Anton Chekhov: which book should you start with?

After years in Paris, Lyubov Ranevskaya returns to her country estate, which is riddled with debt. A decision must be made about the cherry orchard, the garden of her childhood. Around her gather her brother, her daughters, the old manservant, an eternal student and a merchant whose father was a serf of the family. It is Chekhov's last play, which he himself called a comedy: it blends laughter and melancholy in a gentle farewell to a world that is fading away. Written entirely in dialogue, this short play is easy to read in the language you are learning.

This collection brings together four of Chekhov's finest stories. In “Ward No. 6”, a provincial doctor starts talking with a patient in his asylum and ends up wondering who is really mad. In “The Lady with the Dog”, a man and a woman, each married to someone else, meet in Yalta and fall into a love they had not foreseen. We also meet a bishop, alone and ill on the eve of Easter, and a young bride-to-be who decides to leave everything behind. Chekhov never judges: in a few pages, he makes you feel a whole life. You can read each of these stories in one sitting in the language you are learning.