This book collects many of Chekhov's well-known longer stories including "The Seizure" (sometimes translated as "A Nervous Breakdown"), "My Wife", "The Black Monk", "My Life", and "In the Hollow". Although each story is amazing, when read one after another the reader may fall into a funk, if not a downright depression. The common thread running through all the stories in this collection is that a person finds that his situation and surroundings are off somehow, and try as he might, he cannot change the situation or extricate himself from it. Though Chekhov gives no answers, his ability to show the ambiguity of life so clearly and heartbreakingly is his special gift. The best way to read these stories would be to take one at a time. Read it through, not too slowly or quickly, and then read some Gogol, or Pushkin, or Turgenev, and then after a few weeks, come back and read another one.
Contents: The Seizure, My Wife, The Two Volodyas, The Black Monk, A Woman's Kingdom, At a Country House, Murder, My Life, In the Hollow ( )