By 1888, when he was just twenty-eight, Chekhov had published a
staggering 528 stories, about half of them comic. Unpretentious,
lively, and inventive, these comic stories have long been
affectionately regarded in Russia, but publishers in the West,
overawed by the prevailing image of Chekhov as a melancholy genius,
have resisted the down-to-earth humorist. This collection is the first
substantial volume in English devoted solely to the comic stories. The
forty stories here reveal the full range of Chekhov’s comic mastery:
simple sketches, almost like verbal cartoons; outrageous parodies and
stories with a comic twist; satirical and subversive pieces that
foreshadow the anti-authoritarian attitudes of his later work; and
excursions into the absurd that hint of his later stage dialogue. In
these early comic stories Chekhov found himself as an artist. Readers
unfamiliar with them may miss the countless touches of humor in the
later and more famous plays and stories. Tolstoy, who disliked
Chekhov’s plays, was reduced to helpless fits of laughter by his
comic stories. They have a sense of fun and infectious good humor.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781461713036
Publisert
2015
Utgiver
Vendor
Ivan R Dee
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter