Lady with Lapdog and Other Stories

by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Other authorsDavid Magarshack (Translator), David Magarshack (Introduction)

Paperback, 1980

Status

Available

Call number

891.733

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Penguin Classics (1980), Edition: 6th printing, Paperback, 288 pages

Description

IT was said that a new person had appeared on the sea-front: a lady with a little dog. Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, who had by then been a fortnight at Yalta, and so was fairly at home there, had begun to take an interest in new arrivals. Sitting in Verney's pavilion, he saw, walking on the sea-front, a fair-haired young lady of medium height, wearing a beret; a white Pomeranian dog was running behind her. And afterwards he met her in the public gardens and in the square several times a day. She was walking alone, always wearing the same beret, and always with the same white dog; no one knew who she was, and every one called her simply the lady with the dog.

User reviews

LibraryThing member clong

After reading lots and lots of all too often mediocre fantasy and science fiction I was ready for a change of pace, and this collection certainly provided that. The stories feature brilliant characterization, bringing us smart, well intentioned, and sympathetic people who all too frequently act

irrationally and ultimately to their own detriment. Chekhov does a remarkable job of capturing the essence of a person's entire life in a brief tale. Like the author’s great plays, the mood is generally tragic, with moments of humor. Many of the stories focus on infidelity, and/or the fading of romantic, idealistic, unrealistic love. In some of the stories we see good people who fail to follow their convictions and eventually turn into something they once would have despised. The editor suggest that the underlying message, that we have a duty to fight evil actively, is intended as a refutation of ideals espoused by Tolstoy. My favorites were "A Boring Story (From an Old Man's Notebook)," "The Grasshopper," and "Ionyich," but any of them are well worth the brief amount of time required to read them.

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LibraryThing member vguy

Lovely. Gentle warm nostalgic ironic. all the best qualities one might associate with Chekhov. Intimate sense of its period yet does not seem dated. feel I have actually met a group of sad but rounded human beings.
I know the plays quite well and read some of the stories a while back without really

getting them. This reading was a delight.Give me more

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LibraryThing member charlie68

The first set of stories that I read by Mr. Chekov were better and deeper. The general themes of the stories seemed love intrigues between married people and lovers. While stimulating hardly cause for deep thinking. Reading these stories one realizes how little things change.

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