III.

Short Stories

Chekhov wrote his early comic stories for distinctly lowbrow humor magazines, which insisted on stories of about 1000 words and aimed only at amusing their readers. Although many of these writings from the early 1880s have little literary value, Chekhov developed his ability to say a great deal in a few words by working within the constraints imposed by these magazines. At the same time, he began to explore serious themes that figure in his later work, such as human isolation and the difficulty of communication.

The period from 1886 to 1888 was a time of transition during which Chekhov moved toward publishing longer, more serious, and more technically accomplished stories. “Step” (“The Steppe,” 1888), his first work to be published in a major literary magazine, tells of a young boy’s journey across the steppe (vast, grassy plain) of southern Russia. Chekhov’s so-called clinical studies from the late 1880s and early 1890s, including “Imeniny” (“The Name-Day Party,” 1888), “Pripadok” (“An Attack of Nerves,” 1889), and “Skuchnaia istoriia” (“A Dreary Story,” 1889), are written with the sympathetic yet detached attitude of a doctor and deal with the effects of illness, fatigue, or old age on human behavior. “Duel” (“The Duel,” 1891), one of Chekhov’s so-called problem stories that examined social and philosophical issues, portrays the conflict of sharply different philosophies of life; another problem story, “Palata No. 6” (“Ward No. 6,” 1892), deals with the consequences of indifference to human suffering.

In 1898 Chekhov published three intricately linked stories, “Chelovek v futliare” (“The Man in a Case”), “Kryzhovnik” (“Gooseberries”) and “O liubvi” (“About Love”), each told by a different narrator and showing, with sadness and subtle humor, the effects of fear, loneliness, and lost opportunity on the lives of the characters. In one of his finest stories, “Dama s sobachkoi” (“The Lady with the Little Dog,” 1899), Chekhov traces the course of an adulterous love affair, while refraining from judgment and moralizing. Chekhov’s stories of the 1890s also present a panorama of Russian society on the eve of the 20th century, describing with sociological precision the lives of peasants, intellectuals, business people, clergymen, women, and children in situations that are universal and timeless.