Today’s story is a mere 1510 words: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/021.html Travis Review: This story felt like an Irish wake once the men started sneaking off to the cloak room to get a nip of booze in a teetotaler’s house. The result reminded me of The Pogues’ Body of An American, especially how song’s opening somber notes pick …
Find today’s 1568 word classic here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/020.html Travis Review: Story number 20 is a classic. I read it over 15 years ago and even though I knew what was going happen, it still packed a punch. Stories like this are why I love Chekhov’s works. So many elements are at play here: physically and emotional …
Relatively short story today at 884 words: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/019.html Travis Review: I saw this as a cautionary tale told from a graveyard. In one case, a person in the narrator’s party stumbles and catches himself on a titular counselor’s grave marker cross. The man had died in an accident, “a victim to his habits of observation.” Like …
Here is today’s 1390 word story: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/018.html Travis Review Like yesterday’s story, Minds In Ferment, a quiet day on the square erupts into a big scene with citizens throwing accusations and opinions. In this case, a man chases and corners a dog that bit him. The chameleon of the story is police superintendent Otchumyelov. The story becomes a farcical …
Today’s 1360 word story comes parenthetically from From The Annals Of A Town. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/017.html Travis Review: Today’s story could have been a scene from The Simpsons. Two men walking in an outdoor market stop and stare at a cloud of starlings, debating whose gardens they landed in, and nearly cause a town riot. (Here is …
Another short short with only 763 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/016.html Travis Review: Today’s story feels like a companion piece to yesterday’s The Choristers. This time though, the point of view changes to the ruling class after a jubilee in a small town. In this case Zhmyhov (aka His Excellency, aka actual civil councillor) is genuinely driven to tears …
Today’s story is a short one at 1802 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/015.html Travis Review: This reminded me of the movie “Waiting For Guffman.” A town is thrown into a tizzy by the expected arrival of a count. Details are given to the music selections and the stress the choir master feels, including his rivalry with the deacon. …
Today’s story is a bit longer at 7481 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/014.html Travis Review: The Swedish Match is written very much like a classic murder mystery story until Chekhov turns the plot convention on its head. I love the a sixty year old, cantankerous magistrate, Tchubikov, leading a murder investigation while maligning his harder working, more thorough twenty-six year …
Today’s story is around 1500 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/013.html Travis Review: We have another overly excited character, overreacting to a situation and being worse off for it. What’s interesting is that Chekov ends the story as a whodunit. Asking the readers to solve the slanderer mystery. I’m not sure if there is an answer, but I’m thinking …
Find today’s 1562 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/012.html Travis Review: It seems like young Chekhov went to the bird market in Trubnoy Square with a pen and paper, and wrote down his observations. There is no plot, just meandering conversations from bird, fish, and rabbit sellers and buyers to a footman trying to hock a lapdog for …