Last Stories

Myroslav Shkandrij is an associate professor of Slavic studies at the
University of Manitoba.

This is the first Canadian translation of Chekhov. It encompasses six of
his best-known stories, written between 1898 and 1903, when the writer
was at the height of his abilities and aware that time was running out.
He had suffered a hemorrhage in 1897 and was to die in 1904.

The translator has attempted to present Chekhov in a contemporary idiom
(“Canadian, or perhaps mid-Atlantic”), in a prose that achieves
transparency and yet remains faithful to the original. Chekhov’s
universe—one in which the lucidity of the skeptical intellectual is
balanced against the concern and courage of the humanitarian.

There are many threads running through these stories—thematic,
biographical, and stylistic—but the collection would not require them
all for cogency. It is enough that they are by Chekhov and among his
best. The book is nicely edited and produced, making it a delightful
introduction to both the man and his art. The stories are “On Official
Business,” “The Lady with the Little Dog,” “At Christmas,”
“In the Ravine,” “The Bishop,” and “Engaged to be Married.”