The Schoolmistress, and Other Stories

What It's About

This is Volume 9 of Constance Garnett's thirteen-volume "Tales of Chekhov" series, collecting twenty-one short stories. It includes the title story, in which a rural schoolmistress reflects on the narrowing of her life during a long, jolting cart journey, alongside stories of drivers, clerks, actors and peasants across provincial Russia. As with the series generally, the pieces are drawn from across Chekhov's career rather than being a set the author himself grouped together.

Key Concepts

The stories are built around brief, closely observed moments rather than conventional plots — a habit that grew out of Chekhov's early years writing short, paid-by-the-line pieces for magazines. Recurring concerns include loneliness, the grinding routine of provincial life, and the gap between people's inner feelings and what they're able to express to one another. Endings are typically open or quietly ironic rather than resolved.

About the Author

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian physician and writer, regarded as one of the greatest short story writers in the history of the form and, through plays such as "The Seagull" and "The Cherry Orchard," a major figure in the birth of modern theatre. He practised medicine throughout most of his literary career, once remarking that "medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress."

About This Edition

This is a 1920 translation by Constance Garnett.