Today’s story is 1611 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/024.html Travis Review: Today we have the first instance of Chekhov’s gun, and in a play too! Alcohol again causes calamity in a hotel. This time, Murkin, a piano tuner, finds that his boots are missing. Calling on the attendant who had “had a drop,” they discover the boots are in …
Today’s story comes in at 1358 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/022.html Travis Review: Small Fry is not a great story. A lowly civil servant has to work on Easter eve while the rest of the town is out celebrating and feels awful about it. An alternate title could be “Fear and Self-Loathing in a Government Office.” It’s not …
Find today’s 1568 word classic here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/020.html Travis Review: Story number 20 is a classic. I read it over 15 years ago and even though I knew what was going happen, it still packed a punch. Stories like this are why I love Chekhov’s works. So many elements are at play here: physically and emotional …
Here is today’s 1390 word story: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/018.html Travis Review Like yesterday’s story, Minds In Ferment, a quiet day on the square erupts into a big scene with citizens throwing accusations and opinions. In this case, a man chases and corners a dog that bit him. The chameleon of the story is police superintendent Otchumyelov. The story becomes a farcical …
Today’s 1360 word story comes parenthetically from From The Annals Of A Town. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/017.html Travis Review: Today’s story could have been a scene from The Simpsons. Two men walking in an outdoor market stop and stare at a cloud of starlings, debating whose gardens they landed in, and nearly cause a town riot. (Here is …
Today’s story is around 1500 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/013.html Travis Review: We have another overly excited character, overreacting to a situation and being worse off for it. What’s interesting is that Chekov ends the story as a whodunit. Asking the readers to solve the slanderer mystery. I’m not sure if there is an answer, but I’m thinking …
Find today’s 1562 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/012.html Travis Review: It seems like young Chekhov went to the bird market in Trubnoy Square with a pen and paper, and wrote down his observations. There is no plot, just meandering conversations from bird, fish, and rabbit sellers and buyers to a footman trying to hock a lapdog for …
Next up is Fat and Thin. A flash story just under 800 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/010.html Travis Review: What a difference a person’s title makes as we see it today’s story. We are now on the 10th story and I’m seeing patterns in Chekhov’s stories, especially the small ones. It is like Chekhov is painting little portraits of Russian people …
Here is today’s 1600 word story, http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/008.html. Travis review: Tonight is the official opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Foreigners across the globe have traveled to the Russian resort city to compete or watch the games. In this story we have an English woman married to a stout and opinionated landowner. I …
Here is a 2000 word story. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/007.html Travis review: This is the first Chekhov story to use first person narration exclusively (A Living Chattel slipped into it at the end) and there is also a paragraph that drops into second person. The atmosphere of this tale is his most gothic so far. The story concerns an …