—28 Fomous
—T\vo Complete The Cherr> oiul *The Boor/
llfflft) il Selection froin his LETTEHS.
IN NF\V on REVISEll I RANSLATIONS BY THE 0UTS7ANUJNG AUTHORITV
AVRAHM VAIVMOLINSin
M
The Portable CHEKHOV
The Viking Portable Library
Each Portable Library vol^e is made up of representative works of a favorite modem or classic author, or is a comprehensive anthology on a special subject. The format is designed for compactness and for pleasurable reading. The books average about 700 pages in length. Each is intended to fill a need not hitherto met by any single book. Each is edited by an authority distinguished in his field, who adds a thoroughgoing introductory essay and other helpful material. Most "Portables" are available both in durable cloth and in stif paper covers.
My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and absolute freedom—freedom from violence and falsehood, no matter how the last two manifest themselves.
—CI^^OV
COPYIUYIUGHT 1947, © 1968 BY ■^ffi VIKINC PRESS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1947 BY THE VIKING PRESS, INC., 625 MADISON A\'ENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022
twenty-f;ftii printinc september 1972
SBN 670-21409-4 ( H^TOBOUND) SBN 670-01035-9 ( PAPERBOUND)
UIIRARY OF CONCRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER; 47-113OI
PUBLISHED SJ:lIULTANEOUSLY IN CANADA BY ^ffi MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LIMLTED PRINTED IN U.S.A.
Contents
Editor's Introduction 1
Notable Dates in the Life of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 28
Selected Bibliography: Works by Chekhov 31 STORIES
Vanka
34
Gusev
251
The Privy Councilor
39
Anna on the Neck
268
A Calamity
61
In the Cart
285
At the Mill
78
At Home
296
The Chameleon
85
Peasants
312
The Siren
90
The Man in a Shell
354
Sergeant Prishibeyev
97
Gooseberries
371
The Culprit
103
About Love
384
Daydreams
108
The Darling
396
Heartache
118
The Lady With the
An Encounter
125
Pet Dog
412
The Letter
141
At Christmas Time
434
The Kiss
156
On Official Business
440
The Name-Day Party 180
In the Ravine
461
An Attack of Nerves
222
PLAYS
The Boor
514
The Cherry Oichard
531
LE^reRS
596
Works about Chekhov
632
Editor's Note
Kiss," "An Attack of Nerves," "The Name-Day Party," and "In the Ravine" are by Constance Garnett and are reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Com- pany, of David Garnett, and of Messrs. Chatto and Windus. They are taken from the following volumes: The Wife and Other Stories, The Party and Other Stories, The Schoolmistress and Other Stories, The Witch and Other Stories. Grateful acknowledgment is also due to Bernard G. Guerney, who translated the Chekhov letters of May 16, June 5, and December 9, 1890. All these ren- derings have been revised by the editor, who is respon- sible for the translation of the rest of the Russian text.
HE translations of "The Privy Councilor," "The
With few exceptions, the stories are arranged chrono- logically. The dates in the Editor's Introduction are Old Style. To make them conform to our calendar (New Style), which was adopted by Russia in 1918, add twelve days for the nineteenth century and thirteen for the twen- tieth. The dates of Chekhov's letters written in Russia are Old Style, those of the letters written outside of Rus- sia are presumably New Style. In the chronological out- line of Chekhov's life each exact date is given according to both styles.
The editor is deeply indebted to Babette Deutsch for her help in the preparation of this book.
A. Y.
Editor's Introduction
history, Chekhov never attempted to conceal the sordidness of his beginnings. On. one occasion he gave a fairly clear hint at what his early environment had been. As a successful young writer he made this sug- gestion to a fellow author: "Write a story of how a young man, the son of a serf, a former grocery boy, chorister, high school lad and university student, who was brought up to respect rank, to kiss priests' hands, to revere other people's ideas, to give thanks for every morsel of bread, who was whipped many times, who without rubbers traipsed from pupil to pupil, who used his fists and tormented animals, who was fond of dining with rich relatives, who was hypocritical in his dealings with God and men gratuitously, out of the mere con- sciousness of his insignificance—write how this youth squeezes the slave out of himself drop by drop, and how, waking up one fine morning, he feels that in his veins flows no longer the blood of a slave but that of a real man. . . ." He was talking about himself.
HOUGH generally reticent about his personal
Perhaps he did not quite squeeze the last drop of the slave out of himself. Certainly he never felt that he was in any sense a master of life or of art. But he was a freedman. He bought his freedom at the cost of per- sistent effort, by a process of self-education, so that morally as well as economically he was a self-made man.
In the end, this boy who had been born into the mean- est and the most backward section of Russian society, the lower middle class, and who had not been immune to its vulgarities, managed to make his way into what E. M. Forster happily describes as "the aristocracy of the considerate, the sensitive, and the plucky."
Chekhov was indeed the son of a serf and would have been born one himself, had not his grandfather, an acquisitive peasant, managed to purchase the family's freedom. His father rose in the world, becoming the o^er of a grocery, or rather of a general store, which also dispensed liquor. This was in the wretched little southern seaport of Taganrog, where Anton was born on January 17, 1860, the third child in a family that was to include five boys and a girl.