About Love and Other Stories

Anton Chekhov
Translated by Rosamund Bartlett

Oxford World's Classics

A unique collection of Chekhov's most lyrical stories in a new translation of great skill and originality, published to coincide with the centenary of Chekhov's death.
This translation captures Chekhov's musicality and modernism by paying special attention to his tone and prose rhythm - closer to the Russian while shaping the prose idiomatically.
The stories are arranged chronologically to show the evolution of Chekhov's art and include familiar as well as less well-known works.
Growing interest in Chekhov as a prose writer, evidenced by the attention given to recent publications of Chekhov's previously unpublished work, and the influence he had had on modern writers such as Katherine Mansfield, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver.

About Love and Other Stories

Anton Chekhov
Translated by Rosamund Bartlett

Description

'the greatest short story writer who has ever lived'

Raymond Carver's unequivocal verdict on Chekhov's genius has been echoed many times by writers as diverse as Katherine Mansfield, Somerset Maugham, John Cheever and Tobias Wolf. While his popularity as a playwright has sometimes overshadowed his achievements in prose, the importance of Chekhov's stories is now recognized by readers as well as by fellow authors. Their themes - alienation, the absurdity and tragedy of human existence - have as much relevance today as when they were written, and these superb new translations capture their modernist spirit. Elusive and subtle, spare and unadorned, the stories in this selection are among Chekhov's most poignant and lyrical. They include well-known pieces such as 'The Lady with the Little Dog', as well as less familiar work like 'Gusev', inspired by Chekhov's travels in the Far East, and 'Rothschild's Violin', a haunting and darkly humorous tale about death and loss.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

About Love and Other Stories

Anton Chekhov
Translated by Rosamund Bartlett

Oxford World's Classics

The Huntsman
On the Road
The Letter
Fortune
Gusev
Fish Love
The Black Monk
Rothschild's Violin
The Student
The House with the Mezzanine
In the Cart
The Man in a Case
Gooseberries
About Love
The Lady with the Little Dog
At Christmas Time
The Bishop

About Love and Other Stories

Anton Chekhov
Translated by Rosamund Bartlett

Oxford World's Classics

Author Information

Anton Chekhov

Translated by Rosamund Bartlett, Lecturer in Russian, University of Durham

About Love and Other Stories

Anton Chekhov
Translated by Rosamund Bartlett

Oxford World's Classics

Reviews and Awards

"...outstanding translations of a selection of Chekhov's stories..." - Robert Chandler, Literary Review

"Bartlett's Chekhov is a masterpiece of texture and rhythm. Not a false word anywhere." - Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

"Seventeen peerless examples of how much life you can put into a few pages of fiction if you have Chekhovs economical mind, his eyes and ears, his feel for comedy and his sense of humanity. Chekhov is better known for his plays. But these are small masterpieces of their own, in a revelatory new translation." - Economist

About Love and Other Stories

Anton Chekhov
Translated by Rosamund Bartlett

Oxford World's Classics

Audio Guide

"Seventeen peerless examples of how much life you can put into a few pages of fiction if you have Chekhov's economical mind, his eyes and ears, his feel for comedy and his sense of humanity. Chekhov is better known for his plays. But these are small masterpieces of their own, in a revelatory new translation."

The Economist

Click on the links below to hear Rosamund Bartlett, who edited and translated the stories in the collection, About Love, introduce Chekhov and his work and read from her translations.

Who was Anton Chekhov? - Life and Times

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) came from an unlikely background for a future literary celebrity. Unlike most of his fellow writers, he wasn't from an aristocratic family but a conservative, merchant one.

The early years of Anton Chekhov [2:18]

In 1879 Chekhov moved to Moscow, thereby taking the first step to his literary and medical career.

Why did Chekhov feel he had entered the literary world by the back door? [2:29]

A "period of small deeds":

Find out how the politically reactionary climate of his times was better suited to the short story form than sweeping novels [3:16]

Tuning in to writing in a minor key

Chekhov's early readers in both Russian and English were uncertain what to make of his stories: they didn't have regular beginnings or endings and they also lacked conventional heroes.

Rosamund Bartlett explains how modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf were among the first to appreciate what an innovative writer Chekhov really was [5:06]
How hard is it to capture the elegiac, musical quality of Chekhov's prose in English?

Rosamund Bartlett describes what she was trying to achieve as a translator [5:29]
The stories in the collection About Love extend from early works written in his mid-twenties to the majestic story "The Bishop", which dates from right at the end of Chekhov's career.
Rosamund Bartlett discusses her selection from over 600 stories [3:49]

Sampling the stories

"Lady with a Little Dog" is probably Chekhov's most famous story.

Listen to an introduction and hear an extract from the story [4:25]
"Gooseberries" forms part of a trilogy of stories that Chekhov wrote in the late 1890s.

Listen to an extract [3:24]