ANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV (1860-1904) was a Russian physician, playwright and master of the modern short story. Chekhov practised as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career, and once wrote: "Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other."
He was a literary artist of laconic precision who probed below the surface of life, laying bare the secret motives of his characters. His best plays and short stories lack complex plots and neat solutions. Concentrating on apparent trivialities, they create a special kind of atmosphere, sometimes termed haunting or lyrical. Chekhov described the Russian life of his time using a deceptively simple technique devoid of obtrusive literary devices, and he is regarded as the outstanding representative of the late 19th-century Russian realist school.
Chekhov initially wrote stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.
The following books are in ePUB format unless otherwise noted:
== FICTION ==
* About Love: Three Stories (Biblioasis, 2012). Translated by David Helwig.
* Best Stories of Anton Chekhov (Barnes & Noble, 2000). Edited by John Kulka. -- PDF
* Black Monk / Peasants (Penguin, 1995). Translated by Ronald Wilks. -- PDF
* Complete Short Novels (Knopf, 2004). Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
* Duel, The (Modern Library). Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction by Aleksandar Hemon.
* Duel, The (Melville House, 2011). Translated by Margarita Shalina.
* Early Stories (Oxford World's Classics, 1994). Translated by Patrick Miles and Harvey Pitcher. -- PDF
* Five Great Short Stories (Dover, 1990). Various translators.
* Forty Stories (Vintage, 1991). Translated by Robert Payne.
* Lady with the Little Dog & Other Stories (Penguin Classics, 2002). Translated by Ronald Wilks.
* Little Apples & Other Early Stories (Seven Stories, 2016). Translated by Peter Constantine.
* My Life (Melville House, 2004). Translated by Constance Garnett.
* Night in the Cemetery & Other Stories (Pegasus, 2008). Translated by Peter Sekirin.
* Peasants & Other Stories (NYR Books, 2015). Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction by Edmund Wilson.
* Prank, The: Best of Early Chekhov (NYR Books, 2015). Translated by Maria Bloshteyn.
* Russian Affair, A (Penguin, 2007). Translated by Ronald Wilks.
* Russian Master & Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics, 1984). Translated by Ronald Hingley. -- PDF
* Selected Stories (Signet, 2003). Translated by Ann Dunnigan.
* Selected Stories (Bantam, 2000). Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
* Shooting Party, The (Penguin Classics, 2004). Translated by Ronald Wilks.
* Short Stories of Anton Chekhov (Modern Library, 1959). Translated by Robert N. Linscott. -- PDF
* Steppe & Other Stories, The (Oxford World's Classics, 1991). Translated by Ronald Hingley. -- PDF
* Steppe & Other Stories, The: 1887-1891 (Penguin Classics, 2001). Translated by Ronald Wilks.
* Tales of Chekhov [13 vols.] (n.p., 2011). Translated by Constance Garnett.
* Undiscovered Chekhov: Forty-Three New Stories (Seven Stories, 1999). Translated by Peter Constantine.
* Ward No. 6 & Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics, 2002). Translated by Ronald Hingley. -- PDF
* Ward No. 6 & Other Stories: 1892-1895 (Penguin Classics, 2002). Translated by Ronald Wilks.
== DRAMA ==
* Anton Chekhov's Plays (Norton Critical Edition, 1977). Edited and translated by Eugene K. Bristow. -- PDF
* Brute and Other Farces, The (Grove, 1958). Edited by Eric Bentley. -- PDF
* Cherry Orchard, The (Nick Hern, 2015). Translated by Stephen Mulrine.
* Cherry Orchard, The (TCG, 2015). Translated by Richard Nelson, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
* Cherry Orchard, The (Norton, 2010). Translated by Laurence Senelick.
* Cherry Orchard, The (Grove, 2009). Adapted by Tom Stoppard, from a literal translation by Helen Rappaport.
* Cherry Orchard, The (Sovereign, 2012). Translated by Julius West.
* Complete Plays (Norton, 2006). Translated by Laurence Senelick.
* Early Plays [Platonov / Ivanov / The Wood Demon] (Smith & Kraus, 1999). Translated by Carol Rocamora. -- PDF
* Essential Plays [The Seagull / Uncle Vanya / Three Sisters / The Cherry Orchard] (Modern Library, 2003). Translated by Michael Henry Heim.
* Five Comic One-Act Plays (Dover, 1999). Translated by Constance Garnett.
* Five Plays [Ivanov / The Seagull / Uncle Vanya / Three Sisters / The Cherry Orchard] (Oxford World's Classics, 1998). Translated by Ronald Hingley. -- PDF
* Four Plays [The Seagull / Uncle Vanya / Three Sisters / The Cherry Orchard] (Hill & Wang, 1969). Translated by David Magarshack. -- PDF
* Ivanov (Grove, 2008). Adapted by Tom Stoppard, from a literal translation by Helen Rappaport.
* Major Plays [Ivanov / The Sea Gull / Uncle Vanya / The Three Sisters / The Cherry Orchard] (Signet, 1964). Translated by Ann Dunnigan. -- PDF
* Plays [Ivanov / The Seagull / Uncle Vanya / Three Sisters / The Cherry Orchard] (Penguin, 2002). Translated by Peter Carson.
* Seagull, The (Norton, 2010). Translated by Laurence Senelick.
* Three Sisters (Avon, 1965). Translated by Tyrone Guthrie and Leonid Kipnis. -- PDF
* Three Sisters (Norton, 2010). Translated by Stephen Mulrine.
* Three Sisters [with Woolf's "Orlando"] (TCG, 2013). Translated by Sarah Ruhl.
* Three Sisters (Norton, 2010). Translated by Laurence Senelick.
* Uncle Vanya (Minnesota, 1969). Translated by Tyrone Guthrie and Leonid Kipnis. -- PDF
* Uncle Vanya (Grove, 1989). Adapted by David Mamet. -- PDF
* Wild Honey (Signet Classics, 1987). Translated by Michael Frayn. -- PDF
== NON-FICTION ==
* How to Write Like Chekhov: Advice and Inspiration, Straight from His Own Letters and Work (Da Capo, 2008). Edited by Piero Brunello and Lena Lencek. -- PDF
* Island, The: A Journey to Sakhalin (Washington Square, 1967). Translated by Luba and Michael Terpak. -- PDF
* Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (Huebsch, 1922). Translated by S.S. Koteliansky and Leonard Woolf. -- PDF
* Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov (Farrar Straus, 1955). Edited by Lillian Hellman; translated by Sidonie Lederer. -- PDF
== ANTHOLOGIES ==
* Complete Works (Delphi Classics, 2012). Various translators.
* Portable Chekhov, The (Viking, 1972). Edited and translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. -- PDF
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