Law”
• “Fat and Thin”
Summary:
This is about two school friends who meet by chance years later after they
are grown up. They are happy and friendly towards the other. When one
discovers the other is a Privy Councillor, he becomes overly formal and
ruins the happiness of the meeting.
Audio: Read by Kenneth Branagh (on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=92A3C135220A7135).
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “Rapture”
• “The Swedish Match”
Note: Wikipedia says the day of this story is unknown, giving 1882-1885.
However, litmed gives 1883. Early detective story, pre-dating Sherlock
Holmes’ story by Arthur Conan Doyle but not Edgar Allan Poe’s in “The
Murders of the Rue Morgue” (which Poe published in 1841).
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1708
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Trousseau”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
4
• “Two in One”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A rich boss rides a streetcar for a change. He hears a confident conversationalist who sounds like his meek clerk, but with more intellience than he
expected. When the boss laughs suddenly, the clerk recognizes him and
reverts to the meek personality he takes at work.
1884
• “A Chameleon”
Summary:
Amusing story of an officer who cannot make up his mind what to do to
the owner of a dog who has bitten a shop-keeper. The dog could be a
General’s pet. He puts on or takes off his coat each time he changes his
mind.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Complaints Book”
• “Choristers”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “A Dreadful Night”
• “In the Graveyard”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “In a Strange Land”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Minds in Ferment”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Oysters”
Summary:
A young boy and his father are starving. He begs rich men for oysters and
they feed him, mocking him when he bites into the shell. His father still
hungry, watches over him in the hospital.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12000
5
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “Perpetuum Mobile”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
We’ve gotten into a vicious circle, one of the protagonists remarks near
the end of the story. The two men have a duty to perform - after all, there
is a corpse waiting for them in a village down the road - but somehow
they keep going around in circles.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1478
• “The Skit”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A skit is written and read by its author to some friends. First, they love
it. Then they suggest changes. Then they say to trash it.
• “Vint” Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y]. The game of vint
is also known as “Russian whist”.
Summary:
An administrator passes his office building one night after work on the
way home from the theater. Seeing lights on, he goes inside expecting his
workers to be working on a eport. Instead, they are playing vint, but using
card combinations named after the the administrators (including himself).
He joins them. The story ends with the janitor overhearing some of their
funny-sounding arguments over their card game.
• “Worse and worse”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A choir master is sued by one of his members for insulting him. The former
apologizes to the latter, but in the process makes even more insults. Once
in court, he gets 2 months jail time. He insults the trial judge and the
appelate judge as well.
1885
• “The Cook’s Wedding”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “A Dead Body”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
6
• “Drowning”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A hustler works the docks trying to get money for jumping off the dock
to impersonate a drowning victim. The first man is not at all interested.
The second is, but will give him hardly any money for the act. The man
jumps in, does his thrashing, gets out soaking wet and collects his money.
• “The Fish”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Head of the Family”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
• “The Huntsman”
Summary:
While walking along the roadside, a hunter is stopped by his long-separated
wife rushing out of a crop field.
• “The Looking Glass”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Mari d’Elle”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “The Malefactor [The Culprit]”
• “A Man of Ideas”
• “The Marshal’s Widow”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “The Misfortune”
Note: Also, “A Misfortune” or “A Calamity”
Summary:
A story of the bored wife of a notary republic who is pusued by a younger
lawyer. She, “like a bumblebee bumping up against the window-pane,”
yearns to escape her marriage and run away with him.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
7
• “Overdoing It”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Old Age”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Saintly simplicity”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A son returns home to visit his father after many years absence. The
father, a priest, cannot believe his son, now a very successful lawyer, has
become so wealthy and distant.
• “Sergeant Prishibeyev”
Summary:
Sgt P thinks he must control people, as though they were Army subordinates, even when he is out taking a stroll with his wife. On one occasion,
he assaults a policeman and is taken before a judge. The story takes place
duirng the trial when the Sgt tries to explain his actions to the court.
• “Small Fry”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “Sorrow”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “Two of a Kind”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A newly married young couple are visiting relatives. Embarrassment over
the relatives’ behavior is replaced by releif when they find that the oher
spouse’s relatives are also crazy.
• “The Villiage Elder”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A man tells a story of a village “bumpkin” wh makes good and is elected
Village Elder. Not wanting this position of responsibility, he does all he
can to be discharged.
8
1886
• “An Actor’s End”
Summary:
A story of an actor who becomes ill and thinks he is dying. He wants to
go home, interuppting the play is is performing in. The other actors in the
play try to cheer him up and talk him out of it, not believing he is about
to die. One at a time, day after day, they visit him in his hotel room,
trying to comfort him with one “remedy” (e.g., castor oil) or another. All
the sick actor wants to talk about is going to his home town. After a few
days lying in his hotel-room bed, he dies.
Audio: Read by Kenneth Branagh (on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=92A3C135220A7135).
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Agafya”
Summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section9.rhtml
• “Anyuta”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
• “Art”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “At the Mill”
Note: Seems to be missing from WIkipedia.
Summary:
This is a story of a mill owner who is well-off thanks to his mill and the
well-stocked river. His selfish character is made clear when it is revealed
that the woman he is speaking impersonally to for most of the story is his
impoverished mother.
• “At a Summer Villa”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “A Blunder”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
9
• “The Chemist’s Wife”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13505
• “Children”
Note: Also “Kids” (however, WIkipedia lists “Kids” and “Children” as
separate stories in 1886)
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Chorus Girl”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
• “A Day in the Country”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Dependents”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “Difficult People”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
• “Dreams”
Also “Daydreams”.
Summary:
Two police officers escort an escaped prisoner who tells them a story of
hope.
• “Excellent People” (“Difficult People”)
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=963
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13505
• “The First-Class Passenger”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “A Gentleman Friend”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
10
• “Grisha”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “A Happy Man”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “The Husband”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
• “Hush”
Summary:
Story of a journalist who is a writer at night after work. He complains of
the life of a writer, agonizing his wife and family in the process.
Audio: Read by Kenneth Branagh (on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=92A3C135220A7135).
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Hydrophobia”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y]. Slightly revised in 1901
as “The Wolf”.
Summary:
A tale of a hunter’s fight with a wolf. He worries about catching hydrophobia as a result of being in contact with a possibly rabid wolf.
• “An Incident”
Note: Not to be confused with “A Trivial Incident”, from the same year.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “In the Court”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “In the Dark”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Ivan Matveyitch”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
11
• “A Jeune Premiere”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “A Joke”
Note: Also, “The Little Joke”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “Ladies”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “The Lodger”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A husband of a wife who owns an apartment complex realizes he is just
as much of a lodger as the other tenants.
• “Love”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “Martyrs”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “Mire”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12112
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13505
• “Misery”
Note: Also “Heartache”
Summary:
This is a story of a father who has lost his son. He drives a carriage and
his customers do not listen as he tells them his son has died.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=140
Audio: Read by Kenneth Branagh (on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=92A3C135220A7135).
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
12
• “Not Wanted”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
• “On the Road”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
• “The Orator”
Summary:
A story of a gifted orator who is asked to speak at a funeral. The orator
knew the deceased as a rascal” and on his way to the funeral stopped
by several bars for a drink. The orator called the deceased by the wrong
name, said he was a bachelor (while is weeping wife sat in front of him),
and described his features incorrectly. During the speech, he discovers the
error himself and gets into an argument with the fellow who escorted him
to the gravesite. In fact, the person the orator spoke of was also at the
funeral and was insulted by the descriptions of him. Good dry, black-ish
humr.
Audio: Read by Kenneth Branagh (on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=92A3C135220A7135).
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Other People’s Misfortune”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A wealthy couple, young and newly married, are on a trip to buy another
house - a “romantic nook” in the country. They arrive at an estate (with its
own fishing pond, guest house, and separate building housing the kitchen)
still occupied by its elderly owners. They cannot afford the property taxes
and so must sell. The young husband mocks them behind their back, while
the young wife pities them.
• “Panic Fears”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “A Peculiar Man”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “A Pink Stocking”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
13
• “The Princess”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=966
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13505
• “The Privy Councillor”
Summary:
Humorous story of a brother visiting his sister, and getting her to pay for
his trip abroad so that she can have some peace and quiet.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
• “The Requiem”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “Revenge”
• “Romance with Double-Bass”
• “The Schoolmaster”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “A Story Without an End”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “Strong Impressions”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Talent”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
• “A Trifle From Life”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
• “A Tripping Tongue”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
14
• “A Trivial Incident”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
• “A Troublesome Visitor”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “An Upheaval”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
• “Van’ka”
Also “Vanka”
Summary:
A nine year old boy writes his grandfather asking him to rescue him from
the home he is forced to live in. He is a servant and poorly treated.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “Who Was to Blame?”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “Women Make Trouble”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A witness is summoned for questioning by a judge. A man is accused
of beating his wife. According to the witness, he beats everyone, wife
included. His abuse is tolerated because her has more money than the
others.
• “A Work of Art”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1734
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
1887
• “Aborigines”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
15
• “An Adventure”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “An Avenger”
Summary:
Humorous story of a man who finds his wife with another man and goes
to buy a gun. He buys a fishing net instead.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Bad Business”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Bad Weather”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
• “Beggar”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Boa Constrictor and the Rabbit”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
Unlikely tale of a man describing how he would seduce a happily married
woman.
• “Boys”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Cattle-Dealers”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “Champagne”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “The Cossack”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
16
• “The Coach-House”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “Darkness”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “A Defenseless Creature”
Also “A Defenceless Creature”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “The Doctor”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=962
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “Drunk”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “On Easter Eve”
Note: Some date this story as 1886.
Also “Easter Eve”, “The Night Before Easter”, “Easter Night”
Summary:
The traveler’s conversation with the ferryman, perhaps leavened by his
later all-night Easter Vigil, leads him to a mystical event as he returns
across the river. He experiences a sense of oneness in which grief and
happiness, time and eternity, fuse.
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1504
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section5.rhtml
Text:
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/achekhov/bl-achek-easteve.
htm
• “The Encounter”
Note: Also “An Encounter”
Missing from Wikipedia (but in “The Portable Chekhov”)
See also http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/chekhovbio.html
Summary:
This is a story about a devoted Denisov who roams the country begging
17
for funds to rebuild his church. He runs across Kuzma, a thief and a liar
who takes his money. Out of guilt, he tries to return what is left, but
Denisov only repeats “It’s God’s money.”
• “Enemies”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=303
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “The Examining Magistrate”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Expensive Lessons”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13505
• “A Father”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
• “From the Diary of a Violent Tempered Man”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Frost”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Happiness”
Summary:
Living in a world of superstition and fear, the characters in this story
believe that happiness is just beyond their grasp. They are convinced
that the countryside is full of buried treasure, but no one knows how to
find it. They see their lives as a long quest for happiness, without realizing
that the treasure is within them all along.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1309
• “A Happy Ending”
Note: Not to be confused with “Happiness”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
18
• “Home”
Summary:
This is a story of a father trying to teach a lesson to his son (to stop
smoking). He eventually succeeds not though logic but through a story.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1282
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “An Inadvertence”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “In Passion Week”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “In Trouble”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “Kashtanka”
Summary:
The story about a dog is told by an omniscient narrator who privileges
Kashtanka’s point of view, so we follow the dog’s subsequent adventures
largely from her eyes.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12106
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Kiss”
Summary:
In this story, Ryabovitch, a real loser of an ordinary man, undergoes two
extraordinary experiences. In the first of these, he stumbles by chance
into a passionate kiss, a kiss that seems to promise a plenitude of future
happiness. The second extraordinary experience takes place near the end
of the tale, when Ryabovitch undergoes a flash of insight or enlightenment.
He suddenly detaches himself from the world, learns to expect nothing,
and comes to understand that life is “an unintelligible, aimless jest.”
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11984
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
• “A Lady’s Story”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
19
• “The Letter”
Summary:
Story of an archdeacon who has two visitors late one night after a long
day. One is a failed priest, who as “lost his way” by drinking too much
and not following proper church protocols. The other has “lost his way”
because he cannot love his brother for who he is. The letter is written by
the archdeacon for the second priest. Despite his failings, the first priest
shows more compassion.
Text:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Letter_(Chekhov)
• “The Lion and the Sun”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
Text:
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/ac/jr/140.htm
• “The Lottery Ticket”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
• “A Mystery”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “The Old House”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “A Play”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
• “Polinka”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
• “A Problem”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
• “The Runaway”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
20
• “Shrove Tuesday”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “The Siren”
Summary:
An amusing story of a panel of judges who disagree on a case; the judge
who opposes an opposite opinion must write an opinion; the others tak
about the dishes serves at their regular restaurant outing, causing the
opposing judge to be distracted and drop his opposition and join them for
dinner.
• “Too Early!”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “A Transgression”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “Typhus”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1733
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27411
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
• “Verotchka”
Also “Verochka”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
• “Volodya”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1111
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
• “Zinotchka”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
21
1888
• “The Beauties”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “At a Country House”
Note: The date for this story is unknown. Wikipedia gives 1888-1895.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
• “Attack of Nerves”
Summary:
This story concerns the dilemma posed by the recognition that there is
large scale human suffering in the world which the individual is powerless
to alter.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=29
• “An Awkward Business”
Summary:
This story illustrates both a conflict of conscience and a conflict between
social classes.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=959
• “Lights”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
• “A Nervous Breakdown”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “The Party”
Note: Also “The Name-Day Party”
Summary:
A story about the wife of a lawyer who have a party one night at their
estate by a lake. While she was busy as a hostess, he flirted with the
female guests, hurting her feelings. Towards the end of the story it is
revealed that she is very pregnant. She delivers a still-born baby the next
day.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
• “The Shoemaker and the Devil”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
22
• “Sleepy”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “A Story WIthout a Title”
Summary:
Story of visitor to an isolated monastery. He criticizes the hospitable
monks, telling them they should try to save the people in the local town
who were sinning from ignorance. This stirred the Father Superior to go
out into the town for 3 months. Shocked, he returned to the monastery
to tell the monks of his experiences. He described drunken debauchry
and widespead sinning. When he finished, he went to his cell to sleep.
The next morning, he discovered that all the other monks had left the
monastery to live in the town.
Audio: Read by Kenneth Branagh (on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=92A3C135220A7135).
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
• “An Unpleasantness”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A relatively long (23p) story of a hospital physician who strikes his assistant with his fist. He must deal with his own anger issues in the process.
In the end, no one is fired and life goes on as before.
• “The Wife”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
• “A Woman’s Kingdom”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
1889
• “The Bet”
Note: The bass of an episode of “The Twilight Zone” TV series written
by Rod Serling.
Summary:
A banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other about
whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bet_(short_story)
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
23
• “A Dreary Story”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
1890
• “Gusev”
Also “Goussiev”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=183
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27411
• “The Horse Stealers”
Note: A quotation: “If one reasons from science, of course, there are no
devils, for it’s a superstition; but if one looks at it simply, as you and I
do, there are devils ... ”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11988
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
1891
• “The Duel”
Note: See the entry in the Novella section .
• “Peasant Wives”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11917
1892
• “A Boring Story”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=814
• “After the Theater”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “The Grasshopper”
Summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section6.rhtml
24
Another summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11983
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
• “In Exile”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11866
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27411
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “Neighbors”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1011
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13505
• “Terror”
Note: This story is about the strangeness and uncertainty in ordinary life.
How can we know what is right? How can we tell the good from the evil?
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1541
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
• “Ward No. 6”
Note: Some sources put this as written in 1890.
Summary:
This is a long story (45 pages) in which we encounter the conflict of story
versus philosophy, individuality versus abstraction. A lazy mental hospital administrator befreinds a patient and eventually becomes a patient
himself.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section11.rhtml
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=813
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
1893
• “An Anonymous Story”
See “novella” section for this.
25
• “The Two Volodyas”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=958
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
1894
• “The Black Monk”
Summary:
This story follows the character Andrey Kovrin, a Russian scholar who is
seemingly brilliant. On a vacation, he starts seeing a black monk, goes
crazy, and dies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Monk_(short_story)
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section4.rhtml
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
• “The Head Gardner’s Story”
Note: Also “The Head-Gardner’s Story”
Wikipedia merely gives the date of this story as 1888-1895. However,
litmed gives 1894.
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1185
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
• “Rothschild’s Fiddle”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11968
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
• “The Student”
Note: This simple story captures a profound mystical experience. The
story tells of betrayal and remorse - a very human sequence but also offers
the hope of forgiveness.
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1480
• “The Teacher of Literature”
Summary:
Recall the first two of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths: suffering informs
26
all of human life, and the cause of suffering is desire. Nikitin wins the
object of his desire, and ought to be perfectly happy, but he soon realizes
that something is missing - he is dissatisfied, he wants to escape the confinement and ordinariness of his life. But we know that no matter where
he goes, dissatisfaction will follow him, unless he renounces desire and
achieves Enlightenment.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11989
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
1895
• “Anna on the Neck”
Summary:
A story of a poor young woman who marries an older rich man for convenience and not love. In the begining she reaches out to her family for
consolation. In the end, she finds a young single man to escort her to
social events and they become more distance.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13413
• “The Helpmate”
Note: Also, “His Wife” Not to be confused with “The Wife”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
• “Murder”
Summary:
Matvey Terekhov lives with his cousin Yakov, who runs an inn. Matvey
was once extremely religious and ascetic, but now has left asceticism behind. Yakov, on the other hand, is obsessively religious. At one point
Matvey initiates an argument with Yakov about a religious issue. Yakov
is overcome with anger and Aglaya, Yakov’s wife, hits Matvey over the
head with a bottle, and kills him. Husband and wife are sent to prison
in Siberia. While Yakov loses his faith after the murder, he regains it in
prison.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1542
• “Whitebrow”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
• “Ariadna”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1543
27
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
1896
• “An Artist’s Story [The House with the Mezzanine]”
Note: Also called “The House with an Attic”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1544
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27411
• “My Life”
Note: The story contrasts the hypocrisy of the upper class, who believe
that manual labor is demeaning, but who are also morally corrupt, with
Misail’s gradual development of an authentic personal commitment to the
simple life.
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=964
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27411
1897
• “At Home”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13505
• “Peasants”
Summary:
A detailed story (45 pages) of a man and his family who must return to
the rural village he grew up in, after losing his job in Moscow. It is a
study of the lower depths of poverty and rural life.
Text:
http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/1285/
• “The Petchenyeg”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
28
• “The Schoolmistress [In the Cart]”
Summary:
This is a story of a school teacher who is riding in a cart, as she regularly
does, to go to town to collect her paycheck. She day dreams of the people
she knew when she was younger.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
1898
• “About Love”
Note: Also, “A Little Trilogy: Concerning Love”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11985
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
• “A Doctor’s Visit”
Note: Also, “A Case History” or “A Medical case”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=73
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
• “Gooseberries”
Note: Also, “The Little Trilogy: Gooseberries”
Summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section8.rhtml
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27411
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
• “Ionych”
Note: Also “Ionitch”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=815
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
• “The Man in a Case”
Note: Also, “The Little Trilogy: The Man in the Case” or “The Little
Trilogy: The Man in the Shell” or “The Little Trilogy: A Hard Case”
29
A fascinating story of character. Chekhov uses the device of a tale within
a tale.
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1075
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
• “A Visit to Friends”
Note: Missing from Wikipedia. Appeared in [Y].
Summary:
A successful Moscow lawyer gets a letter from three sisters he knew as a
young man. The implore him to visit, with the hope that he will take
pity and help them save their family estate. Through poor management,
their estate must be sold and he thinks about the life he might have lead
had he married one of the sisters. In the end, he returns to Moscow to his
work, never to think of them again.
1899
• “The Darling”
Summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section7.rhtml
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=961
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
• “The Lady with the Dog”
Summary:
This tells the story of an adulterous affair between a Russian banker and
a young lady he meets while vacationing in Yalta. The story comprises
four parts: (I) describes the initial meeting in Yalta, (II) the consummation of the affair and the remaining time in Yalta, (III) Gurov’s return
to Moscow and his visit to Anna’s town, and (IV) Anna’s visits to Moscow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_with_the_Dog_(short_story)
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section1.rhtml
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27411
• “On Official Duty”
Summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section3.rhtml
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1732
30
• “The New Villa”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11794
1900
• “At Christmas Time”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12251
• “In the Ravine”
Summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section2.rhtml
1902
• “The Bishop”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1043
1903
• “Betrothed [The Fiance]”
Note: Chekhov’s last completed story.
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1140
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
Novellas
Plot summaries of the novellas of Anton Chekhov.
1884
The Shooting Party
Note: The first novel (ever) written in the format of a mystery. In its
innovative structure, the book prefigures Agatha Christie’s most famous novel,
“The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” written 45 years later. Christie’s novel caused
a sensation with its narrator-as-murderer plot device. It is interesting that
The Shooting Party was first translated into English in 1926, only a few years
before Agatha Christie published “Roger Ackroyd.” Perhaps Chekhov invented
Agatha Christie’s famous device.
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12462
31
1888
The Steppe
Summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section12.rhtml
1891
The Duel
Note: Wikipedia called this a “short story” as opposed to a “novella.”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=304
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13505
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Duel_(Chekhov-Garnett)
1893
An Anonymous Story
Note: Alternate translations: The Story of an Unknown Man/The Story of
a Nobody
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12091
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13415
1895
Three Years
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12114
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
1896
My Life
Summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section10.rhtml
Plays
Plot summaries of the plays of Anton Chekhov.
32
1881
• That Worthless Fellow Platonov
Note: Also known as “Platonov.’
1886
• On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco ( 1886, 1902)
Note: Revised in 1902. Both versions appeared in [Y].
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1110
Text:
http://method.vtheatre.net/doc/tobacco.html
http://www.wdjoyner.org/writing/public-domain/chekhov/
1887
• Swansong - a one-act play
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1753
• Ivanov
Note: A drama in four acts
Also “Ivanoff”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1139
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1755
1888
• The Bear
Note: A one act comedy
Also “The Boor”
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1080
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986
• A Marriage Proposal
Note: A one act play. Written 1888-1889. Also “The Proposal”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986
33
1889
• A Tragedian in Spite of Himself
Note: Also, “A Reluctant Tragic Hero”
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986
• The Wedding
Note: One act.
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986
• The Wood Demon
Note: A four-act comedy
1891
• The Festivities
1896
• The Seagull
Note: A comedy in four acts
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=965
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1754
1899
• Uncle Vanya
Note: Written: 1899-1900
Based on The Wood Demon
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=822
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1756
1901
• Three Sisters
Note: A drama in four acts
34
Summary: This is a beautiful play of character, relationship, and motivation. It explores the gap between hope and fulfillment in the lives of the
Prozorovs and their friends.
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=846
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986
1904
• The Cherry Orchard
Note: A comedy in four acts
Summary:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11865
Text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986
References
[C] A. Chekhov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov_bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_short_stories_by_Anton_
Chekhov
Stories of Anton Chekhov:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c#a708
[Y] Avrahm Yarmolinsky (translator and editor), The Unknown Chekhov Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
35