This collection, selected by Shelby Foote, presents seventy of Chekhov's early short stories, written between 1883 and 1888, in celebrated translations by Constance Garnett. One of the most memorable is "The Death of a Government Clerk," a glorious parody in which a fawning official is undone by an ill-timed sneeze. "On the Road," the history of an educated man's search for convictions, is one of Chekhov's finest dramatic stories and the source of his first full-length play, Ivanov. And in "The Steppe," which marked a turning point in Chekhov's career, a boy's picaresque journey across the Russian heartland evokes the soul of Russia itself.

Contents:

• Joy
• The Death of a Government Clerk
• A Daughter of Albion
• Fat and Thin
• The Bird Market
• Choristers
• Minds in Ferment
• A Chameleon
• In the Graveyard
• Oysters
• The Marshal's Widow
• The Fish
• The Huntsman
• A Malefactor
• The Head of the Family
• A Dead Body
• The Cook's Wedding
• Overdoing It
• Old Age
• Sorrow
• Mari d'Elle
• The Looking-glass
• Art
• A Blunder
• Children
• Misery
• An Upheaval
• The Requiem
• Anyuta
• The Witch
• A Joke
• Agafya
• A Story Without an End
• Grishs
• Love
• A Gentleman Friend
• The Privy Councillor
• A Day in the Country
• The Chorus Girl
• A Misfortune
• A Trifle from Life
• Difficult People
• In the Court
• An Incident
• A Work of Art
• Vanks
• On the Road
• Easter Eve
• The Begger
• An Inadvertence
• Veroichke
• Shrove Tuesday
• A Bad Business
• Home
• Typhus
• The Cossack
• Volodya
• Happiness
• Zinotchka
• The Doctor
• The Runaway
• The Cattle-Dealers
• In Trouble
• The Kiss
• Boys
• Kashtanka
• A Lady's Story
• A Story Without a Title
• The Steppe
• Lights