#108 A Bad Business

You can find today’s 2000 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/108.html Travis review There is a stereotype that security guards are not bright. There are many reasons for this, but one is that they protect wealthy people’s assets instead of making their own wealth. There are a few exceptions (Bill James), but the watchman in this story …

#107 A Defenceless Creature

Find today’s 1873 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/107.html Travis review This story reminds me of Chekhov’s earlier comical stories. The wife of a former collegiate assessor walks into a bank and demands the deducted pay of her terminated husband. For majority of the story, the specific reason Madam Shtchuki is there doesn’t matter plot-wise. What is important …

#106 Shrove Tuesday

Find today’s 1940 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/106.html Travis review This is a slice of life story told on a Shrove Tuesday. It starts with Pavel Vassilitch, the father of the house, waking up to the beckoning of his wife and ends with a hurried dinner before the fast. Chekhov throws in minutiae of the day including …

#105 Verotchka

Find today’s  5044 story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/105.html Travis review: Chekhov starts off this story with a man remembering a day in his past when he let love slip through his fingers. We don’t know how much time has passed from the present to the memory. Typically there is a clue, but nothing is really given except that …

#104 An Inadvertence

Find today’s 1563 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/104.html Travis review: This story is a hybrid of situation comedy and the movie D.O.A. Chekhov gives us a few interesting details about the protagonist, Pyotr. He is the nephew of a colonel’s widow, “the man whose new goloshes were stolen last year“, and a reader of “religious and edifying books” who leads …

#103 Drunk

Today’s story is 2359 words and can be found here:  http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/103.html Travis Review: This story could be summed up with the words “Money can’t buy happiness.” Frolov is a wealthy malcontent surrounded by sycophants. We watch him spend a night of debauchery in a restaurant with his lawyer as he insults the servers and destroys …

#102 Polinka

Find today’s story 1765 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/102.html Travis Review: Today’s story felt like a farcical stage play with characters loudly conducting normal business while having a serious conversation underneath. But in this case, Chekhov eschews the humor and goes with heavy drama. Polinka is described as “a thin, fair person.” I found it interesting that …

#101 Darkness

Find today’s 1622 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/101.html Travis Review: If it weren’t for the title of today’s story, I would have thought that the content was intended as a groan-worthy comedy. The plot concerns a young peasant boy desperately trying to get his blacksmith brother out of jail by appealing to anybody who seemed to have …

#100 Enemies

Today’s 100th installment comes in at 5604 words and can be found here:  http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/100.html Travis Review: Today’s 100th story is a dark and brutal tale that has a noir core. It is a tale of two men suffering losses and the tunnel vision it produces in each of them. In the case of the bereaving …

#099 The Beggar

Today’s story is 2132 words and can be found here:  http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/099.html Travis Review: Today’s story is about Skvortsov, a successful lawyer, challenging a young, drunken beggar he caught in a lie the opportunity to work for money. It seems that he is trying to impart a little of the mantra “Give a man a fish …