The Complete Short Novels of Anton Chekhov

Zusatztext Praise for previous translations by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky! winners of the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize: The Brothers Karamazov One finally gets the musical whole of Dostoevsky's original. New York Times Book Review It may well be that Dostoevsky's [world]! with all its resourceful energies of life and language! is only nowand through the medium of [this] new translationbeginning to come home to the English-speaking reader. New York Review of Books Crime and Punishment The best [translation] currently availableAn especially faithful re-creationwith a coiled-spring kinetic energyDon't miss it. Washington Post Book World This fresh! new translationprovides a more exact! idiomatic! and contemporary rendition of the novel that brings Fyodor Dostoevsky's tale achingly aliveIt succeeds beautifully. San Francisco Chronicle Reaches as close to Dostoevsky's Russian as is possible in EnglishThe original's force and frightening immediacy is capturedThe Pevear and Volokhonsky translation will become the standard version. Chicago Tribune Demons The merit in this edition of Demons resides in the technical virtuosity of the translatorsThey capture the feverishly intense! personal explosions of activity and emotion that manifest themselves in Russian life. New York Times Book Review [Pevear and Volokhonsky] have managed to capture and differentiate the characters' many voicesThey come into their own when faced with Dostoevsky's wonderfully quirky use of varied speech patternsA capital job of restoration. Los Angeles Times Informationen zum Autor Anton Chekhov; Translated by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear; Introduction by Richard Pevear Klappentext Anton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novelshere brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The Steppe the most lyrical of the fiveis an account of a nine-year-old boy's frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia. The Duel sets two decadent figuresa fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibilityon a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man , a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant. In My Life , a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor. The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov's work. THE STEPPE The Story of a Journey I On an early July morning a battered, springless britzka--one of those antediluvian britzkas now driven in Russia only by merchants' agents, herdsmen, and poor priests--rolled out of the district town of N., in Z----province, and went thundering down the post road. It rattled and shrieked at the slightest movement, glumly seconded by the bucket tied to its rear--and from these sounds alone, and the pitiful leather tatters hanging from its shabby body, one could tell how decrepit it was and ready for the scrap heap. In the britzka sat two residents of N.: the merchant Ivan Ivanych Kuzmichov, clean-shaven, in spectacles and a straw hat, looking more like an official than a merchant; and the other, Father Khristofor Sir...

Praise for previous translations by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, winners of the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize:

*The Brothers Karamazov
*
“One finally gets the musical whole of Dostoevsky’s original.” –New York Times Book Review

“It may well be that Dostoevsky’s [world], with all its resourceful energies of life and language, is only now–and through the medium of [this] new translation–beginning to come home to the English-speaking reader.” –New York Review of Books

*Crime and Punishment
*
“The best [translation] currently available…An especially faithful re-creation…with a coiled-spring kinetic energy…Don’t miss it.” –Washington Post Book World

“This fresh, new translation…provides a more exact, idiomatic, and contemporary rendition of the novel that brings Fyodor Dostoevsky’s tale achingly alive…It succeeds beautifully.” –San Francisco Chronicle

“Reaches as close to Dostoevsky’s Russian as is possible in English…The original’s force and frightening immediacy is captured…The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation will become the standard version.” –Chicago Tribune

*Demons
*
“The merit in this edition of Demons resides in the technical virtuosity of the translators…They capture the feverishly intense, personal explosions of activity and emotion that manifest themselves in Russian life.” –New York Times Book Review

“[Pevear and Volokhonsky] have managed to capture and differentiate the characters’ many voices…They come into their own when faced with Dostoevsky’s wonderfully quirky use of varied speech patterns…A capital job of restoration.” –Los Angeles Times

Autorentext

Anton Chekhov; Translated by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear; Introduction by Richard Pevear

Klappentext

Anton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels–here brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
*
The Steppe*—the most lyrical of the five—is an account of a nine-year-old boy’s frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia. The Duel sets two decadent figures—a fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibility—on a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals. In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways. Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant. In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor.

The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov’s work.

Leseprobe
THE STEPPE

The Story of a Journey

I

On an early July morning a battered, springless britzka--one of those antediluvian britzkas now driven in Russia only by merchants' agents, herdsmen, and poor priests--rolled out of the district town of N., in Z----province, and went thundering down the post road. It rattled and shrieked at the slightest movement, glumly seconded by the bucket tied to its rear--and from these sounds alone, and the pitiful leather tatters hanging from its shabby body, one could tell how decrepit it was and ready for the scrap heap.

In the britzka sat two residents of N.: the merchant Ivan Ivanych Kuzmichov, clean-shaven, in spectacles and a straw hat, looking more like an official than a merchant; and the other, Father Khristofor Siriysky, rector of the church of St. Nicholas in N., a small, long-haired old man in a gray canvas caftan, a broad-brimmed top hat, and a colorfully embroidered belt. The first was thinking intently a…