(P/B) THE COMIC STORIES

Παρουσίαση

By 1888, when he was twenty-eight, Anton Chekhov had published a staggering five hundred short works of fiction, about half of them comic stories and farces. Since then, it has been well documented that these early works, dashed off while he was "chasing two hares at once" - his medical career and his modest literary pursuits - were carried out largely to pay the bills, yet the young writer's desire to entertain is evident.
With a new introduction and thirteen new stories, this collection reflects a genius for comedy which is as fresh and entertaining now as it was then. Carefully selected and expertly translated by Harvey Pitcher, Chekhov: The Comic Stories encompasses fifty short stories ranging from simple sketches akin to verbal cartoons, to outrageous parodies and subversive short stories with ingenious comic twists at the end. Many of these stories anticipate the anti-authoritarian attitudes of Chekhov's later work, and his excursions into the absurd foreshadow his unconventional approach to stage dialogue.
Originally published by Andre Deutsch in 1998, this first paperback edition coincides with the centenary of Chekhov's death. (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

Introduction
He Quarrelled with his Wife
Notes from the Memoirs of a Man of Ideals
A Dreadful Night
From the Diary of an Assistant Book-keeper
An Incident at Law
The Daughter of Albion
Foiled!
A Woman Without Prejudices
The Complaints Book
The Swedish Match
Rapture
Vint
On the Telephone
Romance with Double-Bass
The Death of a Civil Servant
Overdoing It
Surgery
In the Dark
What You Nearly Always Find in Novels, Stories etc.
The Flying Islands
Hard to Choose a Name for This One
From the Diary of a Young Maiden
How I Entered Into Lawful Matrimony
The Decoration
Grisha
Fat and Thin
The Objet d'Art
A Horsy Name
At the Bath-house
The Chameleon
Revenge
The Orator
The Exclamation Mark
Notes from the Journal of a Quick-tempered Man
A Man of Ideas
The Siren
The Burbot
The Civil Service Exam
Boys
A Drama
The Malefactor
No Comment
Sergeant Prishibeyev
A Living Chronology
Double-Bass and Flute
A Rash Thing To Do
Cook's Being Marriaged
A Mystery
The Vengeance-Seeker
On Mortality
Notes