The Prank

“Misbehavior” is the first collection of humorous stories by A.P. Chekhov, prepared in 1882. It consisted of 12 stories, but it was never published.

The stories were written even back in the “period of literary apprenticeship.” Two copies of the collection are known, but without title pages, the last pages, and the table of contents. For this edition, the writer’s brother and artist N.P. Chekhov made illustrations. The writer’s brother and biographer M.P. Chekhov recalled that the book was printed, bound, and illustrated, but without a cover. However, he didn’t know why the collection didn’t see the light of day.

According to the censors’ documents from 1882, the collection’s original title was “The Mischief-makers and the Benign-minded,” but later it was renamed “Misbehavior.” Despite corrections and revisions, the first Chekhov story collection was never published for censorship reasons.

Before the collection, most of the stories had already been published in weekly papers and newspapers “Strekoza,” “Minute,” and others in 1880–1882. The later story “Flying Islands” appeared in the satirical weekly “Budilnik” in 1883 with the signature “A. Chekhonte.” The story “Wives of Artists” from the collection “Misbehavior” was later published in the collection “Tales of Melpomene,” in the 1884 edition.

The writer aimed to realize himself in the short story form—which was reflected in collections like “Misbehavior” and “Tales of Melpomene.” The collection “Misbehavior” is written as a parody. It concentrates material that satisfies the ideological and artistic unity characteristic of Chekhov, which was typical when compiling other story collections in the 1880s.