In 1890, Chekhov undertook an arduous journey by train, horse-drawn carriage, and river steamer to the far east of Russia and the penal colony, on Sakhalin Island, north of Japan, where he spent three months interviewing thousands of convicts and settlers for a census. Chekhov witnessed much on Sakhalin that shocked and angered him, including floggings, embezzlement of supplies, and forced prostitution of women. Chekhov later concluded that charity and subscription were not the answer, but that the government had a duty to finance humane treatment of the convicts. His findings were published...

This volume contains translations of Chekhov's very earliest published short stories. The Chekhov represented here is by no means the confident, near-perfect craftsman who produced some of humanity's best short stories and plays. The artist presented here is a young man willing to experiment but searching for his style and voice. In a way, it can serve as inspiration for any aspiring writer that even the best are not born great, but rather achieve greatness through a relentless dedication to their craft. This book contains the Russian originals facing a new, modern English translation.

written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. The Seagull is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin, the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplev."

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."

This volume contains Chekhov's very earliest published short stories. The Chekhov represented here is by no means the confident, near-perfect craftsman who produced some of humanity's best short stories and plays. The artist presented here is a young man willing to experiment but searching for his style and voice. In a way, it can serve as inspiration for any aspiring writer that even the best are not born great, but rather achieve greatness through a relentless dedication to their craft.

"Not far from you-that is to say, in the village of Pestrovo-very distressing incidents are taking place, concerning which I feel it my duty to write to you. All the peasants of that village sold their cottages and all their belongings, and set off for the province of Tomsk, but did not succeed in getting there, and have come back. Here, of course, they have nothing now; everything belongs to other people.