have been revised in accordance with contemporary usage. Footnotes have been supplied wherever necessary to explain peculiarities of Russian life and the historical era in which Chekhov lived and wrote.

"Backgrounds" includes a rich selection of Chekhov's letters, in new translations by Professor Matlaw, and Gorky's celebrated essay on Chekhov, translated by Ivy Litvinov. The critical essays offer general views of Chekhov's art and achievement and detailed analyses of particular stories. The critics are D. S. Mirsky, A. B. Derman (whose essay has been translated from the Russian especially for this edition), Renato Poggioli, Gleb Struve, Donald Rayfield, Karl Kramer, Virginia Llewellyn Smith, and Nils Ake Nilsson.

A Selected Bibliography directs readers to resources for further study.


Chameleon (1884) --
Oysters (1884) --
A living chronology (1885) --
The huntsman (1885) --
Misery (1886) --
The requiem (1886) --
Anyuta (1886) --
Agatha (1886) --
Grisha (1886) --
A gentleman friend (1886) --
The chorus girl (1886)--
Dreams (1886) --
Vanka (1886)--
At home (1887) --
The siren's song (1887) --
Sleepy (1888) --
The grasshopper (1892) --
In exile --
Rothschild's fiddle (1894) --
The student (1894) --
The teacher of literature (1889-94) --
Whitebrow (1895) --
Anna on the neck (1895) --
The house with the mansard (1896) --
The pecheneg (1898)--
A journey by cart (1897) --
The man in a case (1898) --
Gooseberries (1898) --
About love (1898) --
A doctor's visit (1902) --
The darling (1899) --
The lady with the dog (1899) --
The bishop (1902) --
The betrothed (1903).