#176 A Head Gardener’s Story

You can find today’s 1925 word short story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/176.html Travis review: First off, I hope everybody Merry Christmas. This is a story within a story about forgiveness and tolerance. About the “faith in humanity” that a community had for the murderer of beloved man. The story starts off after a jury acquitted a man because …

#175 At A Country House

Find today’s 3342 short story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/175.html Travis review: Rashevitch is an egotistical motormouth who can’t help himself from taking up an intellectual argument and exhausting it to the point that nothing but ill-will is left from his listeners. He has alienated all of his neighbors and townsfolk, earning the nickname “toad.” It happens that Meier …

#174 The Teacher of Literature

Today’s 9145 word story can be found here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/174.html Travis review: Today’s story can be framed as a young schoolteacher who pulled himself up from poverty and marries into a wealthy family only have his optimistic, happy nature turn into existential turmoil when he learns he might not have been a master of his own fate. …

#173 The Student

Find today’s 1506 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/173.html Travis review: In today’s story a young student talks with two widows, a mother and a daughter, and by discussing the apostle Peter’s three denials of Christ, the older woman cries. The student walks away with the idea that “The past is linked with the present by an …

#172 Rothschild’s Fiddle

Please find today’s 4,117 word story here http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/172.html Travis review: Today’s story has antisemitism, misogyny, complete misanthropy and in the end regret. Yakov Ivanov embodies self-loathing at it’s worst. He is a miserly, miserable undertaker. Chekhov sets the tone with this great opening line:  “The town was a little one, worse than a village, and …

#171 A Woman’s Kingdom

Please find today’s 16,216 word novelette story here http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/171.html Travis review: Anna Akimovna is a frustrating character. Because she is in a unique position of power and resources, she can change several of the situations that upset her. Anna is filled with insecurities and although she is aware of people cheating her and taking bribes at the expense of her …

#170 Black Monk

Today’s 12,823 word long short story can be found here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/170.htmlhttp://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/170.html Travis review:  This story is told in 9 chapters. It’s interesting that this rare supernatural tale about a “chosen one” not unlike popular culture’s archetypes Neo from The Matrix or Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker. Looking deeper into religious culture Moses, Jesus and Mohammed (who …

#169 The Two Volodyas

You can find today’s 4670 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/169.html Travis review Chekhov works an interesting four character strategy in this story. (I’m not including the fifth wheel Rita since she provides cynical commentary without participation in the antics.) There are two men and two women. Olga, a nun, and Colonel Yagitch are from an older …

#168 An Anonymous Story

Find today’s 30,510 word novella here http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/168.html Travis review: This story feels like a 19th century French bildungsroman with Chekhov’s touch. In 18 chapters we follow a would-be revolutionary hampered with consumption who takes on the job of a manservant for the son of a hated government official. He watches as his master who has means and intelligence, …