Describe Books During The Complete Short Novels
| ISBN: | 140003292X (ISBN13: 9781400032921) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Anton Chekhov
Paperback | Pages: 548 pages Rating: 4.47 | 10909 Users | 144 Reviews
Define Containing Books The Complete Short Novels
| Title | : | The Complete Short Novels |
| Author | : | Anton Chekhov |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 548 pages |
| Published | : | August 18th 2005 by Vintage Classics (first published 1896) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. Russia. Classics. Short Stories. Literature. Russian Literature |
Relation In Favor Of Books The Complete Short Novels
Anton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels. Here, brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The Steppe—the most lyrical of the five—is an account of a nine-year-old boy’s frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia. The Duel sets two decadent figures—a fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibility—on a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant. In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor. The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov’s work. (Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) From the Hardcover edition.Rating Containing Books The Complete Short Novels
Ratings: 4.47 From 10909 Users | 144 ReviewsJudge Containing Books The Complete Short Novels
I thoroughly enjoyed these five short novels and highly recommend them for anyone interested in Russian literature from the late 1800's. The new translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky is masterful. With the exception of The Steppe - which is a lovely story of a young boy who accompanies his uncle on a thousand mile journey across the steppe, all the other novels involve the exploration of love, relationships and the complexity of navigating through the changes that were taking place inAs good as it gets. I read the Constance Garnett translations but I would think it would be impossible to tarnish these in translation (they're also available free online, I believe). They're all worth reading, as are all the stories Chekhov wrote from 1888 to 1904 (I just finished a major binge). My favorites: The Steppe (amazing, like a Russian Italian Western), The Duel, Ward No. 6, In the Ravine, Gusev, Misery, Sorrow, Sleepy, The Lady with a Dog, The Student, etc.
The Steppe [1888]A long and masterful story in which Chekhov revisits the Ukrainian and South-Russian steppes of his boyhood summer holidays; he was inspired by a trip back to his hometown of Taganrog in 1887. The story is saturated with landscape, with the immense plains and the mysteries they harbored: from the coarse grass to ancient burial places and menhirs, windmills, water-towers, and Cossacks and Ukrainian peasants. The story is slight: a boy travels through the seemingly endless steppe
Second reading. This is a collection of novellas. My Life: A Provincial's Story is a brilliant, deeply impressive, story. Its structure is perfect, its characterizations deft, spot on, its descriptive passages vivid, tactile, redolent. Set in 1890 or so it's narrated by a young man, Misail, a noble, who has this highly romanticized notion of manual labor. (Based in part on Kropotkin's theories of cooperative evolutionary relationships. See Mutual Aid.) His contempt for so-called intellectual
I never give five stars but made an exception for this collection. Part of it may be due to the unaccustomed format; not short story, not full length novel. The stories focus on a brief timeframe but add depth that cannot be included in a shorter composition. I am a huge Chekhov fan and this is truly wonderful storytelling.
NOTE: Out of the novellas in this collection, I've only read The DuelistI'm taking a class where we read both the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation (this edition) and the translation by Constance Garnett. Everyone in the class preferred the Garnett translation! She does a better job capturing the poetry and the humor of the original; P&V's translation may stick closer to the literal Russian, but 9 times out of 10 when Garnett renders a phrase more loosely it reads more naturally in English
Chekhov is the master of the Russian "minimalist" short story. The story that I liked most, "In Exile" is a dialogue between a young Tartar and an older man, Semyon nicknamed the "Preacher." Both are sentenced, and living in Siberia. Semyon tries to encourage the young Tartar to accept his lot, that it is best to be content and not fight what fate has brought into a man's life. And is this not truly a story of life, and life's struggles? Who is wise? Is it the one who challenges fate or the one
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