Anton Chekhov

Born in the old Black Sea port of Taganrog on January 17 (old calendar) or January 29 (new calendar), 1860. His grandfather had been a serf; his father married a merchant's daughter and settled in Taganrog, where, during Anton's boyhood, he carried on a small and unsuccessful trade in provisions. The young Anton was soon impressed into the services of the large, poverty-stricken family, and he spoke regretfully in after years of his hard-worked childhood. But he was obedient and good-natured, and worked cheerfully in his father's shop, closely observing the idlers that assembled there, and gathering the drollest stories, which he would afterward whisper in class to his laughing schoolfellows. Many were the punishments which he incurred by this habit, which was incorrigible.

His grandfather had now become manager of an estate near Taganrog, in the wild steppe country of the Don Cossacks, and here the boy spent his summers, fishing in the river, and roving about the countryside as brown as a gypsy, sowing the seeds of that love for nature which he retained all his life. His evenings he liked best to spend in the kitchen of the master's house among the work people and peasants who gathered there, taking part in their games, and setting them all laughing by his witty and telling observations. Read more >

Short Stories by Anton Chekhov: About Truth, Freedom, Happiness, and Love

ISBN 9781907832031

Each story in this collection brings us close Chekhov's vision and understanding of complex human relationships. Chekhov's own relationship with Miss Avilova formed the basis for his story About Love. Miss Avilova compared Chekhov with 'busy bee who flies about and is happy to collect honey from just about anything on its way' upon publication of this story and Chekhov quickly responded to Miss Avilova, 'You are being unkind towards your busy bee. The bee first sees bright beautiful flowers and only then collects honey from them'. Read more >

"Where does love come from? How far questions of personal happiness are of consequence in love?"

Short Stories by Anton Chekhov Bk.3: About Truth, Freedom and Love

ISBN 9781907832055

The third audio book in the series of Chekhov's Short Stories featuring a trilogy of interlinked stories about Truth, Freedom and Love. Read by Max Bollinger in English (unabridged). First published in 1898 in Russian and released as separate stories. This title, based on translations by Constance Garnett with revision and adaptation by Max Bollinger follows Chekhov's original vision by bringing the three stories together once again. 

Chekhov dedicated considerable amount of time writing the 3 stories in this trilogy and was very particular about his intention to release them as once piece.  This is evident from his correspondence with his publisher.  But his wishes were ignored during his lifetime and the first story had been published separately. The story received colossal amount of attention from both professional critics and general public and resonated so strongly that readers were compelled to write long letters to Chekhov (in some cases over 20 pages in length) praising him for being so truthful, for enlightening and reflecting the reality of their lives. Read more>

Short Stories by Anton Chekhov: In A Strange Land and Other Stories; (2 CD collection)

ISBN  9781907832024

New collection of Chekhov Stories is being released this year as audio book adaptation by Interactive Media. The collection features 11 Chekhov stories: A Tragic Actor; In A Strange Land; Oh The Public;The Looking Glass; Her Husband; Overdoing It; Talent; Anyuta; The Helpmate; Ivan Matveyich; Polinka; Audio book version contains 2 CDs or downloadable as 11 MP3 files. Read in English (Unabridged).

There is also an E-Book version planned for release later this year which will contain all 11 stories, introduction and notes. And a paper back version will contain all 11 stories from this release and additional stories from future release entitled “About Truth, Freedom and Love”. Paper back version is planned for release in 2011. More detail is available from Chekhov Story home page. Read more> Reviews> download PDF>

Short Stories by Anton Chekhov Bk.1: A Tragic Actor and Other Stories

ISBN  9780956116543

Short Stories by Anton Chekhov is an audio book release of selected Chekhov short stories read by Max Bollinger in English (Unabridged).  This production offers unique dramatisation of Chekhov’s best works by a Russian born performer, now a British actor fluent in both Russian and English languages. Case covers of this CD feature Chekhov’s hand written college essay "Kyrgizi" (???????) and notebook cover from "Cherry Orchard" (???????? ???) play. Read more > reviews> download PDF>