Starting this week, I’ve begun a reading project focused on Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The plan is to read slowly and post a short video commentary on each story. I announced the plan last week in this video.
Below is the list of the stories/videos to be included in this series. Chekhov’s short stories, regardless of their brevity, can be incredibly impactful. They engage with seemingly simple matters … like work, class, vanity, habit, friendship, illness, mortality, tenderness, and they foreground the strangeness of ordinary life. With this project, I intend to stay close to the text, keep a record of my responses over time, and perhaps encourage others to share theirs. If you’re even mildly interested, I’d encourage you to get a copy of this collection and join me in reading and thinking through it.
- Anyuta
- Easter Night
- Vanka
- Sleepy
- A Boring Story
- Gusev
- Peasant Women
- The Fidget
- In Exile
- Ward No. 6
- The Black Monk
- Rothschild’s Fiddle
- The Student
- Anna on the Neck
- The House with the Mezzanine
- The Man in a Case
- Gooseberries
- A Medical Case
- The Darling
- On Official Business
- The Lady with the Little Dog
- At Christmastime
- In the Ravine
- The Bishop
- The Fiancée