title: The Undiscovered Chekhov: Forty-Three New Stories
author:  Anton Chekhov 
description: Here's a treat for any Chekhov lover: a collection of 43 previously untranslated stories by the Russian master. Even better, these stories date back to the 1880s, when the author was still in his 20s and at his most prolific. That he wrote at all is something of a miracle--unlike other great Russian authors of his time (Dostoevski, Pushkin, Tolstoy, to name a few), Anton Chekhov was not a member of the nobility. The son of a bankrupt grocer, he entered medical school and became, at the same time, the breadwinner for his impoverished family by cranking out stories for magazines. His revolutionary approach to literature was apparent from the get-go. In "Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town," for example, Chekhov uses a string of telegrams instead of a conventional narrative to tell his story. ("Telegram: Have been drinking to Sarah's health all week! Enchanting! She actually dies standing up! Our actors can't touch the Parisians!") Even more unusual for 19th-century literature is the apparent lack of a plot. The telegrams are simply a collection of reactions to a single performance, from an usher ("Let in four. Fourteen rubles. Let in five. Fifteen r. Let in three and one madame. Fifteen rubles") to a doctor ("Last night I saw S.B. Her chest--paralytic and flat. Skeletal and muscular structure--unsatisfactory") to various members of the audience ("Darling! When it comes to Sarah Bernhardt, as the saying goes: you can dip a frog in honey but it doesn't mean I'll eat it").
zlib_text: MEMORIES AND PORTRAITS
  
  By the same Authors
  THE WELL OF OAYS
  DARK AVENUES
  
  IVAN BUNIN
  —
  Memories and
  Portraits
  —
  Translated by
  VERA TRAILL and
  ROBIN CHANCELLOR
  London
  JOHN LEHMANN
  
  Contents*
  Autobiographical Notes ....
  9
  CHAPTER
  1.
  I.eo Tolstoy
  .
  .
  .
  ,
  .
  .
  14
  2.
  Chekhov
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .28
  3.
  Chaliapin
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .
  57
  4.
  Cjorki
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .69
  5.
  I lis Imperial Highness ....
  79
  6.
  Kuprin
  ......
  90
  7.
  The Semenov and Bunin Families
  .
  .
  108
  8.
  l'>tel
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .119
  9.
  Maximilian Voloshin
  .
  .
  .
  .132
  10,
  The Third Tolstoy
  .
  .
  .
  .
  148
  11.
  Six Miniatures
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .182
  Gogol and Pushkin’s Son
  .
  .
  .
  182
  Rachmaninov
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .183
  The Painter Repin
  .
  .
  .
  .184
  Jerome K. Jerome
  .
  .
  .
  186
  Prince Kropotkin
  .
  .
  .
  .
  188
  Mayakovski
  .
  .
  .
  .190
  The Nobel Days
  .
  .
  ,
  .
  .196
  12.
  
  Autobiographical Notes
  T
  he ancient and noble
  family from which
  I am
  descended has provided Russia with a fair number
  of distinguished men, not only
  in
  the service of
  state and army, but also in the world of art. In the latter
  connection 