Find today’s 2800 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/070.html Travis Review: The schoolmaster is at the end of his life, and it seems that everybody knows it but him. To Fyodor Sysoev’s credit, he is so caught up with minor slights of his students during their examinations and making his fourteenth annual dinner, that he only thinks of …
Find today’s 2180 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/069.html Travis Review: It is interesting that this story is told in the past tense when Pasha “was younger and better-looking, and when her voice was stronger.” It seems like that line is a set up for things to go horribly wrong for the chorus girl, which they do. Confronted …
Find today 2050 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/067.html Travis Review: The chemist’s wife in today’s story feels like a familiar Chekhov character. She is miserable, but can’t pinpoint the reason. “She felt bored, depressed, vexed . . . so vexed that she felt quite inclined to cry — again she did not know why.” In the …
Find today’s 2281 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/066.html Travis Review: In today’s story, a man tells us of the three instances in his life that freaked him out. The first experience is visual. He gets the heebee-jeebies when seeing a twinkling light “like that of a smoldering lamp, at one moment dying down, at another flickering up” …
Find today’s 2387 word story here. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/064.html Travis Review: Today’s story could be read to young children before bedtime or in an elementary school class. It contains many classic elements of children’s literature including a quasi-dramatic rescue, a wise elderly/grandfatherly character with a kind heart, an orphan girl and boy dynamic (friendship, loyalty, physical warmth), …
Find today’s 1845 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/062.html Travis Review Today’s story made me smile. Like yesterday’s “A Gentleman Friend,” we are watching a foolish, fun-loving person. But unlike the calculative and shallow Vanda, I like Ivan Alexyevitch, as his mistake seems honest and he has several friends (gentlemen, I assume) who willingly stand up for the man. Chekhov …
Find today’s 1995 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/060.html Travis Review Chekhov uses an unusual method to tell the story of a young man being emotionally manipulated by lawyer. Similar to Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” or Haruki Murakami’s short story “The Seventh Man,” a group of men are assembled and begin to tell each other personal stories, …
See today’s 3452 word Easter story at http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/058.html Travis Review What excellent timing for this review to fall on Easter weekend. It was purely by chance. This first person account of a river crossing in order to attend Easter festivities is full of atmosphere that seems more creepy than celebratory. I’m not sure if Chekhov intended …
Find today’s 2522 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/057.html Travis Review: In this story, Chekhov writes a great character study of self-delusion. A hypersensitive, love drunk man of letters with a booming ego gives a first person account of his life from the ecstasy of writing a love letter to the present, his wedding night. It is …
Find today’s 1200 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/056.html Travis Review: Grisha is two years and eight months of age. This is not the first time we’ve read a Chekhov story about a young child, but this by far the youngest so far. Everything we see is through Grisha’s eyes and his limited knowledge and vocabulary. It seems …