Peasants and Other Stories (New York Review of Books Classics Series)

Chekhov is one of the very greatest practitioners of the short story, and this pathbreaking selection, made by the great American critic Edmund Wilson, represents some of his finest, most adventurous achievements in the genre. Wilson has gathered the major stories of Chekhov's last years-when he was also engaged in writing his theatrical masterpieces Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard-and placed them in chronological order, allowing us to see the dying writer's deepening concern over Russia's tormented national life. Chekhov shows us the anxious social jockeying of the new industrial rich, the small-minded conservatism of the business class, the intelligentsia's faltering search for political and emotional commitment, the murderous inclinations of religious fundamentalists, the brutalization and enduring humanity of a desperately impoverished peasantry. These compassionate, humorous, and unsparing stories constitute an extraordinary, indeed prophetic vision of a society reeling on the verge of collapse.

Author(s): Anton Chekhov  

ISBN 10: 0940322145
ISBN 13: 9780940322141
Pages: 496
Format: Paperback
Publication: September 1999