If any writer can be said to have invented the modern short story, it is Anton Chekhov. It is not just that Chekhov democratized this art form; more than that, he changed the thrust of short fiction from relating to revealing. And what marvelous and unbearable things are revealed in these Forty Stories. The abashed happiness of a woman in the presence of the husband who abandoned her years before. The obsequious terror of the official who accidentally sneezes on a general. The poignant astonishment of an aging Don Juan overtaken by love. Spanning the entirety of Chekhov’s career and including such masterpieces as Surgery, The Huntsman, Anyuta, Sleepyhead, The Lady With the Pet Dog, and The Bishop, this collection manages to be amusing, dazzling, and supremely moving—often within a single page. Contains: The Little Apples St. Peter’s Day Green Scythe Joy The Ninny The Highest Heights Death of a Government Clerk At the Post Office Surgery In the Cemetery Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way A Report The Threat The Huntsman The Malefactor A Dead Body Sergeant Prishibeyev A Blunder Heartache Anyuta The Proposal Vanka Who Is to Blame? Typhus Sleepyhead The Princess Gusev The Peasant Women After the Theater A Fragment In Exile Big Volodya and Little Volodya The Student Annie Round the Neck The House with the Mezzanine In the Horsecart On Love The Lady with the Pet Dog The Bishop The Bride