Harrison Demchick’s on Screenwriting

Harrison Demchick gave a screenwriting presentation titled “From Book to Script to Movie” at the Maryland Writers’ Association Conference October 20, 2012 in Baltimore. He won the 2011 Baltimore Screenwriters Competition and has had one of his screenplays optioned. He is the author of forthcoming novel The Listeners (Bancroft Press, 2012) and works as a developmental editor with Writer's Ally, a creative services boutique. For more on Harrison Demchick, see harrisondemchick.com.

Anton Chekhov - Stories from 1889-1893

This post gives a summary of the stories, novellas (if any) and plays of Anton Chekhov from 1889 to 1893. If you know of things which should be added, please let me know.

Short stores

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
  
  
• "A Dreary Story"
  
  Text:
  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1883
  
  

1890

• "Gusev"
  
  Note:
  Also "Goussiev"
  
  Summary:
  http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=183
  
  
  Text:
  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27411
  
  
  
  This is one of my favorites!
  
• "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
  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.
  
  
• "The Two Volodyas"
  
  Summary:
  http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=958
  
  Text:
  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13416
  
  

Novella

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

Plays

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
  
  

References

[C] A. Chekhov

• biography on Wikipedia
  
• bibliography on Wikipedia
  
• Short story list on Wikipedia
  
• text of stories of Anton Chekhov on gutenberg.org
  

[Y] Avrahm Yarmolinsky (translator and editor), The Unknown Chekhov, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
[Y'] Avrahm Yarmolinsky (Introduction), The Portable Chekhov, Penguin, 1977.

Anton Chekhov - Stories from 1888

This post gives a summary of the stories, novellas (if any) and plays of Anton Chekhov from 1888. If you know of things which should be added, please let me know.

Short stories

• "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
  
  
  
• "No Comment"
  
  Text in "Early Stories".
  
  
• "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
  
  
  
• "Sleepy"
  
  Note:
  Also, "Let me Sleep".
  
  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.
  
  
  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
  
  
  

Plays

• 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
  
  

Novellas

• The Steppe
  
  Text:
  http://www.online-literature.com/donne/1249/
  
  Summary:
  http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section12.rhtml
  
  

References

[C] A. Chekhov

• biography on Wikipedia
  
• bibliography on Wikipedia
  
• Short story list on Wikipedia
  
• text of stories of Anton Chekhov on gutenberg.org
  

[Y] Avrahm Yarmolinsky (translator and editor), The Unknown Chekhov, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
[Y'] Avrahm Yarmolinsky (Introduction), The Portable Chekhov, Penguin, 1977.