Showing results by author "Anton Chekhov" in All Categories

"A Conversation of a Drunk with a Sober Imp" is a short story by the Russian writer and playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904). Written and first published in 1886, the story is a miniature describing the meeting of a retired collegiate secretary Lakhmatov, who was pretty drunk, with the imp who suddenly appeared at night. The uninvited guest turned out to be a talkative creature who experienced the same infringements and inconveniences in his service as the retired collegiate secretary Lakhmatov.

Thirteen-year-old Varka, who lost her father, is hired as a servant and a babysitter in a shoemaker's house. All day long, she is forced to fulfill the owners’ orders, and later, she sits all night long by the cradle, trying desperately not to fall asleep. Varka knows that she would be severely beaten for that by her masters….

"Life in Questions and Exclamations" is a short story by the Russian writer and playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904). Written and first published in 1882 in the journal Alarm Clock under the pseudonym Antosha Chekhonte, the short story "Life in Questions and Exclamations" is written in an unusual form of a collection of key phrases—memoirs for each stage of a man's life—childhood, adolescence, youth, the period "between 20 and 30 years", "between 30-50 years", and old age.

"Kashtanka," a shaggy-dog story penned by Anton Chekhov in seven parts and first published in 1887, relates the experiences of its eponymous heroine, a fox-faced, reddish dachshund-mix, whose name means 'little chestnut.' After her detestation of music causes her to become separated from the carpenter with whose family she had been living, Kashtanka finds herself taken up by an unusual vaudevillian and goes to live among an assortment of other intelligent animals, each of whom is observed with the characteristic empathy and humor that stamp Chekhov's work.View our full collection of podcasts ...

Lieutenant-General von Rabbek is a local aristocrat, who invites the officers of the Reserve Artillery Brigade to a cup of tea with brandy. Of all the guests, Ryabovitch is the most unpleasant one. While doing his best to avoid talking to people, Ryabovitch enters a dark room, where he an unknown woman surprises him by kissing him, then running away. The unexpected kiss awakes Ryabovitch's curiosity and passion, and the man spends the rest of the evening searching for the mysterious woman.

After Olenka Plemyannikova’s father dies, she marries Ivan Kukin - the owner of the local theater. She soon takes over some of his paperwork-related roles and becomes more involved in the business. Unfortunately, Kukin dies in Moscow during one of his work-related travels. Olenka’s grief does not last too long and she soon gets married to a timber yard worker named Vasily Pustovalov. They live a happily and comfortable life together, until one day Pustovalov gets sick and dies a few days later.

While hosting a party, a banker makes a bet with one of his guests, who is a lawyer. The topic of the bet is capital punishment and whether it is worse or better than a life sentence. The banker sees the capital punishment as more humane than life imprisonment, whilst the young lawyer completely disagrees. The bet is as follows: if the lawyer spends fifteen years in complete isolation, the banker will give him two million rubles. As the years pass, the banker realizes that he will go bankrupt if he loses the bet.

Dmitri Gurov is a nearly forty-year-old man, who is married and has three children. He is unhappy with his marriage and regrets this big mistake every single day. While on a vacation, Dmitri meets Anna Sergeyevna - a young lady, who just like him is unhappily married. Very soon a love affair enfolds between the two and they start secretly meeting at different places. Unfortunately, Anna must go back to Moscow because her husband is having some health issues.

"The Wife" is one of the famous works of A.P. Chekhov. The plot focuses on a conflict between spouses, where the ambitions and pride of one destroy family life and relationships with others. The work captivates with laconic content, deep meaning and brilliant Chekhov's syllable.

The well-laid plans of two newlyweds go astray when an uncle and family arrive on the train on which the newlyweds are headed home for an intimate dinner.

An award-winning audiobook narrator and producer reads Anton Chekhov's "The Beggar", a moral tale in which the arrogant and self-righteous lawyer thinks he has "saved" the beggar by teaching him how to work for a living. In fact, he would have never continued the original task (or even begun it) if it weren't for the example of the lawyer's compassionate cook, who quietly chopped the wood for him without expecting anything in return. It was Olga's example of self-sacrifice, not Skvortsoff's example of "do-goodism" that inspired the man to change his life.

This work by Chekhov is about Musatov, who finds himself fortunate to have such dedicated children. Musatov is a drunkard and is constantly seeking out money from his sons, which they routinely give to him. His children indulge their father continually, even though he doesn't deserve it for all the trouble he brings them and the fact that he has nothing to give in return.

世界に名高いロシアの作家チェーホフ(1860~1904)。その初期ユーモア短編集から、『お化け鏡』、『床屋では』、『謎の女(ひと)』の3作品を収めました。ロシア語による朗読です。 訳・朗読 清水柳一/ロシア語発音指導 東シャトウーヒナ/音響効果 岩田直行

世界に名高いロシアの作家チェーホフ(1860~1904)。その初期ユーモア短編集から、『お化け鏡』、『床屋では』、『謎の女(ひと)』の3作品を収めました。本格的に作家の道を歩み出す前、冗談半分で雑誌に投稿し始めた頃の作品ですが、すでに天賦の才が見え隠れしています。 『お化け鏡』。蝋燭を手にした若夫婦が、暗闇の地下室へ入ります。そこにあるのは、先祖伝来の鏡。悪魔が宿ると言い伝えられてきました。若い妻は、鏡を覗いた瞬間、あっと声を上げて気絶してしまいます。一体、何事が……。 『床屋では』。気まじめな若者が営む粗末な床屋へ馴染みの客がやってきます。待ちに待った客のようです。病み上がりの客は、医者の指示通り、丸坊主にしてくれと頼みます。後で濃い毛髪が生えてくるからだそうです。さて、どうなりますことやら…… 『謎の女(ひと)』。一等車の個室。駆け出しの作家と着飾った美女が向かい合っています。女は、切々と不幸な身の上話を始めます。若い作家は、この女性に身も心も捧げたい気持ちになります。薄幸な、謎の女性は、ふと、ため息をつくと……。 訳・朗読 清水柳一/ロシア語発音指導 東シャトウーヒナ/音響効果 岩田直行/朗読者:清水 柳一(Shimizu Ryuichi) ...

A lawyer encounters a beggar and offers him a menial job, after which he regularly comes to do odd jobs. Eventually, the lawyer gets him a clerical position. Years later, the beggar has risen in life, but it turns out that it was the lawyer’s servant Olga who caused the change of heart which set the beggar’s life in a new direction.

"Zinotchka" is a story told through the eyes of a young boy. He saw his governess, Zinotchka, kissing and cuddling with his older brother, Sasha. Eventually, Zinotchka became his sister-in-law.

"Dreams" is a story about identity and fate. Two peasant constables are escorting a tramp to a district town. A conversation arises, and it becomes clear that the tramp may be a prisoner, but is not really a tramp.

Years before his marriage to Olga Knipper and his self-imposed medical exile to Yalta, years before he even began writing the seminal works of dramatic literature for which he is renowned, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, to support his financially and physically struggling family, wrote stories...many, many stories. Starting in his early 20s, living in Moscow, he made a name for himself by capturing the peculiarities of Russian life through satire, humor, pathos, and passion. Myriad influences inspired his eventual words for the stage.

Yegor the huntsman, walking down a country road, accidentally meets his estranged wife Pelageya to whom he's been married for 12 years, but who he seldom visited. She weeps and implores him to visit her more often. He tries to explain why he could not abide living in a village.

In this story, two peasants keeping a three-day vigil over a dead body wrapped in sheets, are interrupted by a man wearing a cassock. The younger peasant agrees to guide the third man to his destination, while the older one stays behind.