#167 Terror

Find today’s 5,034 word short story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/167.html Travis review: This story is a bit disappointing considering the expectations that come with a title like “Terror.” On the surface, this could be seen as a tale about two close, intellectual friends who have chosen different career paths and the stronger one takes the weaker man’s wife. …

#160 The Duel

Find today’s 40,842 word novel here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/160.html Travis review: In The Duel, Chekhov tries to cram all of humanity into a single novella and largely succeeds. Like Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, well realized characters representing different sides of Russian culture are presented, but with less words than Chekhov’s contemporaries. Set in a small seaside town, Chekhov …

#159 Peasant Wives

Find today’s 5840 word story here:  http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/159.html Travis Review:  I’m not sure if this would be considered an example of history repeating itself or how the repetitive nature of circumstance causes similar reactions. Chekhov sets up the tale with two powerful men talking. Dyudya is a local peasant who has become prosperous and Matvey Savitch is merchant …

#133 An Avenger

Find today’s 1841 story here:  http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/133.html Travis review: Today’s story is a black comedy. The premise is simple, a cuckolded husband plans to purchase a gun to kill his wife, her lover, and himself. Chekhov pens some of his most graphic lines as Fyodor enters the gun shop  “…but already in imagination he saw three bloodstained …

#054 Agafya

Find today’s 4182 word story here http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/054.html Travis Review:  This sad tale of adultery seems to hold a universal truth about some women’s attraction to condescending, scornful men. I was under the impression that what I’ve personally witnessed has been more of a late twentieth century American phenomenon, but the nineteenth century Russia also had cads …