Showing results by author "Anton Chekhov" in All Categories

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.

Smirnov is scared of being robbed. To compensate and deter the cabman from attacking him, he blusters on in a comical way about his fighting abilities, the three revolvers he doesn't have, and how a party of armed friends will join him soon.

A native Frenchman no longer tutors the wealthy landlord's children, as they've grown up and left the house. The Frenchman is now paid simply to be around, to be properly dressed, to smell of scent, and to listen to Kamyshev's babble, to eat and drink and sleep. It may sound like a dream job, but there's always a catch. Read in English, unabridged.

Young, impressionable Masha sees a tragic actor, Fenogenov, during his benefit night and falls madly in love with him. Masha decides to run away with the actor and marry him despite her father's clear disapproval. Her father disowns her, describing her husband as idle, stupid and of no fixed home or occupation. Masha later finds herself in desperate need of money and has to seek help from her farther. Read in English, unabridged.

Natalya Bronin is lying in her bedroom, her whole being abandoned to repose. She lies, deliciously drowsy, thinking of her little daughter, who lives somewhere far away with her grandmother or aunt. The child is more precious to her than the public, bouquets, notices in the papers, and adorers, and she would be glad to think about her till morning. She is happy, at peace, and all she longs for is not to be prevented from lying undisturbed, dozing and dreaming of her little girl. Read in English, unabridged.

Tickets, please.... A phrase familiar to every train passenger. And every now and then, there's one without a ticket, with a good excuse ready. When Podtyagin, a seasoned ticket collector on a train, decides to give up drinking and work honestly at his job, it sounds like a good resolution. And this very day he comes across an 'unreasonable' passenger who finds the very word 'tickets' cruel and absurd. Read in English, unabridged.

Izdanie soderzhit rasskazy i povesti velikogo russkogo pisatelja Antona Pavlovicha Chehova, napisannye 1897-1903gg. Chehov rassmatrival raznoobraznye vidy "lozhnyh predstavlenij" - stereotipnyh zhiznennyh programm, standartov, po kotorym stroitsja vsjo povedenie cheloveka. Pisatel' nashjol dlja jetogo javlenija tochnuju i jomkuju formulu - "futljar".

Izdanie soderzhit rasskazy velikogo russkogo pisatelja Antona Pavlovicha Chehova, napisannye 1886g. Chehov sozdal novye hody v literature, sil'no povlijav na razvitie sovremennogo rasskaza. Original'nost' ego tvorcheskogo metoda zakljuchaetsja v ispol'zovanii prijoma pod nazvaniem «potok soznanija». Chehov ne stremilsja dat' otvety chitajushhej publike, a schital, chto rol' avtora zakljuchaetsja v tom, chtoby zadavat' voprosy, a ne otvechat' na nih.

Izdanie soderzhit povesti i rasskazy velikogo russkogo pisatelja Antona Pavlovicha Chehova, napisannye 1892-1894 gg. Chehov byl odnim iz pervyh pisatelej-klassikov, kto vsecelo oblichal poshlost', nezhelanie zhit' polnoj, nasyshhennoj zhizn'ju.