Today’s story, the last one written between 1882-1885, has 1524 words: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/041.html Travis Review: Chekhov starts today’s story as if he is writing a fantasy tale using elements of Lewis Carroll or the Brothers Grimm. Nellie, “a young and pretty girl, dreaming day and night of being married,” gazes into a looking-glass. In the mirror her …
Today’s story is 2015 words: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/040.html Travis Review: I was fairly disappointed with this story, expecting more. At first I thought this would be the story of an opera singer and her daughter reunited. Like Chekhov was going against type with a tale of a selfless diva. But the daughter never shows up again after …
Today’s story has 1233 words: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/039.html Travis Review: The motivation of today story reminds me of bad New Year’s resolutions. Often it’s not that the goal that is bad, but the administering of it sets one up for failure. When Podtyagin, a ticket collector on a train, decides to give up drinking and work honestly at his …
Find this 2370 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/038.html Travis Review: This story could be summarized as a life wasted. Unlike other peasants we’ve read about, (The Huntsman excluded) Grigory Petrov has a skill that is valued by others. His woodturning craftsmanship is squandered by drinking and quarreling. The story is told non-linearly through Grigory’s rambling as he madly races through a blizzard …
Find today’s 2,200 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/037.html Travis Review: Another title could have been “Men Who Had Behaved Badly.” Uzelkov is an architect returning to his hometown after an 18-year absence. He finds much of the town has changed and he has almost been forgotten about. What is interesting is the man who does remember him, …
Today we have a story worth 1633 words: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/036.html Travis Review: Smirnov, a land surveyor, gets off a train and looks to hire a cab. Already he has apprehension on how long the journey will take based on a potential driver’s drunkenness and quality of the horse. When he is told he has to hire …
Today’s story has roughly 1470 words: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/035.html Travis Review: It seems Alphonse Champoun has it made. The native Frenchman no longer tutors the wealthy landlord Kamyshev’s children since they’ve grown up and are leading successful military careers. He gets paid to “be properly dressed, to smell of scent, to listen to Kamyshev’s idle babble, to eat and …
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Anton wanted to dress appropriately for the holiday. Our story today contains roughly 1909 words: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/034.html Travis Review: This story is seen through the eyes of Grisha, a “solemn little person of seven.” He watches in horror over a series of days as an arranged marriage of his family’s house cook …
Find today’s 1887 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/033.html Travis Review: Today’s story, has two men “performing one of the most disagreeable and uninviting of peasants’ duties.” They are in the woods freezing and watching over a corpse. One is young and other is an old simpleton with a “goat beard.” The young man humiliates his companion’s intelligence, which seem to …
Find this 1500 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/032.html Travis review: Today’s story is a character study of a bully. Stepan Stepanitch is wealthy, pompous, and a coward who attacks everybody weaker than him. If he wakes up in a “gloomy state of mind” after losing at cards or suffering from dyspepsia after a night of drinking, there will …