The Complete Short Novels by Anton Chekov

The Complete Short Novels by Anton Chekov

Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels. The Steppe-the most lyrical of the five-is an account of a nine-year-old boy's frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia to enroll in a distant school. The Duel sets two decadent figures-a fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibility-on a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical plans to spy on an important official by serving as valet to his son, however, as he gradually becomes involved as a silent witness in the intimate life of his young employer, he finds that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant, engaging time as a narrative element in a way unusual in Chekhov's fiction. In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labour, and the resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in an apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov's work.

Praise for previous translations by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky:

"The reinventors of the classic Russian novel for our times" -PEN/BoMC Translation Prize Citation

"Their translations have become the standard English-language texts." -Newsday

The Brothers Karamazov: "One finally gets the musical whole of Dostoevksy's original." -The New York Times Book Review

Anna Karenina: "The most scrupulous, illuminating and compelling version yet." -The Oregonian

Richard Pevear has published translations of Yves Bonnefoy, Alberto Savinio and Pavel Florensky, as well as two books of poetry. He has received fellowships for translation from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the translation of The Brothers Karamazov. Richard Pevear has published translations of Yves Bonnefoy, Alberto Savinio and Pavel Florensky, as well as two books of poetry. He has received fellowships for translation from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the translation of The Brothers Karamazov. Larissa Volokhonsky was born in Leningrad. She has translated the work of the prominent Orthodox theologians Alexander Schmemann and John Meyendorff.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781857152777
ISBN 10	1857152778
Title	The Complete Short Novels
Author	Anton Chekov
Series	Everyman's Library Classics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Everyman
Year published	2004-06-17
Number of pages	560
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.