Fifty-Two Stories (Vintage Classics)

In a distinguished joint career, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have gifted us with more than 20 books translated from the Russian of Bulgakov, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Leskov, Pasternak, Pushkin, and Tolstoy. (Pevear on his own has also translated from the French. His translation of Dumas’ THE THREE MUSKETEERS enabled me to grasp all the rich comedy I of course missed in that classic as a boy.)Now this indispensable couple have given us new translations of FIFTY-TWO STORIES by Anton Chekhov. 52 — “a perfect deck,” as Pevear observes in his preface. For a stellar year, you might read one story each week.From his 1887 story “The Siren”: “A local justice of the peace, Milkin, a young man with a languid, melancholy face, reputed to be a philosopher, displeased with his milieu and seeking a purpose in life, stood by the window and looked sorrowfully outside.” In stark contrast, the fat main character in the same story rhapsodizes at length on the glories of eating and describes a lavish meal in detail: “ … homemade honey spiced vodka is better than any champagne. After the first glass, your whole soul is engulfed in a sort of fragrant mirage and it seems that you’re not at home in your armchair, but somewhere in Australia on some sort of ultrasoft ostrich.” (I wondered what “ultrasoft” was in the original Russian and was pretty sure careful time was spent arriving at a serviceable equivalent — not recognized, I happily note, by SpellCheck.)Perhaps the most unusual story in the collection, seeming a children’s story until it begins to deepen, is “Kashtanka,” in which half the characters are animals. I know there are folks who tell us we should never call anything perfect, but Chekhov’s portrayal of a goose tempts me to go ahead and make the claim.Nowhere is Chekhov’s handling of the effects of social disparities more effective than in the final story in the collection, “The New Dacha.” Here’s a passage from that story that will give you a sense of the heft and sparkle of Chekhov’s language as translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky:“On a clear, warm morning at the end of May, two horses were brought to Rodion Petrov, the Obruchanovo blacksmith, to be reshod. They were from the New Dacha. The horses were white as snow, sleek, well-fed, and strikingly resembled each other.“ ‘Perfect swans!’ Rodion exclaimed, looking at them in awe.“His wife Stepanida, his children and grandchildren came outside to look. A crowd gradually gathered. The Lychkovs came, father and son, both beardless from birth, with swollen faces and hatless. Kozov also came, a tall, skinny old man with a long, narrow beard and a stick with a crook; he kept winking his sly eyes and smiling mockingly as if he knew something.”Ubiquitous themes in Chekhov are boredom, frustration and exhaustion, but his stories are never boring, frustrating or exhausting because his attention to details of character and place is so sharp. He is one of the most compassionate writers we’ve ever had among us, and even the weakest of his stories is an earnest undertaking to understand.I can’t improve upon Pevear’s eloquent closing paragraph in his preface: “In his stories, Chekhov does what storytellers have always done: he satirizes human pretensions and absurdities, he plays out the comedy of human contradictions, and ultimately, even in the darkest of them, he celebrates natural and human existence in all its conditional variety.”Even by todays’s low standards, the physical production of the book is impressive — no surprise with a book coming from the distinguished imprint of Knopf. The striking dust jacket design by John Gall features what I take to be printers’ devices of the period.On the rear flyleaf of the book, we get that endearing photograph of the translators in their home in France, a photograph that welcomely started appearing in their books about halfway through their career. Looking at it once more, I can just hear Volokhonsky: “Oh, Richard, that paragraph is so good. You deserve a glass of armagnac. Let me get it for you, and I believe I’ll have one myself.” I wish I were there to raise a toast to them.

Love the selection they made of Chekhov's short stories. My review is of the KINDLE EDITION: it's great. Nothing wrong with it. If you like e-books and would like to read Chekhov, go and get one.

Unlike a lot of short fiction collections this one has no bad stories and most if not all of his classics are here. As usual the translators provide ample footnotes to explain Russian cultural items, I highly recommend this book.

Stories are too short. You never know the point

Chekhov is still the best short story writers. He's aged well.These latest translations are very good. If you want to see how translations of Chekhov vary (an interesting way to spend one's reading time) take a look at the Norton Critical Edition, "Anton Chekhov's Selected Stories". There you'll find Pevear et al. with a half dozen or more other translators.

The dust jacket is among the most artful I've seen: a thick wrapper; a pleasing, understated design with incuse lettering, as though the letters had been engraved into the jacket; and balanced geometrical forms, the whole of which yields a unique cover that makes the book a pleasure to see, to hold, and to read. The book itself has the roughly cut pages that many people prefer to the standard book block. Thus, an A+ for the book designer.The only problem for me is the book's author. Chekhov's stories drip with mocking cynicism. He seems to enjoy making fun of people, satirizing their foibles and pretensions, and glorying in their innocent foolishness like the brilliant class wit who is contemptuous of his intellectual inferiors. Yes, life is hard, we all make fools of ourselves and are guilty of petty pretensions, we all say and do things we sometimes regret, but we forge on as best we can, trying to make a small place for ourselves and to maintain a shred of dignity in an often complex and confusing environment into which we are ushered with neither our consent nor our comprehension. In Chekhov's world are only simpletons and preening dupes with no redeeming characteristics. The man might have been a little more forgiving.

First of all, the 'paper' of the pages is a thin newsprint-type quality. I thought Vintage Books would do better. A Chekhov compilation usually stays in a personal library so this edition seems slapdash. At least the margins are generous. Clearly it was shrunk from a hardback edition; the type is small.Next, check the table of contents if you are looking for a specific story. This DOES NOT have any of the classic short stories and frankly, that is not clear in the book details. I thought it would be an edition of 'complete' stories, but in fact it is just another selected grouping. You might want to consider the 4.99 Kindle edition of the "Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov" from the same translators.

Great collection. Great writer. Starts w his early stuff and goes forward. Doesn’t overlap with the 30 story collection I have by these translators. Pevear and Volokhonsky are the greatest translators of Russian lit. If you compare stories w other translators, you see it.

Poor translation. Odd words used, making the stories difficult to read. What is meant by the word 'icon' in these translations? A looser translation and replacing peoples names with English ones would have made the stories so much easier to read. The text has clearly not been edited by a native English speaker. Some people may consider this good writing, but these stories don't make relaxing tea break or bed time reading! I was buying this for a friend whose native language is not English, but, as a native English reader, I find these tales difficult to read and understand, so the book won't be passed on.

Finally! So many of Chekhov’s stories in one book and by the best translators! Highly recommended

Beautiful book. High quality paper.

nice edition

I bought this book because it was translated by Peaver and Volokhonsky, so it's is plus at that.Offline you will find it in books shops for around Rs. 900 to 1000 but found it in a good deal over here, at just less than Rs. 600, so would say a good deal indeed.But then the cover is made of a papery material, not the glossy one, so the ink of the design is kinda ( as you can see in the pictures) fading away. The corners are also scuffed but not heavily.The pages are crisp and thick and the font is not at all teasing the eyes. Overall a good deal if you don't mind the cover part of the deal.