Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a classic of Russian literature, a realist writer, and a remarkable master of words. His stories depict the lives of various social classes—landowners, merchants, officials, peasants… Chekhov was never a detached, dispassionate observer of their everyday lives; he always depicted life vividly and compassionately, never seeking to invent the extraordinary; on the contrary, he wrote about the simple, the mundane, and the everyday. Chekhov seemed to penetrate the inner world of each person, not only showing what a person should not be but also letting them experience what he would like them to be, and most importantly, teaching them to respect human dignity.

All works in the 'Reading is the Best Education' series are published in full, without abbreviations or adaptations.