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, I’ve included a tentative schedule for the series. Chekhov’s stories, regardless of their brevity, open large horizons. They engage with seemingly simple matters … like work, class, vanity, habit, illness, 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.
March 2026
- Mar 3 — The Death of a Clerk
- Mar 6 — Small Fry
- Mar 10 — The Huntsman
- Mar 13 — The Malefactor
- Mar 17 — Panikhida
May 2026
- May 15 — Anyuta
- May 22 — Easter Night
- May 29 — Vanka
June 2026
- Jun 5 — Sleepy
- Jun 12 — A Boring Story
- Jun 19 — Gusev
- Jun 26 — Peasant Women
July 2026
- Jul 3 — The Fidget
- Jul 10 — In Exile
- Jul 17 — Ward No. 6
- Jul 24 — The Black Monk
- Jul 31 — Rothschild’s Fiddle
August 2026
- Aug 7 — The Student
- Aug 14 — Anna on the Neck
- Aug 21 — The House with the Mezzanine
- Aug 28 — The Man in a Case
September 2026
- Sep 4 — Gooseberries
- Sep 11 — A Medical Case
- Sep 18 — The Darling
- Sep 25 — On Official Business
October 2026
- Oct 2 — The Lady with the Little Dog
- Oct 9 — At Christmastime
- Oct 16 — In the Ravine
- Oct 23 — The Bishop
- Oct 30 — The Fiancée