The Complete Short Novels (Everyman's Library, #277)

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(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)Aanton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels–here brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.The Steppe–the most lyrical of the five–is an account of a nine-year-old boy’s frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia. The Duel sets two decadent figures–a fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibility–on a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant. In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor. The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov’s work.From the Hardcover edition. Introduction......Page 2 I......Page 11 II......Page 15 III......Page 22 IV......Page 31 V......Page 39 VI......Page 45 VII......Page 56 VIII......Page 64 I......Page 72 II......Page 77 III......Page 80 IV......Page 84 V......Page 87 VI......Page 90 VII......Page 95 VIII......Page 96 IX......Page 97 X......Page 101 XI......Page 105 XII......Page 109 XIII......Page 112 XIV......Page 114 XV......Page 116 XVI......Page 121 XVII......Page 124 I......Page 139 II......Page 141 III......Page 142 IV......Page 145 V......Page 148 VI......Page 152 VII......Page 157 VIII......Page 159 IX......Page 160 X......Page 162 XI......Page 165 XII......Page 169 XIII......Page 171 XIV......Page 173 XV......Page 175 XVI......Page 178 XVII......Page 179 XVIII......Page 183 I......Page 187 II......Page 193 III......Page 196 IV......Page 198 V......Page 202 VI......Page 206 VII......Page 208 VIII......Page 212 IX......Page 214 X......Page 217 XI......Page 222 XII......Page 224 XIII......Page 226 XIV......Page 230 XV......Page 233 XVI......Page 237 XVII......Page 239 I......Page 243 II......Page 247 III......Page 251 IV......Page 255 V......Page 257 VI......Page 259 VII......Page 262 VIII......Page 268 IX......Page 270 X......Page 274 XI......Page 276 XII......Page 277 XIII......Page 280 XIV......Page 284 XV......Page 285 XVI......Page 286 XIX......Page 293