Find today’s 2859 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/154.html Travis Review This is one of my favorite stories. It is the story that turned me onto Chekhov many years ago. It is a mixture of many great things. It’s an intellectual argument about the cruelty of imprisonment as well as a the futility of money and pursuing knowledge without …
Find today’s 2662 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/153.html Today’s fantasy story is quite funny. We have a poor cobbler who feels persecuted by the weight of his poverty and constant humiliation. At first Fydor comes off like a cantankerous, petty fool, but when he walks out on the street he is teased by the public. “Students, officers, …
Find this 8887 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/152.html Travis review: This six part story concerns law student with acute empathy who is taken out by his friends for a night of debauchery in the Moscow red light district. Vassilyev’s hyper-empathy causes personal distress as he tries to unsuccessfully relate to the fallen women creating an emotional tailspin. It …
Find today’s 12808 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/151.html Travis review: Today’s story concerns an unhappily married couple celebrating the husband’s names day party. The point of view is from the exhausted, pregnant wife who internally fumes at her husband while trying to maintain a cheerful, happy demeanor. There are probably dozens of reasons for it, but …
Find today’s 3356 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/150.html Travis review Chekhov’s 150th story deals with a man reminiscing about his two encounters with perfected human beauty and effect that it has on himself and men. At this point in Chekhov’s writing, he puts in many details about the environment including clothes, the weather and the minute …
Please find today’s 15,773 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/149.html Travis review: We’ve been hit with back to back long story. Although a half the size of “The Steppe,” this story still took time to read. The point of “Lights,” at least from the engineer Ananyev, concerns a philosophical argument about the importance of living an engaged …
Today’s novella comes in at 39,155 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/148.html Travis review: This review took longer to come out than others. Not only was I traveling over the weekend (and have 7 out of the last 8 this summer which has affected the consistency of daily reviews), but the length of this story is tremendous compared to the …
Find today’s 2327 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/147.html Travis review: This is ranks as one of Chekhov’s darkest stories. Perhaps the darkest of all as child abuse and sleep deprivation lead to horrible outcomes. Chekhov does a great job mixing Varka’s family situation that got her into such a horrible job through hallucinogenic dreams. I also see …
Find today’s 1673 word story: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/146.html Travis Review: This story reminds me of early Chekhov works where the twist at the end comes out like a punchline. That being said, there is a difference in his simpler early work and the detailed descriptions and layers of psychology in his later comical pieces. Although not nuanced, …
Find Chekhov’s last story (1762 words) from 1887 here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/145.html Travis review I could be wrong, but I believe this is the first time that Chekhov has written in the first person from a woman’s perspective. Most of his story’s are third person, the last first person POV was the Notes From the Underground send-up, story …