Anton: 1572 books

Checkhov says truth and falsehood both play an important role in personal happiness of men. Could this also be the cause of both passionate romance and failed relationship between an impoverished Russian prince and a rich landowner? This story examines the very essence of human psychology providing valuable insight into complexities of such concepts as happiness, deception, romance and depression.

The party of sportsmen spent the night in a peasant’s hut on some newly mown hay. The moon peeped in at the window; from the street came the mournful wheezing of a concertina; from the hay came a sickly sweet, faintly troubling scent. The sportsmen talked about dogs, about women, about first love, and about snipe.

“A Happy Man” is a very funny and satiric story that tells us that happiness is easy and everything is in our hands. The action happens in the passenger train. One man tries to find his carriage, opening doors and saying “No, wrong again!” every time he misses. But suddenly he hears his name...

One must never judge by appearances! Look at this book: it has long ago been read. It is warped, tattered, and lies in the dust uncared for; but open it, and it will make you weep and turn pale. My sister is like that book. Lift the cover and peep into her soul, and you will be horror-stricken.

An idle artist meets a woman and her two daughters while traveling the Russian countryside. The eldest daughter, Lida, is strong-minded and purposeful, intent on her mission to better the lives of the local peasants. Unlike her elder sister, the younger daughter, Genya, is sweet and simple. But when...

Bishop Pyotr was tired. His breathing was laboured and rapid, his throat was parched, his shoulders ached with weariness, his legs were trembling. And it disturbed him unpleasantly when a religious maniac uttered occasional shrieks in the gallery. And then all of a sudden, as though in a dream or delirium,...

In the Grasshopper we find a love triangle. Olga, her rather boring husband preoccupied with his work, and a young artist. Olga craves the excitement of the artistic life and finds a new lease on romance with the colourful landscape designer, who takes her on a cruise. But not all is going to plan in...

Big raindrops were pattering on the dark windows. It was one of those disgusting summer holiday rains which, when they have begun, last a long time—for weeks, till the frozen holiday maker grows used to it, and sinks into complete apathy. It was cold; there was a feeling of raw, unpleasant dampness....

The story “After the Theatre” tells us about a sixteen years old girl Nadya Zelenina. She was loved by two men: a successful officer called Gorny and a student called Gruzdev. She decided to write a letter like Tatyana's from "Yevgeny Onegin”. After the opera she wanted to be doubtful of...

One day when she was younger and better-looking, and when her voice was stronger, Nikolay Petrovitch Kolpakov, her adorer, was sitting in the outer room in her summer villa. It was intolerably hot and stifling. Kolpakov, who had just dined and drunk a whole bottle of inferior port, felt ill-humoured...

One morning there was a burial of the collegiate assessor, Kirill Ivanovitch Babilonov who died because of two diseases, that were the most common in the society: an angry wife and alcoholisms. When the funeral procession moved on from the church towards the cemetery, one of teammate of the dead man,...

After the festive dinner with its eight courses and its endless conversation, Olga Mihalovna, whose husband’s name-day was being celebrated, went out into the garden. The duty of smiling and talking incessantly, the clatter of the crockery, the stupidity of the servants, the long intervals between...

The sky was totally covered with heavy clouds - it was a cold rainy day. Pavel Petrovitch Somov was annoyed by this weather. His room was dark and cold and the tears of rain on the window made him depressed. He was bored because he hadn't any entertainment or any affair. His wife was sitting at the...

By 1888, when he was just twenty-eight, Chekhov had published a staggering 528 stories, about half of them comic. Unpretentious, lively, and inventive, these comic stories have long been affectionately regarded in Russia, but publishers in the West, overawed by the prevailing image of Chekhov as a...