Universally acclaimed as the master of the short-story form Anton Chekhov began his literary
career as the author of brief tales and vignettes of Russian life when he was still a young
medical student. Later rejected by the writer in the same self-effacing way in which he
repudiated some of his most celebrated works the stories in this collection not only testify
to the early promise of his genius but deserve to be appreciated for their lapidary vividness
and their intrinsic stylistic quality. Mostly dealing with the lives of downtrodden little men
and low-ranking civil servants as they navigate the corruption and malpractice of Russian
officialdom this volume - here presented in Stephen Pimenoff's lively new translation -
bristles with wit and humour and is tinged by that understated note of melancholy and lyricism
that is a trademark of Chekhov's writing.
