Please note it is just the story, the lady with the little dog, that I have read and reviewed.

This is a positive tale of love and self-development.

While the essence of the story is utopian, the ending is more realistic.

Gurov, a perpetual womanizer with a low opinion of women, whom he calls “the lower race”, falls in love with a married woman, Anna Sergeyevna, and who, following his transformation, knows that “the whole world contained no-one nearer or dearer to him, no-one more important to his happiness”.

Gurov’s love is fully reciprocated but the point of the story is basically his own transformation from a superficial exploiter of women to a man filled with love for one woman.

An interesting point is that while Gurov has the view that women are a lower race, similarly, Anna Sergeyevna demeaningly refers to her husband as a “flunkey”, a servant who performs menial tasks, though in fact he is a rich upper-class man.

Gurov perceived that women had always believed him different from what he really was, had loved not himself but “the man their imagination had pictured him”. None had ever been happy with him, and he had never loved any of them.

We are now to understand that he has found his one true love who sees him as he really is.

Their love has changed them both.

Now that Gurov is together with Anna, he gains the insight that “everything in the world is beautiful really, everything but our own thoughts and actions when we lose sight of --- our dignity as human beings”.

Chekhov refers to “wasted evenings” and “tedious, empty days, with gluttony, drunkenness, perpetual talk about the same things”.

He writes about the emptiness and meaningless of life, or rather the way people live their lives. He refers to people’s stunted, earth-bound, existences and the trivialities of their lives – “You might as well be in a mad-house.”

He also indicates that Gurov has had an awakening.

At the beginning of the affair, Anna feels that she is a “wicked, fallen woman”, felt possessed “like a madwoman” and “snared by the devil”. But, like Gurov, she undergoes a process of development by their love and, with him, is focusing on “a new, beautiful life”.

He progresses from discussing the love/development of himself and Anna to, hopefully, the development of humanity as a whole.

Gurov led a double life, one in public, full of “conventional truth and conventional deception” and another which “flowed in secret”.

Chekhov seems to be saying that once Gurov had taken a quantum leap in his development, stopped his promiscuity and found his one true love, then there was the possibility of everyone casting off their superficiality and all manner of negative and trivial things. He and they can now at least work towards leading their lives openly and genuinely and dropping the need for secrecy.

Everything is beauty, there is no deception. He is indicating that ”Amor vincit omnia” - love conquers all. After he and Anna have found true love, they can begin to live an ideal life, and there is also the possibility for all people to do so. ( )

This is a collection of dark and depressing stories, peopled by generally unpleasant weak males and put upon oppressed women. I struggled with translation as well, to me it seemed forced-made to fit English expressions which felt uncomfortable. I don’t know if this was an attempt to replicate Chekov’s direct style which I have heard so much about. What the stories certainly did was highlight the deep inequalities and unrest in Russian society of the time. The reader certainly gets to see where the author’s beliefs lie. Maybe I will need to read these again sometime and I will get more from them. ( )

My third pass through most of these stories -- they get better each time. ( )

Said to be the master of short fiction, I was pleased to sample his work. Mostly tales of romance that appeal to my adult male perspective, often a love gone wrong, myopic, misapprehending, tinged with tragedy. Some that I'll reread, some passages highlighted. Some endings felt abrupt, the tale unfinished, forcing me to re-evaluate what the story was really meant to draw my attention to. ( )

Chekhov is known as the master of the short story, and after reading these, it is easy to see why. Each story is exquisitely crafted and nearly flawless. Chekhov writes with such precision, especially when describing the natural world. His words perfectly evoke the scene: a garden in flower; a riverbank; an avenue of trees; a field just before a rainstorm; the sea.

Chekhov contrasts the beauty and serenity of the natural world with the inner turmoil of his characters. For Chekhov, suffering is the natural human condition. His characters are mostly depressed, or if they are happy, their happiness is due to ignorance, corruption or insanity. In stark contrast to the beautiful world they inhabit, Chekhov's characters dwell in darkness, constantly struggling against their own limitations and the limitations imposed on them by others or by society. Chekhov's characters don't fear death; instead, they seem to welcome it as an end to the struggle.

In five selections, Chekhov addresses many of the highest themes of literature: the state of the mind ("The Black Monk"); the value of art ("The House with the Mezzanine"); the unending cycle of poverty ("Peasants"); the corrupting influence of wealth ("Gooseberries"); and the mystery of love ("The Lady with the Little Dog"). Note: "The Black Monk" is not actually included in this collection. In these stories, Chekhov asks no less than what it means to be human. He doesn't offer easy answers; often his stories end with the question unresolved. But it is impossible after reading them not to feel moved by the power of Chekhov's words.