Translated from the Russian by Peter Constantine This is the paperback edition of a collection of stories by Chekhov which were first published in hardback in 1998. This new edition contains five stories not included in the hardback and brings to a wider readership a body of work by one of the world's most respected writers. This is a delicious volume....They show the reader the city and the period the author captured with his pen and the effervescent magic of which the young man was capable. They are worthy of discovery.' - Erica Wagner in The Times'