#141 In Trouble

Find today’s 2503 word story here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/141.html Travis review: Today’s story reminds me of a scandal that broke out in a Los Angeles suburb, The City of Bell. Avdeyev is a merchant and a bank auditor, although he signs papers he doesn’t read and even admitted to overhearing the arrested managers of the failed bank bragging about …

#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 …

#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 …

#050 Ivan Matveyitch

Our fiftieth reviewed story comes in at 2236 words. Find it here: http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/050.html Travis Review: Today’s story about a procrastinating intellectual and his dense protégé makes me wonder if Chekhov was writing about himself in an abstract way. The “fairly well-known man of learning” tells his wife he’s going to fire his assistant, Ivan Matveyitch. …

#031 A Malefactor

Today’s story is 1543 words. http://www.chekhovshorts.com/stories/031.html Travis Review: Denis Grigoryev is a peasant who is woefully impoverished and in horrible health, but that’s not his biggest problem. His problem is that he is not very bright. He cannot understand why he is being brought up on charges of sabotage (or ” Article 1081 of the Penal Code”). He …