In the Ravine, and other short stories

Name: In the Ravine, and other short stories
Brand: Naxos
Availability: InStock
Author: Anton Chekhov
ISBN: 9789629544706

Author: Anton Chekhov

Narrator: Kenneth Branagh

Unabridged: 3 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Naxos

Published: 01/01/2001

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

Here are twelve short stories by Anton Chekhov, one of the finest masters of what is acknowledged to be a difficult genre. There is the richly comic Oh! The Public, about a hassled ticket inspector, a wry look at morals and manners in The Chorus Girl, and the melancholic tale of a cab driver in Misery. Perhaps the finest of all is the novella In The Ravine, a minutely observed look at life in a village through the eyes of one family. All the characters come to life with their foibles, their strengths and their hopes. Kenneth Branagh uses his natural talent for characterisation to bring this village to life.

About Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian short story writer, playwright, and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short story writers in the history of world literature. His career as a dramatist produced four classics-The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard-and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics alike. Initially, Chekhov wrote stories solely for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations that have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them. Chekhov published over a hundred short stories, including "The Duel," "In Exile," "On Official Business," "The Bishop," and "The Cobbler and the Devil."

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lori on November 02, 2008

Chekhov's shorts always leave me feeling like they're incomplete. But then I realize that he purposely does not give you more because he wants you to think about what he is saying, as well as what he is not saying, in the story. My favorite story in the collection was the one about the pious monk wh......more

Goodreads review by Rob on November 29, 2016

More reviews can be found on my book blog. --- This is a collection of Chekhov's short stories, spanning from 1983 with The Trousseau to 1900 with the title story, In the Ravine. I hadn't read anything by Chekhov before, and I'm usually not a huge short story fan, but a small collection narrated by Ke......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on July 05, 2024

I mainly wanted to read the novella In the Ravine from this collection, but I liked rereading the other shorter stories. It was like singling them out and highlighting them to me! Transition music slapped too. Chekhov has this incredible way of taking the honest approach and not letting a story go to......more

Goodreads review by Ivy-Mabel on August 02, 2020

Short stories are not my favourite form of literature and most of these are more like little vignettes than stories at all. However, they are beautifully constructed and psychologically acute. Definitely worth listening to. The reader is excellent but in my view Naxos readers in general are exceptio......more

Goodreads review by Ruby on November 22, 2022

Firstly, how the heck am I supposed to review a short story collection?? I will say this. A collection like this would be so fun to do with a book group. A story a week and then coming together to discuss each persons impressions of the stories and what did (or didn't) happen in each, would be amazi......more