About Love and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Chekhov, Anton; Bartlett, Rosamund

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199536686 ISBN 13: 9780199536689

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Raymond Carver called Anton Chekhov "the greatest short story writer who has ever lived." This 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. The book includes 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. The stories are arranged chronologically to show the evolution of Chekhov's art.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum 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, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

About this title

About the Author:

Rosamund Bartlett is currently working on a major biography of Chekhov for publication by Simon and Schuster in 2004. She is also editing and jointly translating Anton Chekhov: A Life in Letters for Penguin (forthcoming, 2004), and writing The Cambridge Companion to Russian Music and Opera in
Russia: A Cultural History (Yale UP, 2005/6). Her translation of 'In the Cart' from About Love and Other Stories has been chosen for inclusion in the Penguin Book of Russian Short Stories (forthcoming, 2005).

Review:

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 * Bartlett's Chekhov is a masterpiece of texture and rhythm. Not a false word anywhere. * Caryl Emerson, Princeton University * ...outstanding translations of a selection of Chekhov's stories... * Robert Chandler, Literary Review *

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0199536686
• ISBN 13: 9780199536689
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 211