2012-09-18

Anton Chekhov - early writing (up to 1885)

I've tried to collect some information on Chekhov's earlier stories. If you now more, please email me or add to the comments. There are a lot of blank spaces here:-(




Short stories


Plot summaries of the early 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




1883


  • "The Bird Market"


    Text:
    http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13417
  • "The Daughter of Albion"

    Summary:
    A landowner goes fishing with his children's nanny, who does not speak Russian. A friend of the landowner
    shows up and the landowner berates his children's nanny endlessly. Whn his hook gets stuck on a log
    in the river, he decides to strip completely, swim out to free his hook, and return to the riverbank to fish.


    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"

    This appears in "Early Stories" and in "Chekhov: the comic stories".

    Summary:
    A passionate lawyer gives an emotional plea for his client's innocence. This causes his client to get emotional as well, and he confesses.

  • "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).


    Text:
    http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414

  • "Rapture"

    Summary:
    A young man excitedly describes to his family some news about him which will appear in a local newspaper. He family got caught up in the excitement until it is revealed to be an accident report where his injury was described as "superficial."

    Text:
    In "Early Stories" (transl. by P. Miles and H. Pitcher), Oxford Univ. Press, 1982. Also in "Chekhov, the comic stories."

  • "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:
    This is a mystery, solved when the clue of a Swedish match is tracked down. It turns out, the man was not a victim of foul-play, but instead ran away to his (married) girl-friend's garden shed, where stays drunk but he keeps a low profile. See also
    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


    Characters:
    • Mark Ivanovitch Klyauzov (the "victim")
    • Police superintendent of the district, Yevgraf Kuzmitch
    • Psyekov, Klyauzov's steward
    • Yefrem, Klyauzov's gardener
    • Nikolay Yermolaitch Tchubikov, examining magistrate
    • Dyukovsky, assistant, and secretary to Tchubikov
    • Artsybashev-Svistakovsky, the police captain
    • Dr. Tyutyuev
    • Akulka, a cook who has slept with most of the men
    • Nikolashka Tetchov, servant of Klyauzov
    • Marya Ivanovna, Klyauzov's sister
    • Danilko, a shepherd
    • Olga Petrovna, wife of police superintendent Kuzmitch

    Plot: Psyekov goes to the police station to report to Kuzmitch that Klyauzov has been murdered. The police go to Klyauzov's manor, break down the bedroom door to discover a little blood, signs that someone climbed through the (first floor) bedroom window, and a "Swedish match". They go to the garden outside Klyauzov's bedroom window and discover more blood and dragging marks indicating a body was dragged away. They interview some servants and the sister. Except for the sister, who is crazy, no one remembers anything because they were all drunk. The cook, Akulka, is apparently an attractive young local woman who slept with almost all the men, and the police suspect a fight over her favors. Eventually, the police arrest both Psyekov and Nikolashka and charge them with murder. Over a week goes by. Dyukovsky happens to find a clue, The person who bought the Swedish matches, which were unusual at the time, was Olga Petrovna, wife of police superintendent Kuzmitch. Dyukovsky convinces Tchubikov to go with him to question her. They convince her that they know what she has done (which is a lie) and to confess. She shows them to a large garden shed in her large backyard, where Klyauzov is sleeping. He is Olga's lover and she decided to take him home one night after he got very drunk in his bedroom. He decided to stay in her garden shed for a few weeks, to be closer to her. Supplied with plenty of alchohol and food, he was happy until the police arrived. However, he agrees to finally go home.

    Questions: Who is Nana?
  • "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.

  • "A woman without prejudices"

    Note:
    Missing from Wikipedia.

    Summary:
    A man embarrassed of his past falls in love and marries. On his wedding night, he confesses that he was once a clown. His new wife loves him even more, to his surprise and happiness.

    Text:
    In "Chekhov, the comic stories".

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

  • "After the Fair"

    Text:
    See After the Fair.

  • "The Complaints Book"

    Summary:
    Story about a book inside a railway station designed for the stationmaster to make notes on lost luggage, etc. Instead, it is filled with silly notes.

    Text:
    In "Early Stories" (transl. by P. Miles and H. Pitcher), Oxford Univ. Press, 1982. Also in "Chekhov, the comic stories".

  • "Choristers"


    Text:
    http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414

  • "A Dreadful Night"

    Summary:
    A fellow renting a room in a large house goes out to a seance. When he returns, there is a coffin in his room. He suspects evil spirits until he discovers a hand-written note inside the coffin written by a friend. The friend's father is a coffin maker and wants the fellow to store it for a week.

    Text:
    In "Early Stories" (transl. by P. Miles and H. Pitcher), Oxford Univ. Press, 1982. Also in "Chekhov, the comic stories."

  • "In the Graveyard"


    Text:
    http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412
  • "In a Strange Land"

    Text:
    http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13412

  • "He quarrelled with his wife: an Incident"

    Summary:
    A man has an argument with his wife and goes to bed. He hears the door open and thinks she has returned, wanting to be forgiven. It was the dog.

    Text:
    This appears in "Chekhov: the comic stories".

  • "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


    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

  • "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.

    Text:
    In "Early Stories" (transl. by P. Miles and H. Pitcher), Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.

  • "The Looking Glass"

    Text:
    http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13409
  • "Mari d'Elle"

    Text:
    http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13414
  • "The Malefactor [The Culprit]"

    Text:
    In "Early Stories" (transl. by P. Miles and H. Pitcher), Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.

  • "A Man of Ideas"

    Text:
    In "Early Stories" (transl. by P. Miles and H. Pitcher), Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.

  • "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

  • "Notes from the memoirs of a man of ideals"

    Missing form Wikipedia.

    Summary:
    A man rents a vacation for a month from a very charming lady. They seem to agree on 25 rubles for th month. In the end, she charges for coffee, servant duties, vodka, and so on, increasing the final bill by almost 10-fold.

    Text:
    In "Chekhov, the comic stories".

  • "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.

    Text:
    In "Early Stories" (transl. by P. Miles and H. Pitcher), Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.

  • "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 relief when they find that the other 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" who makes good and is elected Village Elder. Not wanting this position of responsibility, he does all he can to be discharged.

Plays


Plot summaries of the early plays of Anton Chekhov.

1881 That Worthless Fellow Platonov
Note: Also known as Platonov.


Novellas


Plot summaries of the early 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


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.
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