Among its manifold treasures, the New York Public Library possesses all of the St Petersburg and Moscow magazines in which the young Chekhov first published. From this horde, Peter Constantine has selected 51 items covering the years from 1880 to 1887. These, 'which made Chekhov famous in his day', are meant to illustrate for us the exuberant wit, the technical fluency 'of a young writer of genius'. I am not competent to judge, but one has the impression of a sparkling translation into sometimes American English. Most of the pieces are of extreme brevity.
Trains rattle the drunk and the sober over nocturnal emptiness.
A man is saved from drowning only to be shaken to death by a derisive crowd. Would-be lovers belch or hiccup at decisive moments. Beatings are followed by grotesquely litigious demands for compensation. Two elements stand out. There is in these miniatures an arresting potion of cruelty.