Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. A Collection of Stories. The Fifth.

“The Novel with a Double Bass”, “A Vaudeville”, “A Passenger in the First Class”, “It Was Her!”, “Thick and Thin”, “The Only Remedy”.
“ The Novel with a Double Bass ” (1886) — a comic story by A. P. Chekhov about the musician Smychkov: on his way to the dacha, he decides to go swimming in a river, but ends up without his clothes—someone steals them. In order not to be seen by people, the hero hides in the case of his own double bass, and this leads him into a chain of ridiculous incidents that culminate in an especially awkward climax when he meets the woman he has feelings for.
“Vaudeville”: The story takes the reader to the dacha, where the owner, Osip Fedorovich Klochkov, reads to his guests a vaudeville of his own composition. In this play, the characters include Yasnosedtsev, his family, his boss—State Councillor Kleshchev—and Kleshchev’s daughter, Liza. The plot is built on a series of comic misunderstandings: lines and events keep going awry due to everyday trifles such as the smell of roast goose, as well as due to the sudden “entrance” into the action of unrelated characters—a doctor and a private bailiff—turning the reading into a laughable commotion.