Showing results by author "Anton Chekhov" in All Categories

This selection of stories and tales is perfect for that cold winter night to cosy up around fireplace and enter magical world of far away lands or kingdoms of the past. This volume opens with two tales from Beatrix Potter: 'The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse' and 'The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin', followed by 'Puss in Boots' by Charles Perrault. And in the second half we have Anton Chekhov's story, 'A Gentleman Friend', followed by William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'. Read in English, unabridged.

Strizhin, who normally leads a sober and regular life, comes home from a christening party where he had permitted himself to drink four glasses of vodka and a glass of wine. And of course spirituous liquors being like sea-water and glory: the more you imbibe of them the greater your thirst, Strizhin felt an overwhelming craving for another drink. He accidentally downed a glass of paraffin instead of vodka, and in desperate search for a doctor at 4 a.m. he found that a doctor is only readily found when he is not wanted.

Chekhov has always been huge inspiration for many great writers who came in contact with Chekhov's art. Thomas Mann wrote that Chekhov's short stories attain full epic stature and can even surpass in intensity the great towering novels. 'If I understood that better in later life than in my youth, this was largely owing to my growing intimacy with Chekhov's art; for his short stories rank with all that is greatest and best in European literature,' he concluded.

The importance of women and their influence can never be underestimated. This story vividly shows how in 19th century Russia, women pulled strings behind scenes to influence even the most principled and seemingly unbreakable of decision makers. And only Chekhov knew how to express such delicate matters in the most enjoyable and humorous way. Read in English, unabridged.

Madame Nashatyrin is fed up with violent behaviour and foul language emanating from an abusive male guest next door. She has two grown-up daughters and is concerned about their well-being when complaining to the hotel-keeper. 'Either give me other apartments, or I shall leave your confounded hotel altogether! It's a sink of iniquity! Why don't you get rid of the scoundrel?' But as soon as the marital status of the scoundrel is revealed, she meditates and concludes that there's something good in everyone after all.

Natalya just returned from Yalta, Crimea, and is telling her husband over dinner of all the charms of Crimea. Her husband, delighted, gazes tenderly at her enthusiastic face, listens, and from time to time puts in a question. Natalya's never-ceasing babble gets her into serious trouble, however. She is eager to expose her friend Yulia for some indiscretion with a local guide, and this leads to revelations of Natalya's own 'gay' times with one of the Tatar guides.

главный герой существует поперек общепринятых жизненных устоев. Этот рассказ звучит сегодня особенно остро и актуально для многих поколений. В спектакле бережно сохранен чеховский текст, тонко подчеркнуты неизменная авторская ирония и горькое напоминание о том, что мечты и реальная жизнь зачастую не совпадают.

作为小说大家，契诃夫的成就是巨大的，通过《一个官员之死》、《套中人》、《苦恼》、《万卡》等作品，不仅能看到凡俗生活隐藏下的悲剧，也能看到含泪的微笑之后的亮光…… 作為小說大家，契訶夫的成就是巨大的，通過《一個官員之死》、《套中人》、《苦惱》、《萬卡》等作品，不僅能看到凡俗生活隱藏下的悲劇，也能看到含淚的微笑之後的亮光……

The Three Sisters is Anton Chekhov's 1901 play about the Prosorov family, who are stuck in a provincial Russian town. The sisters - Olga, Masha, and Irina - fantasize about one day returning to Moscow. Meanwhile, their brother Andrey courts village girl Natasha, and the family socializes with the soldiers stationed nearby. Dreams, longing, and illicit love drive the action of Chekhov's comic drama.

Many say that capital punishment is inhumane. But is it, in fact, more humane to take away life in one swift stroke, rather than condemn an individual to a lifetime in captivity? Two men place wagers, each backing a different side of the argument. After 15 years, this clumsy bet irrevocably changes their lives forever.

In the cheapest room of a big block of furnished apartments Stepan Klotchkov, a medical student in his third year, was walking to and fro, zealously conning his anatomy. In the window, covered by patterns of frost, sat Anyuta, a thin little brunette of five-and-twenty, very pale with mild grey eyes. Sitting with bent back she was busy embroidering with red thread the collar of a man's shirt. She was working against time....

Polinka, a thin fair little person whose mother is the head of a dressmaking establishment, is standing in the middle of the shop looking about for some one. Nikolay Timofeitch, a graceful dark young man, fashionably dressed, with frizzled hair and a big pin in his cravat, has already cleared a place on the counter and is craning forward, looking at Polinka with a smile.

'If anything happens it's all known at once, nothing is hidden! It's incredible! You can't imagine! Look! My name has been published! Now all Russia knows of me!' A cautionary tale about people wanting and getting fame at any cost.

Obviously he was born a mouse catcher, a worthy son of his bloodthirsty ancestors. Fate had destined him to be the terror of cellars, storerooms and corn bins, and had it not been for education....

Yegor could not imagine his future works, but he could see distinctly how the papers would talk of him, how the shops would sell his photographs, with what envy his friends would look after him.

It was past midnight. Nikolay Yevgrafitch knew his wife would not be home very soon, not till five o'clock at least. He did not trust her, and when she was long away he could not sleep, was worried, and at the same time he despised his wife, and her bed, and her looking-glass, and her boxes of sweets, and the hyacinths, and the lilies of the valley which were sent her every day by someone or other, and which diffused the sickly fragrance of a florist's shop all over the house.

Between five and six in the evening. A fairly well-known man of learning is sitting in his study nervously biting his nails. ''It's positively revolting,'' he says, continually looking at his watch. ''It shows the utmost disrespect for another man's time and work. In England such a person would not earn a farthing, he would die of hunger. You wait a minute, when you do come....'' The short story is read in English, and unabridged.

Surely that needs no explanation.... If the teacher rides a bicycle, what can you expect the pupils to do? You will have them walking on their heads next! Read in English, unabridged.

Nellie, a young and pretty girl, dreaming day and night of being married, gazes into a looking glass. In the mirror her future husband emerges, and they live together through days and months in fast-forward, yet she sees her future distinctly in all its details.

I understood that when you love you must either, in your reasonings about that love, start from what is highest, from what is more important than happiness or unhappiness, sin or virtue in their accepted meaning, or you must not reason at all.