Showing results by author "Anton Chekhov" in All Categories

In this series we listen to short stories that are NOT by perhaps the most well-known author of this type. But the many other rich talents in the volume may have treated the subject matter a little differently, or were perhaps just overlooked in the stampede to applaud the winner, but these authors are of equal merit.

In modern society writing a letter, on paper, is almost unheard of. We all scribble notes and reminders but very rarely compose our thoughts in lengthy prose for another person to read. In this volume our talented authors bring us a plethora of narratives that centre themselves on how vital a few lines are to characters navigating through the twists and turns of a story.

The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length. Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced.

"A Story Without a Title" is an 1888 humorous story by Anton Chekhov. In a remote 5th century monastery the monks live and toil, led by an elderly abbot. The old man likes to play the organ, write music and compose Latin verses but is famous most of all for his eloquence and fiery, inspirational monologues which leave everybody around him enchanted. Then one night a drunkard knocks the door of the gates, saying he'd got lost on his way and asking them to give him food and wine.

This book includes: "Rothschild's Violin", "The Man in a Case", "A Conversation of a Drunk with a Sober Imp", "Life in Questions and Exclamations".

The coffin-maker Yakov is shocked by his wife's illness, with whom he lived for 52 years. An understanding suddenly came to him that the woman had never seen love or affection from him for the entire time of family life. But only accusations and abuse. The husband, who fell into extreme stinginess, forbade her to drink tea, and the unfortunate woman was forced to drink empty boiling water. Her whole life was spent in work and utmost need in the tiny hut where Yakov stored, ready for sale, coffins.

"A Conversation of a Drunk with a Sober Imp" is a short story by the Russian writer and playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904). Written and first published in 1886, the story is a miniature describing the meeting of a retired collegiate secretary Lakhmatov, who was pretty drunk, with the imp who suddenly appeared at night. The uninvited guest turned out to be a talkative creature who experienced the same infringements and inconveniences in his service as the retired collegiate secretary Lakhmatov.

Thirteen-year-old Varka, who lost her father, is hired as a servant and a babysitter in a shoemaker's house. All day long, she is forced to fulfill the owners’ orders, and later, she sits all night long by the cradle, trying desperately not to fall asleep. Varka knows that she would be severely beaten for that by her masters….

"Life in Questions and Exclamations" is a short story by the Russian writer and playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904). Written and first published in 1882 in the journal Alarm Clock under the pseudonym Antosha Chekhonte, the short story "Life in Questions and Exclamations" is written in an unusual form of a collection of key phrases—memoirs for each stage of a man's life—childhood, adolescence, youth, the period "between 20 and 30 years", "between 30-50 years", and old age.

"Kashtanka," a shaggy-dog story penned by Anton Chekhov in seven parts and first published in 1887, relates the experiences of its eponymous heroine, a fox-faced, reddish dachshund-mix, whose name means 'little chestnut.' After her detestation of music causes her to become separated from the carpenter with whose family she had been living, Kashtanka finds herself taken up by an unusual vaudevillian and goes to live among an assortment of other intelligent animals, each of whom is observed with the characteristic empathy and humor that stamp Chekhov's work.View our full collection of podcasts ...

Lieutenant-General von Rabbek is a local aristocrat, who invites the officers of the Reserve Artillery Brigade to a cup of tea with brandy. Of all the guests, Ryabovitch is the most unpleasant one. While doing his best to avoid talking to people, Ryabovitch enters a dark room, where he an unknown woman surprises him by kissing him, then running away. The unexpected kiss awakes Ryabovitch's curiosity and passion, and the man spends the rest of the evening searching for the mysterious woman.

While hosting a party, a banker makes a bet with one of his guests, who is a lawyer. The topic of the bet is capital punishment and whether it is worse or better than a life sentence. The banker sees the capital punishment as more humane than life imprisonment, whilst the young lawyer completely disagrees. The bet is as follows: if the lawyer spends fifteen years in complete isolation, the banker will give him two million rubles. As the years pass, the banker realizes that he will go bankrupt if he loses the bet.

After Olenka Plemyannikova’s father dies, she marries Ivan Kukin - the owner of the local theater. She soon takes over some of his paperwork-related roles and becomes more involved in the business. Unfortunately, Kukin dies in Moscow during one of his work-related travels. Olenka’s grief does not last too long and she soon gets married to a timber yard worker named Vasily Pustovalov. They live a happily and comfortable life together, until one day Pustovalov gets sick and dies a few days later.

Dmitri Gurov is a nearly forty-year-old man, who is married and has three children. He is unhappy with his marriage and regrets this big mistake every single day. While on a vacation, Dmitri meets Anna Sergeyevna - a young lady, who just like him is unhappily married. Very soon a love affair enfolds between the two and they start secretly meeting at different places. Unfortunately, Anna must go back to Moscow because her husband is having some health issues.

When Dr. Watson returns to London from a weekend seminar, he finds hat Sherlock Holmes has been arrested. Inspector Lestrade refers Watson to a questionable psychiatric hospital where Holmes is jailed for mental incapacity.

In Moscow an unknown author approaches a publisher (the narrator), asking him to read and publish his manuscript. The narrator agrees to read it before the author returns three months later. At the heart of the story in the manuscript is a love triangle and themes of corruption, concealed love, and fatal jealousy. When one of the central characters is discovered dead, the narrative becomes a murder-mystery as the search for the culprit begins.

A collection of classic, exciting short stories and poems, narrated by Adam Lubitz. There are nine tracks total and over two hours of content.

The well-laid plans of two newlyweds go astray when an uncle and family arrive on the train on which the newlyweds are headed home for an intimate dinner.

Yakov Ivanov is an elderly coffin-maker in a small village with a population that doesn’t generate enough deaths for him to make any real money. He is also a fiddler who sometimes sits in with a Jewish klezmer orchestra in spite of his dislike of Jews and of the flutist, Rothchild, in particular. Marfa, his long-suffering and unloved wife, becomes mortally ill with a contagious illness. He struggles to recall their shared past as he builds her coffin and soon he, too, succumbs to mortal illness, provoking a self-searching meditation and a change of heart.

An award-winning audiobook narrator and producer reads Anton Chekhov's "The Beggar", a moral tale in which the arrogant and self-righteous lawyer thinks he has "saved" the beggar by teaching him how to work for a living. In fact, he would have never continued the original task (or even begun it) if it weren't for the example of the lawyer's compassionate cook, who quietly chopped the wood for him without expecting anything in return. It was Olga's example of self-sacrifice, not Skvortsoff's example of "do-goodism" that inspired the man to change his life.