The Death of a Government Clerk

Considered one of the greatest short story writers of all time, Anton Chekhov heavily influenced the evolution of the modern short story. Most notably, he used a technique that would later be called stream-of-consciousness, in which he eschewed the traditional story structure and simply wrote as though he was thinking aloud. Written in that same vein, The Death of a Government Clerk is one of his best-known short stories. The story is about the fragile Ivan Dmitritch Tchervyakov who blows a small breach of etiquette far out of proportion.