1887
New Year’s Torture [no translation]
4 Jan 1887
Новогодняя пытка
Champagne (A Wayfarer’s Story)
5 Jan 1887
Шампанское (рассказ проходимца)
Frost
12 Jan 1887
Мороз
The Beggar
19 Jan 1887
Нищий
Enemies
20 Jan 1887
Враги
The Good German [not in CG] [Constantine, The Undiscovered Chekhov]
24 Jan 1887
Добрый немец
Darkness
26 Jan 1887
Темнота
Polinka
2 Feb 1887
Полинька
Drunk
9 Feb 1887
Пьяные
An Inadvertence
21 Feb 1887
Неосторожность
Verotchka
21 Feb 1887
Верочка
Shrove Tuesday
23 Feb 1887
Накануне поста
A Defenseless Creature
28 Feb 1887
Беззащитное существо
A Bad Business
2 Mar 1887
Недоброе дело
Home
7 Mar 1887
Дома
The Lottery Ticket
9 Mar 1887
Выигрышный билет
Too Early!
16 Mar 1887
Рано!
An Encounter [not in CG] [Yarmolinsky, The Portable Chekhov]
18 Mar 1887
Встреча
Typhus
23 Mar 1887
Тиф
Everyday Troubles
28 Mar 1887
Житейские Невзгоды
In Passion Week
30 Mar 1887
На страстной неделе
A Mystery
11 Apr 1887
Тайна
The Cossack
13 Apr 1887
Казак
The Letter
18 Apr 1887
Письмо
Boa Constrictor and Rabbit [not in CG] [Yarmolinsky, The Unknown Chekhov]
20 Apr 1887
Удав и кролик
Spring: The Monologue of a Cat [no translation]
25 Apr 1887
Весной
The Critic [no translation]
27 Apr 1887
Критик
An Adventure
4 May 1887
Происшествие
The Examining Magistrate
11 May 1887
Следователь
Aborigines
18 May 1887
Обыватели
Volodya
1 June 1887
Володя
Happiness
6 June 1887
Счастье
Bad Weather
8 June 1887
Ненастье
A Play
13 June 1887
Драма
One of Many
15 June 1887
Один из Многих
First Aid [not in CG] [Constantine, The Undiscovered Chekhov]
22 June 1887
Скорая помощь
An Unpleasant Story
29 June 1887
Неприятная История
A Transgression
4 July 1887
Беззаконие
From the Diary of a Violent-tempered Man [Notes from the Journal of a Quick-Tempered Man, Pitcher, Early Stories]
5 July 1887
Из записок вспыльчивого человека
Uprooted
14 July 1887
Перекати-поле
A Father
20 July 1887
Отец
A Happy Ending
25 July 1887
Хороший конец
In the Coach-house
3 Aug 1887
В сарае
The Malefactors [no translation]
8 Aug 1887
Злоумышленики
Before the Eclipse [no translation]
9 Aug 1887
Перед затмением
Zinochka
10 Aug 1887
Зиночка
The Doctor
17 Aug 1887
Доктор
The Siren [not in CG] [Yarmolinsky, The Portable Chekhov]
24 Aug 1887
Сирена
The Pipe [The Reed-Pipe, Pitcher, Early Stories; The Shepherd’s Pipe, Pevear and Volokhonsky, Fifty-Two Stories]
29 Aug 1887
Свирель
An Avenger
12 Sept 1887
Мститель
The Post
14 Sept 1887
Почта
The Wedding [no translation]
21 Sept 1887
Свадба
The Runaway
28 Sept 1887
Беглец
A Problem
19 Oct 1887
Задача
Intrigues [not in CG] [Constantine, The Undiscovered Chekhov]
24 Oct 1887
Интриги
The Old House
29 Oct 1887
Старый дом
The Cattle-Dealers
31 Oct 1887
Холодная кровь
Expensive Lessons
9 Nov 1887
Дорогие уроки
The Lion and the Sun
5 Dec 1887
Лев и Солнце
In Trouble [Misfortune, Constantine, The Undiscovered Chekhov]
7 Dec 1887
Беда
The Kiss
15 Dec 1887
Поцелуй
Boys
21 Dec 1887
Мальчики
Kashtanka
25 Dec 1887
Каштанка
A Lady’s Story
25 Dec 1887
Рассказ госпожи NN
A Story Without a Title
1 Jan 1888
Без заглавия
Acknowledgments
I thank my wife, Suzanne Carbotte, for listening, on our daily COVID-relief walks, to my excited “discoveries,” which for the most part were rediscoveries of just how exciting and interesting Chekhov’s stories are and how much they show about the amazing person he was. I could not have kept researching and writing without her patience and interest. I am most grateful to my mentor Max Schott, who read pieces and parts and sections at various times and finally the whole thing and continually offered unreasonably kind encouragement. Kia Penso, the best reader I know, helped me figure out what I was trying to do and in the final draft made many useful corrections and suggestions. Caroline Allen, John Wilson, Ross Robins, Howard Kaplan, and Matthew Flamm read drafts of sections and provided me with helpful criticism and queries. I enjoyed discussing Chekhov with my children, Max and Odette Blaisdell. I learned a lot from discussing Chekhov with my friends Jack Wolkenfeld, Elizabeth Gold, Michael Denner, Sandy Frazier, Jed Shahar, Enid Stubin, Lea Fridman, and Malik Atdadzhanov. Erin Stoodley provided help with formatting the penultimate draft. At Pegasus, Jessica Case again and again helped me understand what I was trying to show about Chekhov in his miraculous years of work. I am grateful to Drew Wesley Wheeler, Pegasus’s copy editor, who neatened many phrases and caught many errors; I also need to thank Victoria Flickering for her detection and correction of numerous mistakes and inconsistencies in spelling and style. The stray mistakes and various excesses that have slipped through are all mine. I thank Maria Fernandez for her lovely design of the pages and Meghan Jusczak for publicizing and promoting the book. My editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Boris Dralyuk, who is also the finest translator from Russian that I know, pointed me toward the renowned Russian Chekhov critic Vladimir Kataev. In 2021, Fiona Hallowell and Janet Kopito at Dover Publications kindly guided my selection of Chekhov’s love stories to publication. Paul Richardson at Russian Life has for years generously given me pages to indulge in my admiration of Chekhov and has helped make my attempts at translating Chekhov’s prose more readable. I thank April Austin at the Christian Science Monitor for allowing me to put in my two cents about Chekhov translations, and to all the other editors over the decades who have allowed me to review books about Chekhov and write about his life. Finally, I owe this book to all of the previous biographers of Chekhov. Donald Rayfield and Rosamund Bartlett, today’s deans of research and writing about Chekhov, politely responded to my email queries.
About the Author
BOB BLAISDELL is Professor of English at the City University of New York’s Kingsborough Community College and the author of Creating Anna Karenina and Well, Mr. Mudrick Said…: A Memoir. He has reviewed books for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Russian Life, and the Christian Science Monitor, and is the editor of more than three dozen Dover literature and poetry collections, including a collection of Chekhov’s love stories. He lives in New York City.
ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Creating Anna Karenina