if one understands lady with dog, he will understand the mith of marriage

I actually would give this a 4.5...I really don't know what to say about Chekhov that hasn't been said before. He is obviously a master at the short story. His stories in this volume are mainly about normal almost mundane lives of the upper class. Affairs, courting, marriages, having bad dreams, growing up, etc. I appreciate that Chekhov can make such normal situations compelling to read and he doesn't have neat tidy endings or judge his characters one way or another. The only thing that's preventing me from awarding five stars is that I found myself becoming a little tired of hearing solely about the rich and ridiculous in Russia, and the recurring tendency for the women characters to be completely helpless, inane, and irrational, while the males were cruel, self-important, and indifferent. While I don't have a problem with characters exhibiting those qualities, it just seemed to happen a little too much in this volume of stories. ( )