Selected Stories

“Everything about this would be funny, if it weren’t so sad”—this is perhaps the concise and accurate description of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s brilliant short stories, the greatest writer, publicist, and playwright. His works are marked by delicate humor, biting sarcasm, and yet, tender—almost to the point of gentleness—sensitivity to every human emotion. But the writer’s irony does not conceal the grayness and hopelessness of his characters’ lives. As Anton Pavlovich himself wrote: “...a person will become better when you show him what he is like.”